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One of the greatest pleasure in the life of this Postcowboy is discovering vintage movie posters he never even knew existed, like this original 1961 release German cinema lobby display for FLAMING STAR I want to show you today:
The poster was printed in three slightly overlapping sections and measures an impressive 88 x 180 cm (app. 34.5 x 71 in). It shows an almost life-size portrait of Elvis Presley as Pacer Burton in FLAMING STAR. The movie opened in Germany on March 17, 1961 and this three-part poster was intended for display in the foyer of large first-run cinemas. Upon its initial release, the movie was not a big commercial success, but today it is widely considered to be Elvis‘ best film.
Unlike the standard A1 poster and the already much rarer large A0 size, this type of large cinema display was seldom used and the format is very, very rare to begin with. This type of multi-part display was printed only for a very limited number of films and exclusively sent to selected premiere cinemas. It was intended for use in the cinema lobby. These large displays hardly ever survived at all. When they had served their purpose, they were almost inevitably destroyed.
Remarkably, this example has apparently never been displayed, which may well explain why it survived at all.
I have never seen this poster before, for all I know so far it has never been offered at auction and it is not documented in any private or public collection. For the time being, I must assume that this might be the only surviving copy. A recent ‚basement find’, it is entirely unrestored and in amazing condition. To my best knowledge, no similar format was produced for this film worldwide.
The design is based on a single publicity still blown up to life-size proportions. The poster was very well printed and the effect is nothing short of stunning. Two years later, Andy Warhol used a similar image from the same photo session for his now legendary (and ridiculously expensive) Elvis series.
In an alternate universe, Andy Warhol visited Germany in the early 1960s, and was inspired to his own Elvis series when he saw this display in the cinema lobby. Unfortunately, in this world, Warhol first visited Germany in 1971, so it is rather unlikely that he ever saw this poster.
One more ‘fun fact’: Elvis was about 180 or 181 cm tall. The Elvis image on the poster measures 177 cm. Add the fact that he‘s standing in a wide stance and beckons slightly to the front, that comes very, very close to actual ‘life size’. Whether that was intentional or is just a coincidence is impossible to say today, but they certainly tried to go ‘as big as possible’.
This poster shows Elvis in his athletic prime, and even sixty-five years after it was made, it has an absolutely amazing impact on the viewer. Old Magic. Still works.
Available for purchase. Price upon request.
