FANTASIA Walt Disney ANIMATION Linen Backed RARE AUSTRALIAN ONE SHEET 1940

  
In keeping with Walt Disney's approach to the specialised marketing of his visionary animated film, FANTASIA premiered at two arthouse cinemas, the Savoy Theatres in Sydney and Melbourne. Established in the early 1930s, these cinemas specialised in foreign language and films of a more artistic nature. The idea was for FANTASIA to gain serious critical acceptance first, before being released to a wider audience in regular Australian cinemas.

However in 1940, Australia was at war which meant that severe paper shortages meant that movie posters were printed in far more limited numbers than previously. While a significant run of 13x40 inch long daybills was printed for the planned wider release, this unusually sized 30x40 was printed in a significantly smaller run, designed specifically for the above Sydney and Melbourne premier runs.

The number has been placed as likely as low as 250. Its extraordinary stone litho printing was acknowledged by local industry poster artists at the time as setting a new benchmark in quality. Ironically, the wider suburban release of the film never happened, and while RKO Australia held enough of the original run of the Long Daybills to satisfy the limited bookings, the vast majority of those Long Daybills were junked. A very few survived from that junking, and those that surface, along with used, ex-theatre copies with pinholes etc, are all that is left of the first release posters of FANTASIA in Australia. Original 30 x 40 inch Australian One Sheet Poster.

When I received the poster it was rolled, and had never been folded. There were considerable small tears throughout the wide white border and a few instances of small amounts of missing paper occasioned by those tears in the white border. There was no missing paper within the image area. Please see the several pictures and message me if further info is required. PO boxes can not be accepted for International Express.

We have been dealing in film and theatrical memorabilia for 40 years. The item "FANTASIA Walt Disney ANIMATION Linen Backed RARE AUSTRALIAN ONE SHEET 1940" is in sale since Monday, November 2, 2020.

This item is in the category "Entertainment Memorabilia\Movie Memorabilia\Posters\Originals-International\1940-49". The seller is "cinemarts" and is located in Corlette, NSW.

This item can be shipped worldwide.

1. Original/Reproduction: Original
2. Object Type: Poster
3. Industry: Movies