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The MGM musical ‘An American in Paris,’ 1951, won Best Picture and a half-dozen other Oscars. This linen-backed three-sheet featuring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron has a $1,000-$1,500 estimate. Image courtesy of Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries.

Curtain rises on movie memorabilia at Mid-Hudson’s Dec. 5 matinee auction

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
The MGM musical ‘An American in Paris,’ 1951, won Best Picture and a half-dozen other Oscars. This linen-backed three-sheet featuring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron has a $1,000-$1,500 estimate. Image courtesy of Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries.
The MGM musical ‘An American in Paris,’ 1951, won Best Picture and a half-dozen other Oscars. This linen-backed three-sheet featuring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron has a $1,000-$1,500 estimate. Image courtesy of Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries.

NEW WINDSOR, N.Y. – Moviegoers love a good old Saturday matinee. Joanne Grant, principal auctioneer at Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries has announced the acquisition of the Gene Andrewski Collection of Cinema, which will be dispersed in several auctions. The first auction opens Dec. 5 at 3 p.m. Eastern. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

The entire collection will be sold without reserve or minimum bids, making this series of sales almost unprecedented in the industry, said Grant.

The Andrewski collection consists of more than 20,000 items. Included are movie posters, lobby cards and window cards as well as jumbo, mini and midget cards. Gene Andrewski was largely responsible for introducing midget-window card collecting to the field. Also included are press books, promotional items and 30,000 photographs and negatives. In the cache of studio images are rare and early Bela Lugosi negatives from Murders in the Morgue and Margaret Hamilton as the witch in The Wizard of Oz. Among the portraits of Hollywood Glamour Era actresses are several by Hurrell, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Elmer Fryer, Ernest Bachrach, Ray Jones, Willinger and other noted photographers. A substantial autograph collection is to be presented including inscribed photos, double stock and single weight, as well as signed letters, contracts, scripts and other movie memorabilia. The ’20s,’30s and ’40s of Hollywood cinema are strongly represented in the Andrewski auctions although there is considerable material from the ’50s and ’60s, said Grant.

Gene Andrewski, who was born in Oklahoma, died in 2005 at the ago of 77 after a highly successful career in the theater. His career highlights included the May 15, 1962 revival of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes at the Orpheum Theatre in New York City as well as the presentation of Sandy Wilson’s Valmouth at the York Playhouse in New York in 1960. He knew the stars of Hollywood and Broadway and moved among them. Those things that he loved in the field of movie collecting were, as a result, more accessible to him than most. He was a former managing editor of The Paris Review. He wrote and contributed photographs to many books including The MGM Stock Company – The Golden Era; The Rise of the Crooners and Mae West (A Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies.)

An aficionado of Hollywood glamour and everything cinema-related, Andrewski’s collection speaks to that era of advertising. The collection is historical in that it tells the story of how dreams were marketed in early Hollywood. The posters had to attract the glimpse of the passer-by and capture the attention of the stroller in a moment. The lithography of the early posters is intense and spellbinding.

Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries will offer live online bidding at www.LiveAuctioneers.com. Prospective bidders must register in advance to participate. Bidders may also bid by telephone or absentee.

The auction will be conducted at The Minuteman, 171 Temple Hill Road (State Route 300) in New Windsor, N.Y.

For details contact Joanne Grant at Mag2715jag@aol.com or by phone 914-882-7356.

The second half of the Andrewski auctions, Love Is in the Air, featuring posters, lobby cards, still and negatives of iconic Hollywood couples of the silver screen will be presented on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, and will be available online about Feb. 4.

View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

Click here to view Perfume Bottles Auction’s complete catalog.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Judy Garland was just one year removed from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ when she starred with Mickey Rooney in MGM’s 1940 hit ‘Strike Up the Band.’ This linen-backed three-sheet is estimated at $1,800-$2,000. Image courtesy of Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries.
Judy Garland was just one year removed from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ when she starred with Mickey Rooney in MGM’s 1940 hit ‘Strike Up the Band.’ This linen-backed three-sheet is estimated at $1,800-$2,000. Image courtesy of Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries.

Had Oscars been awarded for Best Costume in 1939 (the category didn't exist until 1948) designer Walter Plunkett surely would have won for ‘Gone With the Wind.’ This picture of a gown he designed for Scarlett O’Hara is part of a limited-edition portfolio of signed lithographs. With its original envelope, the set of prints has an $800-$1,200 estimate. Image courtesy of Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries.
Had Oscars been awarded for Best Costume in 1939 (the category didn’t exist until 1948) designer Walter Plunkett surely would have won for ‘Gone With the Wind.’ This picture of a gown he designed for Scarlett O’Hara is part of a limited-edition portfolio of signed lithographs. With its original envelope, the set of prints has an $800-$1,200 estimate. Image courtesy of Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries.

Universal’s ‘Cobra Woman’ from 1943 is a camp classic in Technicolor. Maria Montez played twin sisters – one good, one evil. This linen-backed three-sheet has a $1,000-$2,000 estimate. Image courtesy of Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries.
Universal’s ‘Cobra Woman’ from 1943 is a camp classic in Technicolor. Maria Montez played twin sisters – one good, one evil. This linen-backed three-sheet has a $1,000-$2,000 estimate. Image courtesy of Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries.

‘Harvey,’ the film version of Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize winning play was released by Universal in 1950. This three-sheet poster, 81 inches by 41 inches, is linen backed and has an $1,800-$2,200 estimate. Image courtesy of Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries.
‘Harvey,’ the film version of Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize winning play was released by Universal in 1950. This three-sheet poster, 81 inches by 41 inches, is linen backed and has an $1,800-$2,200 estimate. Image courtesy of Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries.