Musical Movie Posters [Paperback]

Bruce Hershenson (Editor), Richard Allen (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Bruce Hershenson (May 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887893318
• ISBN-13: 978-1887893312
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,812,591 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When Will the Musical Make a Comeback?, November 18, 1999

By 

David Kusumoto (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Musical Movie Posters (Paperback)

With the notable exceptions of Oliver! (1968), Cabaret (1972), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Tommy (1975) and Evita (1996), Hollywood has essentially turned its back on a genre that this book re-captures in all its glory. The images are superb, the color and quality are sublime. Though the book is straightforward, a thread of sadness runs subconsciously from its first to its last pages, as one ruminates about what this genre was all about, what it could have been and why it is, for all intents and purposes, dead except on the New York, London and Toronto stages. From Astaire and Rogers to Gene Kelly, Streisand and even the Beatles, it's all covered here. Though it seems awkward to most of today's audiences to see a person in the middle of a scene break out into a song with no band playing behind him on screen, this was the accepted norm and was often the the portion of a film that had an audience soaring in their seats. That such a feeling has all but disappeared makes this book all the more precious, preventing this genre from fading into the wisps of memory. The beautiful thing about this book is the unexpected. Rather than delve into the expected great musicals with the standard American images (which are included in great detail nevertheless), this book includes artwork from other countries, art that is more "in your face" and thought provoking. Who can forget the image used for the Polish version of the 1972 release of "Cabaret?" (Joel Grey's face in the center of four stocking legs bent into the shape of a swastika?) This is the kind of thing that you would never have seen printed or distributed in the U.S., works of art that can only be bought for thousands of dollars today at many of America's biggest auction houses. If you are the least bit interested in the jaw-dropping beauty of what has become a lost art -- the exercise of drawing images associated with the advertising of a Hollywood film -- this is the book to have. This book is part of movie poster maven Bruce Hershenson's exhaustive multi-volume series of books highlighting the history and beauty of what much of mainstream America has only in the last ten years begun to recognize. And that is movie posters are a "popular art" form that can stand proudly next to all other styles of art from gothic to modern, from expressionist to impressionist. Great film art borrows from all of these styles and this volume, which focuses only on posters associated with musicals, illustrates innumerable examples whereby despite the restrictive nature of the genre (musicals), not all posters went in the same direction in terms of style and presentation. From Shall We Dance to A Star is Born, from 42nd Street to Yellow Submarine, Hershenson and Allen have built an incredible archive (and legacy) of images in all of their books, capturing a period (when all posters were drawn by hand and then printed, as opposed to today's method of using photographic stock and manipulating them digitally and printing them by the thousands) that would otherwise be lost forever. A fine book for any collector (get the hardcover edition if you can, it's harder to find; if Amazon doesn't have it, it's available from Mr. Hershenson directly at [e-mail]).

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best series on movie posters ever printed!, November 7, 1999

By 

A. J. Trivette (Piney Flats, TN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Musical Movie Posters (Paperback)

For lovers of film, film history, and specifically, poster art, Bruce Hershenson's series of full-color books is the cream of the crop! And, the quality of printing and photography is superb, with razor sharp images and vibrant colors.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Addition to collection, December 17, 2000

By 

douglas yee (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Musical Movie Posters (Paperback)

Want to add an excellent reference to your collection of books dealing with the Hollywood Musicals? Then this book is it. Just like those musicals from the golden age of Hollywood, this book has it all. Beautiful photographed images, lots of (techni) colours, stars in their greatest moments. Truly an Oscar winning performance! The book is printed in good quality paper and images are very clear and of good size on each page. Of course it's impossible to include a poster from every musicals in any given year, but the selections Bruce Hershenson made are excellent. A page may contain an average of 5 images while some are giving the full page treatment (e.g. Grease, Singin' In the Rain). Definitely an excellent addition to your library of movie books.