Fans of programs like "Antiques Roadshow" and "American Pickers" might be surprised to learn the Lake-Geauga county area is home to one of the world's.
Fans of programs like “Antiques Roadshow” and “American Pickers” might be surprised to learn the Lake-Geauga county area is home to one of the world’s largest vintage movie poster collections.
Known across the globe as one of the foremost collectors of movie posters and related memorabilia, Morris Everett Jr. has owned and operated The Last Moving Picture Company in Kirtland at the corner of state routes 6 and 306 for the past 15 years.
“I’m one of Cleveland’s better kept secrets,” Everett said, with a smile.
He’s not a secret in the world of movie poster collecting, however. When Everett decided to start auctioning his private movie poster collection — which at 196,000 posters is the largest private collection in the world — he set 40 world records in the first round of a two-part sale.
Although Everett has organized the annual Hollywood Poster Auction & Convention since 1987, his passion for movie posters goes all the way back to 1961, when he was an undergraduate majoring in history at the University of Virginia.
“I always loved movies,” he said when asked what got him interested in collecting. “But there were three major things that really spurred my interest.”
First and foremost, the collecting gene runs in the family, Everett said, so he was predisposed to nurture a passion for it. Second, he spent many afternoons at his college fraternity house watching old movies.
“There were only three channels,” he said, laughing. “So we ended up watching a lot of old westerns.”
But what really prompted him to begin collecting was a summer visit to a college friend’s home in New York.
“He showed me this collection of movie stills and posters,” Everett said. From that moment, Everett was hooked and he began a lifelong quest to locate and acquire movie posters, stills and other kinds of film memorabilia.
“Natalie Wood in ‘Splendor in the Grass,’… Errol Flynn in ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ — those were the first two things I ever bought,” he said.
His collection wouldn’t stay small for long.
“First, I bought a little, then I began collecting on every major title of every American film,” Everett said.
Eventually, he amassed the largest movie poster collection on the planet.
He has written several books on movie posters and is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as one of three authorities on the subject. Walking through his store is like taking a stroll through cinema history and Everett is a living encyclopedia of film knowledge.
“That’s my favorite, there,” he said, pointing to a large colorful movie poster featuring a storybook castle and purple and green mountains. In another corner, a glossy black and white photo shows Charlie Chaplin with his signature bowler and cane.
“We have 500,000 movie stills here,” Everett said, adding his store sells movie posters, photos and other film and entertainment collectables.
The Last Moving Picture Company derives its name from an eponymous Cleveland restaurant discotheque Everett co-owned in the 1970s.
“It was the hot place to be between 1971 and 1974,” he said.
From the way he describes it, the restaurant sounds like a forerunner to today’s Planet Hollywood chain, which features movie stills, posters and set pieces from popular Hollywood films.
“We had a three-floor discotheque and restaurant with movie posters all over the walls,”he said.
When the restaurant closed in 1974, Everett retained the rights to the name, which he used when he opened his original movie poster store in downtown Cleveland in 1987.
His other business, The Everett Collection, which is headquartered in New York City, leases over 3 million movie stills and entertainment photos to publications, television production companies, museums and other clients.
“We have agents all over the world,” he said. “We are an entertainment archive.”
Although movie posters and related collector’s items are frequently associated with Hollywood and New York City, Everett said Cleveland is the birthplace of movie posters.
“There were more movie posters made in Cleveland, Ohio in the 20s and 30s than anyplace else in the world,” he said. “This is where movie posters were made.”
The genesis of Cleveland’s movie poster industry began when a prominent local lithograph and poster company, the Morgan Lithographic Company, began dominating the entertainment poster industry in the early 1900s.
By the 1930s, Everett explained, there were six lithography companies in Cleveland.
The historical significance of movie posters is another of Everett’s passions.
“I love conservation, I love savings things,” he said.
In addition to his work as a collector, dealer and auctioneer, Everett also works with a small group of conservationists to preserve movie posters in danger of being lost forever due to advanced age and decay.
Because movie posters are a dying art form, saving them is something he cares about deeply.
“In the old days, they had 14 different sizes (of movie posters),” Everett said. “Today, they only have two or three sizes. The word is they’re eventually going to do away with movie posters.”
Looking at the vivid colors of the posters leaning against the walls of Everett’s shop, it’s easy to see why he’s passionate about his work.
“I’ve been doing this for 54 years,” he said. “I get to have fun every day in my business. I’ll never retire.”
The 23rd annual Hollywood Poster Auction & Convention runs November 13, 14 and 15 at the Sheraton Airport Hotel.
In addition to movie posters, the convention will feature stills, autographs, magazines and rare DVDs. Everett said there will be something for everyone.
“It will be difficult for anyone to walk in and not see something of interest to them,” Everett said.
For more information, and to view featured posters and other items, visit www.hollywoodposterauction.com.
