The navy way movie poster

pzettek

hello all. I am not a huge collector by any means, but I did just acquire a movie poster. It is from the movie "The Navy Way" (1944). It's not a regular paper poster, I believe it may be called a lithograph. It's numbered as 44 of 97.  It's in two pieces.  Someone also wrote "Paris 1945" and maybe a signature on the back. I have not been able to find much about it in my research.  I was wondering if anyone could tell me more about it. I'll post a picture if I can.  

Charlie

Looks like a US window card...

Charlie

As far as the Paris note, it might have been used during the war since the film came out in 1944...  

Bruce

This is NOT a limited edition, but it was a reasonable mistake to make!

Up until 1940, each studio distributed their own posters. But this system of every studio maintaining its own supply of posters in every one of its branch offices became very cumbersome, and in 1940, National Screen Service was given an exclusive deal from several studios to distribute all their posters in the U.S. (although National Screen Service had been in business since the 1920s distributing preview trailers). Warehouses (called poster exchanges) were set up in most major cities across the U.S., and each participating studio contributed its posters from the last couple of years to get it started (Exchanges definitely had posters from 1937-39 in abundance from the participating studios, but nothing like the quantities they would have of post-1940 material. The exchanges had virtually nothing from before 1937, which explains the vast rarity difference between pre-1937 and post-1940 material.

For each new release in 1940, the printers put National Screen Service (NSS) numbers on the bottom right of every poster. For 1940 only, they used a first number that began with 40, followed by a slash mark and more numbers (for example 4011/524). The "40" referred to 1940, and the rest of the numbers referred to in what order the poster had been printed, to make it easier for people to find the posters when stored in a large warehouse (many films had similar or the same titles). In 1941, they simplified the code to be just "41", followed by a slash mark and three numbers (for example 41/245).

This was unfortunate, for in the present day it has resulted in uninformed collectors assuming that they had a limited edition poster (in the previous case, #41 out of an edition of 245). This system continued all the way through the late 1970s, and makes identifying the year of 1940-1979 posters extremely easy. It also makes identifying re-issues simple, for they would put the re-issue year in the NSS number, and put a big capital "R" in front of it. So in the above example, if the 1941 film, NSS #41/245, was re-issued in 1954, it would have a new number such as R54/621. Some collectors have incorrect deduced that the lower the NSS number, the earlier in the year it was produced. Actually, while this sounds reasonable, it is not at all true. It seems that at the start of each year NSS reserved a block of numbers for each studio, and gave the lesser studios the highest numbers.

Bruce

Your poster is rare (I have never auctioned it before) but rarity does not always equate to high value. Here is a link to the items on this movie I have auctioned, with dates, condition and prices:

http://www.emovieposter.com/agallery/film_title/NAVY%2520WAY/archive.html

pzettek

Wow..  Thanks for all the information.  I don't know if I should be embarrassed or not, but I paid $100 bucks for it.  I really like it, being a Navy veteran myself.  I love the way it says that it is the property of the National Screen Service Corp, and must be returned immediately after the move is finished showing.   So you think the 44/97 means it was printed in 1944. 

Charlie

1944 is the year of the film and most likely when it was printed because of the "97" (the 97th film of 1944)...  

If we get super technical a "44-02" might have been printed in late 1943 as the NSS would prepare for the following year.

On to new thinking (read below)...

Bruce

Charlie, that is "old thinking". New thinking is what I wrote above:

" Some collectors have incorrect deduced that the lower the NSS number, the earlier in the year it was produced. Actually, while this sounds reasonable, it is not at all true. It seems that at the start of each year NSS reserved a block of numbers for each studio, and gave the lesser studios the highest numbers. "

Charlie

I didn't catch that before. I am a scanner.  Great info!

David

When did the new thinking supersede the old thinking?

pzettek

Ok, another question.  Why is the top of the poster all white.  Was it so they could overlay something about the theater or something?

David

Yep!