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Comedies and Musicals
Lot 86
A Vintage Pacific Title Card for Paul Newman in What a Way to Go!
4 – 14 June 2024, 12:00 PDT
Online, Los AngelesUS$1,000 - US$2,000
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A Vintage Pacific Title Card for Paul Newman in What a Way to Go!
Twentieth Century-Fox, 1964. Acrylic on glass, framed against a dark background to 23 1/2 x 35 in.
Lucky Shirley MacLaine has a bevy of love interests in this comedy including Paul Newman, Gene Kelly, 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. Paul Newman plays a starving artist who also drives a taxi. MacLaine becomes enamored of his bohemian lifestyle and, of course, marries him.
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.
23 1/2 x 35 in.
Lucky Shirley MacLaine has a bevy of love interests in this comedy including Paul Newman, Gene Kelly, 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. Paul Newman plays a starving artist who also drives a taxi. MacLaine becomes enamored of his bohemian lifestyle and, of course, marries him.
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.
23 1/2 x 35 in.




















