Original Vintage movie posters memorabilia collectibles for sale
Fellow Voyagers, 1913
Original Vintage One Sheet Movie Poster
Incredibly Rare and historic movie poster. From the early days of motion pictures. Over 107 Years Old! The first time we have ever seen and/or acquired a Vitagraph Poster. Very good condition and has been professionally linen backed. * See enlargeable image above.
Fellow Voyagers (General Film, 1913). Fine+ on Linen. One Sheet (28.25" X 42.25"). Short Subject.
Starring Maurice Costello, Clara Kimball Young, Helene Costello, and Dolores Costello. Directed by Maurice Costello and Eugene Mullin. A partially restored poster with good color and an overall very presentable appearance. Restoration has addressed some relatively minor issues including border tears and stains.
VITAGRAPH HISTORY:
Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907, it was the most prolific American film production company, producing many famous silent films. It was bought by Warner Bros. in 1925?
In 1896, English émigré Blackton was moonlighting as a reporter/artist for the New York Evening World when he was sent to interview Thomas Edison about his new film projector. The inventor talked the entrepreneurial reporter into buying a set of films and a projector. A year later, Blackton and business partner Smith founded the American Vitagraph Company in direct competition with Edison. A third partner, distributor William "Pop" Rock, joined in 1899. The company's first studio was located on the rooftop of a building on Nassau Street in Manhattan. Operations were later moved to the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
The company's first claim to fame came from newsreels: Vitagraph cameramen were on the scene to film events from the Spanish–American War of 1898. These shorts were among the first works of motion-picture propaganda, and a few had that most characteristic fault of propaganda, studio re-enactments being passed off as footage of actual events (The Battle of Santiago Bay was filmed in an improvised bathtub, with the "smoke of battle" provided by Mrs. Blackton's cigar). In 1897 Vitagraph produced The Humpty Dumpty Circus, which was the first film to use the stop-motion technique.
Vitagraph was not the only company seeking to make money from Edison's motion picture inventions, and Edison's lawyers were very busy in the 1890s and 1900s filing patents and suing competitors for patent infringement. Blackton did his best to avoid lawsuits by buying a special license from Edison in 1907 and by agreeing to sell many of his most popular films to Edison for distribution.
The American Vitagraph Company made many contributions to the history of movie-making. In 1903 the director Joseph Delmont started his career by producing westerns; he later became famous by using "wild carnivores" in his movies—a sensation for that time.
In 1909 it was one of the original ten production companies included in Edison's attempt to corner movie-making in America, the Motion Picture Patents Company. Due to its extensive European distribution interests, Vitagraph also participated in the Paris Film Congress in February 1909. This was a failed attempt by European producers to form a cartel similar to the MPPC.
Here is a link to some background on one of the main stars of Vitagragh, Clara Kimball Young :
