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Rare Dracula Poster Found In The Attic Of An Old House In Berwick, PA Fetches $143K

Imagine buying an old fixer upper, and as you begin tearing down the walls you notice that the insulation behind the walls is actually made up of old movie posters. Well that was just the case when a trove of rare movie posters from the early '30s was discovered in the attic of an old house in Berwick Pennsylvania.

According to THR the most coveted item in the collection was a rare 1931 one-sheet from Dracula, just one of four known copies in existence, which fetched $143,400 at an auction conducted by Heritage Auctions.



Few posters remain from the 1920s and 1930s nce movie houses either plastered a new release on top of an old poster or threw them away.

The posters that were discovered were all stuck together with wallpaper glue and had apparently been used for insulation in the house's attic.

Grey Smith, Director of Heritage Vintage Movie Poster Auctions and his team carefully separated the posters, carefully ung steam to melt the glue.

A one-sheet from Cimarron, the 1931 clasc that was the first Western to win a best picture Oscar sold for $101,575 almost ten time its initial estimate of $12,000.

High prices were also realized for the only known one-sheet for James Cagney's gangster clasc Public Enemy, which sold for $59,750, and the only B-style one-sheet for Edward G. Robinson's Little Caesar, which sold for $41,825. Both prices exceeded the presale estimates of $25,000 and $20,000 respectively. All together the entire collection of thirty-three posters which were found totaled $503,000.Source: THR
Anonymous Tuesday 3/27/2012 at 09:49 PM | 91830
Wow. That's sure to make a dent in your mortgage. (And then some.)

Interesting tidbit about the rarity of 1930s movie posters. I didn't know that.
Boisv Tuesday 3/27/2012 at 10:08 PM | 91831
Now that is a very nice treat to come along with buying a new house!!
dolofOnos Wednesday 3/28/2012 at 01:12 PM | 91859
Fantastic! It's amazing what you can find in your walls - my ster found a bunch of 30's era candy adverting posters, but unfortunately 'found' them in the aftermath of a fire and they were destroyed.

Honestly though, I don't know if I could part with an original Drac poster.
dew Thursday 3/29/2012 at 01:44 AM | 91875
damn, that's awesome. I can't help to think what a movie I could make with that kind of green.
aceofspades70 Thursday 3/29/2012 at 01:54 AM | 91876