Ah, this is easy. As "rare" or "hard to get" as some of my posters are and as much as I have had to pay for some of them, the one that is most valuable to me and the one that I will never give up is my very first movie poster -- the one that started it all for me.
I had been driving to Austin (and to Dallas) to watch Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. The guys at the cinema in Austin started to know me and they would send me email updates about show times and such. As the very last showing of ROTS was approaching, I started to feel sad that I was never going to be able to see this bestest of all best movies -- the one that I watched 18 times in the movie theaters -- I wanted something to remember it by, to try to capture the feeling I had every time I went to see it. I realized that I had to have the poster for it, so I asked/pleaded/begged the theater to give it to me when they called me to let me know about the last showing of the movie. But, they gave me their usual spiel, about how they're supposed to give it back to the studio, etc. (Yeah, right.) The manager said he would try to see what he could do but that he could promise nothing. I arrived for the very last showing at 11 PM a few days later, but my heart fell and I was dejected when I saw that the poster was already taken down. They had apparently sent the poster back or someone in the theater had procured it for himself.
But I watched my beloved movie and forgot all else for a little while. At the end, as I walked out of the showing room, feeling sad and all, one of the theater guys was standing outside at the door holding a poster tube, waiting for me to come out to give the poster to me.
That is my most precious poster. And priceless to me.
(Now, if I could just remember which one it is among the 20 copies that I have of it, then this tear-jerking story would be even better.)
Jeannie
