APF came online on December 14, 2009 -- 13 years ago. Thierry and I started the place because there was a little tyrant running what was then MoviePosterForum.com. What do two posteraholics do when the forum owner pisses them off? They start a new place!
And, I suspect that since that time, the two of us have probably inspired others to do the same in one way or another.
For now, here's to 13 years of APF. We've kept it gloriously ad-free all this time, and that's what brought down MPF. Andy monetized it and that was that. It's gone. We keep this place going, paying out of our own pocket (well, I do, Thierry is cheap), and we keep it online as a gift to the community and because it's fun.
I started out as a collector when I was a kid with Pez dispensers, colored paper, and other stuff. My first serious collecting started with Victorian art glass way back in the late 80s, then first edition books around the early 90s. I have an abiding love of both collecting areas. I still like Pez, too. I cannot really recall why I started colleting movie posters. My first was the onesheet for Gladiator. I'm a Ridley Scott fan, and Gladiator is the first movie I ever saw just myself in theaters. For some reason, it made me want a theater poster of it, and that lead me to discovering an entirely new rabbit hole of onesheets, then lightboxes and the concept of double sided onesheets, then Japanese paper, and lobby cards and....
I had a phone conversation with Theirry, probably 7 years ago or so, when I asked, "Thierry, how do you know if you're a hoarder?" He said something like "If you're tripping over them" and then bragged how organized his stuff is (and let me tell you, I've seen it and it is - the guy can put his hands on any poster in his collection in less than 60 seconds, I believe lol). When he said that, I knew in my bones he was spot on, and I knew that I was a hoarder (collecting, after all, is a glorified term for hoarder I've discovered, at least for me lol).
I had boxes of the stuff everywhere. Boxes and tubes. They would fall over like dominos sometimes. Within a few weeks of that conversation, I packed
most of it up, and drove it to Bruce's place in West Plains. But, of course I couldn't relinquish
all of it. I culled my favorites, and many of my favorites are also quite rare these days. I also held on to most of the folded onesheets and other folded material, lobby cards, the large bus shelters and similar sized posters, Japanese B0s, and, frankly, a ton of stuff. Bruce sold the rest, and I'm sure a lot of you have some of my stuff in your collections. Enjoy
I fell away from the forum, too. Not because of that conversation, but because my younger brother died of alcoholism about the same time, and that really woke me up to a bigger conversation of what I wanted in my life. That's another story....
Here we are now. I'm 58 and working on the retirement plan. There is a little town in North Florida (I live in South Florida) called Micanopy, about 15 minutes south of Gainesville. On the suggestion of a book collecting friend, I drove through it years ago, fell in love with the old town and it's streets lined with Live Oak and Spanish Moss. It's an old place with centuries of history, and knew I would retire there. Earlier this year, we finally bought a house there. After the closing, we drove down the main street (Cholokka Boulevard) and there was a storefront for lease. The greatest looking place, wide and high with huge walls begging to be filled with good stuff. I hadn't been to the office since the Pandemic, so I closed the office down here, and leased the place up there, building it out to be a gallery, as well as my law office. I now have the greatest, biggest, bestest office anyone could ever want!
A lot of you don't know me, so I wanted to take the time and share all of this with you. Part of opening the store is building out a new website, and I've coded it myself (with the help of a few good software tools). It's called
Two Parrots Gallery. I've been slowly adding not just posters, but also books and my own photography, and frankly it will take me about a year to add all of it. But for now, there is enough posted to take the site live. Have a look and if there's anything you're interested in, let me know. This forum is the first place I'm announcing this, so you get the first chance at it all.
Mind you, a lot of this stuff is not cheap, because a lot of it will simply not come around again for a hella long time if at all. It's been salted away for nearly a decade. But, for anyone from APF, let me know that you are and I'll make an adjustment for you depending on what you're interested in
And, of course, if you see any errors, typos, or whatnot, I'd appreciate your help debugging the site. You can send an email to TwoParrotsGallery@gmail.com with any questions, comments, or concerns.
PS: Bruce once said that all collectors become sellers/dealers. Thierry will use his last breath to deny it, but for me it seems he was right after all these years .
