RKO Daybills-Full Bleed

Eisenhower

I've been perusing Daybill images as of late and have a couple questions re RKO Daybills. 

1-Why did RKO release full bleed Daybills? Are they the only major distributor who is associate with full bleed Daybills?

2-I've been looking at '50s exclusively right now and it seems that even the same printer was not consistent in printing full bleeds. Why would they change from movie to movie? Artist preference?

Here are some examples I found. 
RKO-1954
Simmons Ltd Litho


RKO-1950
Simmons Litho Sydney


WITH Border
RKO-1956
Simmons Ltd


RKO-1955
Victory "Publicity?" Litho

CSM_2_Point_0

Have I mentioned lately how much I love RKO daybills?  

Unfortunately, I cannot answer either question definitively.  

I think you will find that it is mainly only the later mid to late 50s RKO daybills that have borders - i.e. the uglier ones

  

Eisenhower

CSM_2_Point_0 said:

Have I mentioned lately how much I love RKO daybills?  

Unfortunately, I cannot answer either question definitively.  

I think you will find that it is mainly only the later mid to late 50s RKO daybills that have borders - i.e. the uglier ones

  

Thanks, Chris appreciate it. It's unfortunate for a lot of questions regarding the artwork on so many posters from the 30s-60s, it seems that very little information was kept on who designed them; and other questions; especially Australian art. 

Pancho

Kinda off topic, but I've noticed that in the early 80s - around the time daybills were becoming more 'glossy' - that full bleed styles started emerging again. Buts as to why - no idea.

HONDO

Eisenhower said:

I've been perusing Daybill images as of late and have a couple questions re RKO Daybills. 

1-Why did RKO release full bleed Daybills? Are they the only major distributor who is associate with full bleed Daybills?

2-I've been looking at '50s exclusively right now and it seems that even the same printer was not consistent in printing full bleeds. Why would they change from movie to movie? Artist preference?

1 - RKO full bleed style daybills were only printed by Simmons for the majority of the long time period the two companies were associated. Simmons / RKO daybills, to the best of my knowledge, were the only distributors to adapt this style of presentation in the period up to the 1970's.My thoughts for the full bleed presentation are that RKO in Australia wanted their beautiful ( in most cases ) posters to stand out in a crowd by being different. I believe if this was the case their mission was accomplished

2 - It appears Simmons printed the vast majority of RKO daybills from the time RKO started operating in Australia,  most likely 1929 or very early 1930's, right through to 1958, with the majority being printed in the full bleed style. In 1954 Simmons dominance in printing RKO product, for whatever reason, ceased. Starting in 1954 other printers began printing RKO daybills, all printed with borders. Simmons in 1954 and 1955 printed RKO daybills in both full bleed and with borders. In 1956 and 1957 Loves Of A Scoundrel, Beyond A Reasonable Doubt and Public Pigeon No.1 were part of a limited number of titles printed by Simmons for RKO, now with borders. In the final year of RKO operations in Australia in 1958 there was a partial turn around in quality and The Unholy Wife, The Girl Most Likely ( bottom border not removed ) and Run Of The Arrow were printed full bleed by Simmons, and are all very attractive designs.Interestingly in the same year Simmons printed a poorly designed daybill of I Married A Woman! which had borders. During Simmons almost exclusive reign of being RKO's preferred daybill printer in the period up to 1953, there were a small number of daybills printed by other printers with borders,e.g. King Kong 1953 re-release printed by Victory Publicity and Make Mine Laughs ( 1949 ) by F. Cunninghame. It should be pointed out both Victory and Cunninghame were the printers RKO used in the 1940's and 1950's to print their larger one and three sheet posters, so it is possible they were called upon to print the odd daybill, when Simmons printing workload became overstretched. An interesting daybill is for the 1947 film Banjo. An RKO film with the daybill printed by F. Cunninghame with borders top and bottom, full bleed left hand side and almost full bleed right hand side. I believe an unintentional error here by Cunninghame in sizing. 

I hope this information is helpful.

Eisenhower

@Hondo Thanks so much for taking the time to write a detailed response. I've fast become a fan of the Daybill and feel it's artwork some of the best out there! Great stuff re: the printers as it is often confusing to me, but I'm trying to read up as much as I can.

Thanks again.