Currently up for auction on Heritage Auctions' website is an original, one sheet (27" X 41") poster from the 1931 Universal classic, Frankenstein.
At this moment the poster sits with a $155,000 bid, and Heritage Auctions, the auctioneer of collectibles, is predicting that the almost mint poster will fetch a price somewhere between its current price of $155,000 and $300,000.
It's amazing to see how well-preserved this Frankenstein poster is. As someone who hates folds in their posters, the damage to this piece of horror history doesn't even irk me.
"Generally speaking, movie posters are among the absolute rarest of all pop culture artifacts. Created solely to advertise the exhibition run of a film at a theater, once the picture left town, the poster had reached the end of its utility," says the collectibles auctioneer. "Unlike sports cards, comics, or myriad other collectibles, they were never produced in mass quantities to be sold to the general public and were not intended to be saved. By way of illustration, Universal Horror - Frankenstein and Dracula, in particular - are the most coveted blue chips in the movie poster hobby."
“To our knowledge, there are only seven copies of the Frankenstein Style A one sheet extant, including the one offered here," says the Heritage Auctions website. "The last time Heritage had a Frankenstein Style A in close to comparable condition was nearly 20 years ago, and at the time, it sold for $189,750. Never before offered for public sale, this new-to-market poster was recently discovered in a Pennsylvania attic where it had rested unbeknownst to anyone for decades.”
This Frankenstein poster is truly a piece of early horror history, and it can be yours for a price, a steep price. But, to be fair, any bidder looking to own this poster for Frankenstein, has to know they'll be shelling out a pretty penny. I know I would, if I didn't have a 1958 Plymouth Fury to buy first.
