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Movie Poster Cache Is Primo

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By ZAC ANDERSON, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: February 1, 2008

NOKOMIS - In the collecting world, Doug Taylor is what is known as a completist.

For the past 20 years, the energetic business consultant's free time has been dominated by one passion: the perfect movie poster collection.

Taylor has doggedly pursued the original promotional posters for movies that won the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards, sometimes bidding against the likes of Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise.

With persistence, luck, patience and more than a little money, Taylor has amassed the second most complete Best Picture poster collection in the world, surpassed only by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Now, the 52-year-old wants to sell his stash, seeking a minimum $1 million bid on eBay, the online auction site. He has timed the sale to coincide with the 80th annual Oscars ceremony in two weeks.

Perfection, it turns out, is nearly impossible to achieve. Tired of trying, Taylor is ready to move on.

Taylor fell just three posters shy of collecting all 79 Best Picture posters - 1929, 1931 and 1933 are missing - and two posters shy of matching the Academy's collection.

There are only two known copies of some of the pieces in Taylor's ensemble, his and the Academy's. The rarities include a coveted poster for "Gone With the Wind."

"It truly is an amazing collection," said Grey Smith, director of Vintage Movie Poster Auctions for Heritage Auctions, who is not helping with the sale. "It's very difficult for me to imagine somebody putting this together again in its entirety. You can never say never, but some of these posters may never be up for sale again in our lifetime."

Taylor, a recent transplant to Southwest Florida from Hong Kong, began seriously collecting movie posters in the late 1980s, but the roots of his collection go back to his childhood in Oklahoma.

As a young man, Taylor became enamored with the escapism and glamour of movies, idolizing smooth-talking leading men such as Humphrey Bogart.

"For those two hours you become captivated and you escape to a different world completely," he said.

An Expensive Pursuit

At the University of Oklahoma, Taylor's passions were poker, football and movies.

Most people might assume that poker would be the more expensive hobby, but vintage movie posters have leapt in value in recent years, with Taylor paying $47,000 for one poster.

The most expensive movie poster ever sold went for $690,000 in 2005.

Last November, Smith auctioned off $2.6 million worth of movie posters, the largest such single-day auction in history.

"Movies and pop culture collectibles in general have taken off dramatically," Smith said.

Taylor began collecting just as prices began to rise, but he still managed to finagle a few great deals.

The "Gone with the Wind" poster he picked up for $7,500 is now worth about $20,000.

There is a flip side: Taylor has overpaid for posters to help complete his collection.

In 2000, he was outbid, reportedly by Steven Spielberg, for a poster for the movie "Grand Hotel," the 1932 Best Picture winner.

Upper-middle class but not rich, Taylor is a marketing guru who works as a private consultant for major corporations. He capped himself at $47,000 but Spielberg was determined to get the rare poster for the Academy's collection.

It was six years before another "Grand Hotel" poster was found and purchased for $700 at a flea market in Utah. By then, Taylor could afford the $47,000 auction price.

His Favorite Poster

Again in 2000, Taylor passed on a chance to purchase the poster for "All Quiet on the Western Front," the 1930 Best Picture winner.

He thought it was overvalued at $30,000. Another poster did not surface for four years, and by then Taylor was desperate to have it. The piece was pasted to a wooden board, and Taylor ended up spending nearly $30,000 to have it restored. It is his favorite piece, printed from a haunting painting of a World War I soldier.

"The rarity, what I went through to get it and the amazing artwork all add up for me," Taylor said.

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