That’s a Big Bite! ‘Dracula’ Lobby Card Emerges From the Shadows to Star in Movie Posters Auction

Return to Oz original art, Spanish Night of the Demon poster push Heritage Auctions' sale past $2.4 million mark DOWNLOAD DIGITAL PRESS KIT DALLAS, Texas (November 23, 2021) — A rare lobby card from one of the most popular horror films ever made sold for $108,000 to lead Heritage Auctions' Movie Posters Signature® Auction to $2,422,630 in total sales Nov. 20-21. Last weekend's event drew 2,070 global bidders to chase the 891 lots offered. The sale, like all of Heritage Auctions' Movie Posters events, was a near sell-out. The lobby card at the top of the sale was from the 1931 classic Dracula; it drew 29 bids before it was done, soaring past its pre-auction estimate of $20,000-40,000. "This is an extraordinary card, with exceptional color," says Heritage Auctions Vintage Posters Director Grey Smith. "Dracula was the film that earned Bela Lugosi the most fame, but even after he successfully played the role on Broadway, he wasn't even the first choice to play the role in the film. Once he earned the role, however, he turned in a brilliant performance. This film is considered one of the finest horror films ever made, and material from it is in exceptionally high demand." A signed original acrylic painting done for the poster for 1985's Return to Oz from the legendary artist Drew Struzan drew numerous bids before finishing at $66,000. It is done by the artist widely accepted as the greatest modern poster artist, who also is known for the images he created for a list of epic films that includes, but is not limited to John Carpenter's The Thing, the Back to the Future trilogy, First Blood, The Goonies, Big Trouble in Little China and three Indiana Jones films, as well as a slew of album covers for artists like The Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, Black Sabbath, Iron Butterfly, Liberace and Alice Cooper (for whom he did the artwork for Welcome to My Nightmare). This magnificent piece comes from the time when Struzan was at the height of his career. A powerful mixed media Spanish artwork for Night of the Demon kept climbing until it reached $60,000 — six times its high pre-auction estimate. Inspired by the film's horrific conclusion, it was created for the Spanish poster for the film. Director Jacques Tourneur didn't want the image of the demon to be so obvious, but the producers and the studio executives wanted something truly horrific — and got their way. The result is one of the best posters created for this highly suspenseful and classic horror film. The world's only known copy of an Italian 4-Fogli for Son of Frankenstein (E.N.I.C., 1940) with Francesco Giammari Artwork rose to $50,400. Magnificent in both scale (it measures 55-1/4 by 77-1/2 inches) and aesthetic appearance, this beauty once was part of a private Swiss collection. Frankenstein's Monster appears to emerge from the shadows on this captivating paper, an effect perhaps inspired by artist Giammari's expertise in bold woodcut prints. The movie was the third and final film in which Boris Karloff played his signature role as the Monster and is considered the last of the genuinely great Frankenstein movies at Universal. Widely accepted as the finest one sheet from any of the John Wayne B-Westerns to emerge from Republic Pictures, a one sheet from The Oregon Trail nearly tripled its low pre-auction estimate when it closed at $40,800. Wayne assumed his familiar role of leading a wagon trail out west in this film, which is essentially a remake of the classic Raoul Walsh Western, The Big Trail and considered to be the only "lost" film in Wayne's career. Other top lots included, but were not limited to:   •  A one sheet from The Champion (Essanay, 1915): $38,400   •  A Style B one sheet from It Happened One Night (Columbia, 1934): $31,200   •  A very rare Italian post-war foglio for The Maltese Falcon with Sergio Gargiulo artwork: $21,600   •  A large Disneyland Frontierland park attraction poster with Bjorn Aronson artwork: $28,800   •  A Love Before Breakfast (Universal, 1936) one sheet: $28,800   •  A massive (79 by 80 inches) Double Indemnity (Paramount, 1944) six sheet: $26,400 For complete results, visit HA.com/7247. Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world's largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam and Hong Kong. Heritage also enjoys the highest online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet's most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 1,400,000 registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of five million past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit. For breaking stories, follow us: HA.com/Facebook and HA.com/Twitter. Link to this release or view prior press releases. Steve Lansdale, Public Relations Specialist 214-409-1699; SteveL@HA.com