According to Sandy

“Now Playing: Hand Painted Poster Art from the 1910s Through the 1950s”

At the beginning of the last century, posters that hung in the lobby of the old neighborhood movie palace were simple black and white drawings.  Very quickly, theater owners realized that the cardboard advertisements brought in customers.

The posters then became more artful and sophisticated – pretty, or dramatic (Valentino), or scary (“King Kong”, 1932), or, just high style (Gloria Swanson rendered in Art Deco), to the lurid “Noir” films of the 50’s.

These examples of movie art have been collected into a nice coffee table book:

“Now Playing: Hand Painted Poster Art from the 1910s Through the 1950s”
(Academy of Motion Pictures/Angel City Press – hardcover, 14″ x 11″, 160 pages)