Object Details
Sponsor
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Incorporated
National Screen Service Corp.
Physical Description
Fiery combat scene over water, circular cut out at top features three stars, text at bottom.
Full Text:
PILOT #5
Be There When It Happens
Starring Franchot Tone, Marsha Hunt, Gene Kelly
With Van Johnson, Alan Baxter, Dick Simmons
Directed by George Sidney, Original Story and Screen Play by David Hertz, Produced by B.P. Fineman
Property of National Screen Service Corporation Licensed for display only in connection with exhibition of the picture at your theatre. Must be returned immediately thereafter.
Summary
Fly Now: The National Air and Space Museum Poster Collection
Throughout their history, posters have been a significant means of mass communication, often with striking visual effect. Wendy Wick Reaves, the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery Curator of Prints and Drawings, comments that "sometimes a pictorial poster is a decorative masterpiece-something I can't walk by without a jolt of aesthetic pleasure. Another might strike me as extremely clever advertising … But collectively, these 'pictures of persuasion,' as we might call them, offer a wealth of art, history, design, and popular culture for us to understand. The poster is a familiar part of our world, and we intuitively understand its role as propaganda, promotion, announcement, or advertisement."
Reaves' observations are especially relevant for the impressive array of aviation posters in the National Air and Space Museum's 1300+ artifact collection. Quite possibly the largest publicly-held collection of its kind in the United States, the National Air and Space Museum's posters focus primarily on advertising for aviation-related products and activities. Among other areas, the collection includes 19th-century ballooning exhibition posters, early 20th-century airplane exhibition and meet posters, and twentieth-century airline advertisements.
The posters in the collection represent printing technologies that include original lithography, silkscreen, photolithography, and computer-generated imagery. The collection is significant both for its aesthetic value and because it is a unique representation of the cultural, commercial and military history of aviation. The collection represents an intense interest in flight, both public and private, during a significant period of its technological and social development.
Credit Line
Bequest of Melvin Buchner
Date
1943
Inventory Number
A20000566000
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
ART-Posters, Original Art Quality
Medium
Poster, Advertising, Movie
Dimensions
2-D - In Frame (H x W x D): 94 x 36.8cm (37 x 14 1/2 in.)
Country of Origin
United States of America
See more items in
National Air and Space Museum Collection
Data Source
National Air and Space Museum
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nasm_A20000566000
