LONDON: Dozens of rare posters from some of the 20th century’s most iconic films will go under the hammer this month as an American collector relinquishes some of his most precious possessions.

The 500 posters and lobby cards from classic films such as King Kong, Casablanca and 2001: A Space Odyssey have been exhibited in recent weeks in London, New York and Chicago.

Collected over half a century by real estate agent Dwight Cleveland, they are to be auctioned by Heritage showrooms in Dallas on March 27 and 28. “I cherish every single one of them because every one of them was hand-picked,” Cleveland, 65, said.

“These are commercial art. They were intended to grab us by the lapels and yank us into a movie theatre and say, ‘See this film’.” But this was also “important art” that went beyond just advertising, he argued.

The posters and cards, which would have been displayed in cinema foyers, span around 125 years of film history. Many of the images date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But after 50 years “it’s getting harder and harder to find anything to add to the collection”, said Cleveland. “I don’t feel like there’s anything else I can do and give to this hobby,” he added.

Some of the posters will do better at auction than others, he said, including the one for the 1933 version of King Kong showing actor Fay Wray in the grip of the beast. It has an estimated guide price of $40,000 to $80,000.

Passion

“The selection of Cleveland’s collection offered by Heritage in March represents the best of the best,” said Joe Maddalena, Heritage’s vice president. “What makes me different from most collectors is that I fell in love with the artwork first,” said Cleveland.

“I do not come to this from a film background.” Cleveland’s interest in the subject began at school, where his art teacher displayed film posters and lobby cards in his room. “We walked by these every day, and we kind of made fun of him, to be honest with you, because he had quite a few of them, and it was a very esoteric collection,” Cleveland said.

But one day in 1977, his last year at school, he was drawn to a lobby card from the 1929 movie Wolf Song starring Gary Cooper and Mexican actor Lupe Velez. He became hooked and it took him 18 months to gather enough movie items to trade for the card with his then former teacher — sparking a lifelong love of collecting.

Cleveland’s extensive collection has already been exhibited in the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida in 2019. Other exhibitions have been held in San Diego, Los Angeles and New York.

Other rare finds going under the hammer include a 1953 Italian poster for the 1942 film Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Most of the posters to be auctioned have estimates of between $1,000 to $2,000. Heritage has calculated that the whole auction could raise one million dollars.

After the Dallas auction, Cleveland will still own about 10,000 lobby cards and around 500 posters, which he might one day either donate or put up for auction.

“I’ll be sad to see some of them go, but I’ll be happy that they’re going to be in the hands of other collectors to whom they’ll mean a lot,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2025