Short History of Surf Movie Posters
| |
There were a handful of
filmmakers in the late 50s through the 60s. In 1953 Bud Browne made
Hawaiian Surfing Movie, the first commercial surf film that was shown
anywhere. John Severson along with Bruce Brown came up with the standard
style of modern surf movie, silly comedy sketches with a search for surf
plot.
In those days, the filmmakers spent half of the year traveling around
shooting surfing on 16mm film. When they had enough footage to fill an
hour and a half, they would add some silly comedy routines, an
intermission in the middle, and show it at high school auditoriums, beach
town theaters and community halls. They would put on the whole show
themselves, setting up, running the projector, narrating the film live and
packing it all up for the next city. These authentic surf films catered to
a growing group of stoked, hooting young surfers.
Surf movie posters and handbills were the primary way to advertise the
next showing of the surf movies. Often times, the filmmakers were out
there plastering the handbills on car windows and tacking them to
telephone poles. The surf movie posters documented an era of the 50’s-60’s
when surfing was a culture. The movies highlighted the hot young surfers
of the era, many of which have become legends today.
Most poster sizes were variations of 8" X11", 9" X 12"
or 11" X14.
(Excerpt from The Surfing
Collectibles Guide)
|
|
|
             
|
