eMoviePoster.com

10/14/2016: Follow-up with poster artist Mort Kunstler regarding his artwork

We received a fascinating follow-up email from one of our longest term bidders/consignors that reads:

"After receiving your newsletter with the revelation regarding THE INVISIBLE BOY poster art being done by Mort Kunstler, I contacted him and he spent an hour with me on the phone discussing his career.

Since there was a long period between INVISIBLE BOY (1957) and his other already known 1970s poster art, I was hopeful that he'd be able to provide me with a list of movie poster art he might have done in between those dates -- in the late 1950s and 1960s. Alas, he did not recall other titles. In fact, he had completely forgotten that he had done INVISIBLE BOY, that is, until someone in his circle brought it to his attention (perhaps via your newsletter)?

Here is a list that he gave me of his movie poster art:
INVISIBLE BOY (1957)
OMEGA MAN (1971)-did art for movie book cover tie-in only
THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972)-2 styles
AMAZING GRACE (1974)
BUSTING (1974)-2 styles
THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1974)
THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE (1974)-3 styles
THREE THE HARD WAY (1974)
THE DEVIL'S RAIN (1975)
THE HINDENBURG (1975)
BREAKHART PASS (1976)-Bronson hanging from train style only
GO TELL THE SPARTANS (1978)
THE PASSAGE (1979)
BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1979)

He said he was a very fast artist and in the case of INVISIBLE BOY, he recalled that it took 2 days to complete the art.

In the case of POSEIDON ADVENTURE, he said he was instructed to a) capture the spirit of the movie and b) had to draw the different actors in size and prominence in the art according to their contracted billing.

He said the studios discouraged artists signing their artwork as it detracted from the movie and stars appearing therein. He said he had to camouflage his name and it became a kind of game to see if he could do so without the studios taking notice. For example, on AMAZING GRACE, his signature is on the right bumper; on TAKING OF PELHAM, it's on one of the subway advertisements.

He said his assignments were not handed out by the studios, but instead, boutique agencies. Which helps to explain why no one has ever found via the studios which artists might've been hired to do which posters.

When asked if he was ever confused with Morr Kusnet, who did portrait art for MGM for many years, he said that by coincidence they shared an office in NYC in the 1950s together. So perhaps that connection is what led to Kunstler doing INVISIBLE BOY, though he didn't remember for sure how he got that job.

Starting around 1980, he stopped taking movie art assignments to concentrate on historical commissions of the Revolutionary War and most prominently, The Civil War -- as they paid a lot better. He did do a series of paintings for Ted Turner's published tie-in books on his movies, GETTYSBURG and GODS AND GENERALS.

Thought you might find some of this of interest."

THIS IS BRUCE. Thank you very, very much for sharing all this wonderful information! We will of course incorporate it into the data on our website, and we are happy to share it will all the members of this club. If anyone else knows movie poster artists personally, as this fellow did, please talk to them before it is too late, and please share what they tell you with us, so we can share it with everyone!