Angel City Press
Now Playing
Hand-Painted Poster Art From the 1910s through the 1950s

by Anthony Slide, with Jane Burman Powell and Lori Goldman Berthelsen

Published in cooperation with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Now Playing features a rare collection of hand-painted poster art by Batiste Madalena, Edwin Isaac Checketts, O.M. Wise and Edward Augustus Armstrong, as well as many other now-collectible poster artists.

Now Playing tells the highly visual story of movie posters that were actually hand-painted by artists who were commisioned by local theater owners in individual communities throughout the United States. Never having actually seen the films they were promoting, these commercial artists were free to improvise, interpret and customize, which always resulted in dramatically different renderings for the same film. Nuances of color and line, dramatic lettering, and a fabulous array of famous faces and films all add to this landmark coffee-table book, destined to be the definitive work on these one-of-a-kind treasures of motion picture history.

Author Anthony Slide, supported by the research of Jane Burman Powell and Lori Goldman Berthelsen, tells a story that has never been told, a story that adds a new dimension to the history of motion picture posters, all illustrated with artwork lost to the public eye until now.

Now Playing cover image
click on cover to see larger version
160 pages
ISBN-13 978-1-883318-53-6
ISBN-10 1-883318-53-X
$50.00; 11"x14"; hardcover

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Excerpts
Anthony Slide has published more than seventy books on the history of popular entertainment and is also the editor of the Scarecrow Press “Filmmakers” series, which consists of 125 volumes. In 1990, in recognition of his work on the history of popular culture, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by Bowling Green University. At that time, Mr. Slide was hailed by Lillian Gish as "our preeminent historian of the silent film."

Jane Burman Powell graduated from New York University, where she was editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, a job which led to a career in journalism and publishing. After marrying Charles M. Powell and moving to the West Coast, she became deeply involved in the Hollywood community and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She died in 2006.

Lori Goldman Berthelsen grew up under the influence of an actress/speech therapist mother and a theatre- and movie-critic father.Her degree in political science from the University of Southern California and career as a business manager were only momentary diversions from a fascination with show business that led to her collaboration on Now Playing.