Joseph A. Maturo
Artist
From Photographs taken at the time the Movie Posters were finished.
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Cafe Metropole |
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1937 |
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Stars: Loretta Young and Tyrone Power and Adolphe Menjou |
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Romantic comedy with princes and Americans in Paris. |
On the left side is the Eiffel Tower and the night life in Paris. The artist's son worked at Tooker Lithography in New York. The lithography shop was where the posters were printed. The lettering was either done directly on the finished work, or in this example on cardboard tacked in place. The man would hand letter the titles and credits in gouache paint right onto the original art. Very quickly he could very smoothly, free handedly brush in the lettering. There were many different styles all lettering helping to set the mood of the movie, romantic, humorous, mysterious. The artist's son took these photographs of the posters just after the lettering was added. The lithography for the posters was done with huge thick stones. There were runs through the press for each color, yellow, red, blue, black and sometimes more. The ink stayed where the photographed image had been transferred to the stone. Where it wasn't, there was just water and so nothing printed. Experienced pressmen controlled the ink flow and other aspects of the print job. All but the field posters were done by photography to make color separations. The field posters were done by eye.
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In Old Kentucy |
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1935 |
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Star: Will Rogers |
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Comedy around a horse race. |
This painting size was made into an outdoor
billboard or field poster. One can distinguish movie poster sizes by how many sheets
of paper were used. One sheet is the most popular size. An outdoor billboard
size with variable dimensions is a 24 sheet.
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Half Sheet is 22 " high x 28" wide (27" x 20 1/2") |
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This is cutting the 41" side in half, listed reversed. |
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One Sheet is 27" high by 41" wide. |
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This is the basic size. The 41" stays as the constant. |
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Three Sheet is 41" high x 81" wide (81" x 41") |
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This is taking the 41" side constant and adding the 27" size three times. |
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Six Sheet is 81" high x 81" wide |
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This is taking the 41" side constant and adding not only the 27" size three times, but an additional three times. |
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24 Sheet is billboard variable dimensions. Field poster. |
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2 sheet is 30" x 40". |
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Sizes of Joseph Maturo paintings: |
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41" high x 20 1/4" wide makes a Half Sheet Poster. |
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36" high x 24" wide makes a One Sheet or Three Sheet. |
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20 1/4" high x 41" wide makes a Billboard . Field Poster. |
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Square makes a Six Sheet Poster. |
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Island in the Sky |
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1938 |
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Stars: Gloria Stuart and Michael Whalen |
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Detective drama set in a New York fashionable nightclub on the 70th floor . |
The arrangement of the placement of the stars names was in their contracts. This tradition from theater days was called top billing. The biggest stars had their name at the top of the poster above the title of the movie.
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Second Honeymoon |
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1937 |
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Stars: Loretta Young and Tyrone Power |
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Comedy romance set in Miami. |
Written into contracts was whether the actress was to have a portrait, full face, or three quarter profile, or profile on the advertisement. There were rules about head size. The sizes of the heads, large, smaller or just on a small figure were also planned. In addition there would be an agreement about added shoulders or an entire figure.
Heads had to be larger than life size to carry at a distance on billboards. It's harder to keep an expression when painting a head larger than life size. The artist worked in sepia tones first. The heads average 16" high x 11" wide. When he worded he used a mall stick. He could thus step back from the canvas as he worked.
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This is the Life |
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1935 |
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Stars: Jane Withers and John McGuire |
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Comedy with songs about a child actress. |
He had to finish the posters on time, as the movies would be ready to be released. From 1934 to his death in 1938, he did two posters a week. He was paid $50.00 each. If it was a 24 sheet billboard he got $70.00. As was the rule at the time the posters were all unsigned. Movies were made and distributed by the 20th Century Fox Film Corp.
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