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Comedies and Musicals
Lot 85
A Vintage Pacific Title Card for Gene Kelly in What a Way to Go!
4 – 14 June 2024, 12:00 PDT
Online, Los AngelesSold for US$768 inc. premium
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A Vintage Pacific Title Card for Gene Kelly in What a Way to Go!
Twentieth Century-Fox, 1964. Acrylic on glass, framed against a black background (supplied) to 23 1/2 x 34 in.
Lucky Shirley MacLaine has a bevy of love interests in this comedy including Gene Kelly, Paul Newman, Dean Martin, and Robert Mitchum; her husbands aren't so lucky, however, since they all die and leave her a very rich widow. Directed by J. Lee Thompson, MacLaine wears an Edith Head wardrobe of such sumptuousness and bright colors (often with matching wigs!) that it's like a sugar overdose. Kelly's dance number with MacLaine is as spectacular as one would expect of these consummate professionals.
Pacific Title Company was founded in the 1920s to provide title sequences for silent films. When the industry transitioned to sound, Pacific Title pivoted to focus on opening and closing credit sequences. The artists at Pacific painted title and credit material on large sheets of glass, which were then filmed before a painted backdrop or composited over a film's introductory shots. From the 1920s to the 1960s, Pacific Title and Art Company produced the lion's share of titles for the Hollywood film industry, until technological advances made the glass plate process archaic. The company archived its work over the decades, creating a living history of the American motion picture industry. This example comes to us directly from the Pacific Title archive.
Provenance: from the Pacific Title archives.
34 x 23.5 in.
Lucky Shirley MacLaine has a bevy of love interests in this comedy including Gene Kelly, Paul Newman, Dean Martin, and Robert Mitchum; her husbands aren't so lucky, however, since they all die and leave her a very rich widow. Directed by J. Lee Thompson, MacLaine wears an Edith Head wardrobe of such sumptuousness and bright colors (often with matching wigs!) that it's like a sugar overdose. Kelly's dance number with MacLaine is as spectacular as one would expect of these consummate professionals.
Pacific Title Company was founded in the 1920s to provide title sequences for silent films. When the industry transitioned to sound, Pacific Title pivoted to focus on opening and closing credit sequences. The artists at Pacific painted title and credit material on large sheets of glass, which were then filmed before a painted backdrop or composited over a film's introductory shots. From the 1920s to the 1960s, Pacific Title and Art Company produced the lion's share of titles for the Hollywood film industry, until technological advances made the glass plate process archaic. The company archived its work over the decades, creating a living history of the American motion picture industry. This example comes to us directly from the Pacific Title archive.
Provenance: from the Pacific Title archives.
34 x 23.5 in.
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