GO FOR THE GOLD The iconic movie posters of Bill Gold By Val Quarles made my first poster in 3rd or 4th grade. It was for a school clean up drive. It was I a “wanted” poster with a “trash monster” that looked suspiciously like my dad. That was the beginning of a life long pattern of creating and being an admirer of graphic art, posters, and spe- cifically movie posters. A movie poster is graphic art at it’s best, and to my mind, most fun. You aren’t having to help sell insur- ance, or dentistry, or a car wash. You get to be as creative and intriguing as the movie. You are still “selling” but you have a product that is more inher- ently interesting. No one understood this better than graphic designer Bill Gold. Bill Gold was born January 3, 1921 in New York City. He studied illustration at the prestigious Pratt Insti- tute in New York, and he had the good fortune to begin his professional career in the advertising de- partment of Warner Bros., in 1941. A mere six years later he was head of poster design. Although Bill Gold never “copped” to Bill Gold didn’t just make movie posters. He any influences, in an interview with Lars made the movie posters for many of the Trodson, he stated in his younger years he film industry’s most famous, most cultish, would copy the illustrations of the Saturday most well-known films. Read through his list Evening Post, and other magazines. That of work, and not only will you remember work would have been Rockwell’s, J.C. scenes from the movies, but after many Leyendecker, Rene Robert Bouche, and of the titles you will see the image of the others. It was the 20’s and 30’s and illustra- poster in your mind’s eye: The Big Sleep; tions rather than photographs were what Strangers on a Train; Streetcar Named De- were on and in magazines. sire; Dial M for Murder; East of Eden; Mister Roberts; Giant; The Searchers; A Face in a Crowd; The Pajama Game; Splendor in the Grass; Gypsy; The Music Man; My Fair Lady; The Great Race; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Bonnie and Clyde; Wait Until Dark; Bullitt; Funny Girl; There’s a Girl in My Soup; Woodstock; Diamonds are Forever; Fiddler on the Roof; The Exorcist; High Plains Drift- er; Papillon; The Sting; Dog Day Afternoon; Heaven’s Gate; On Golden Pond; Unfor- given...the list goes on and on. In 1967 he won first prize from the Illustra- tors Club for the poster for ‘Camelot’. In it you can see the influence of illustrators like Maxfield Parrish and Leyendecker, in the Nouveau swirls, the precise, almost geometric lines in the side illustrations, and color scheme. But future Gold is there - in the silohuette of the pale woman’s profile offset by that of the swarthy man’s, the breaking into and use of negative space. of “mash up” of characters in various emo- tive states, with a few illustrated scenes from situations in the film. Look at the post- ers for The Great Race, What’s Up Doc, and The Music Man. All of those films are comedies, and the posters are simple and happy, with no need of provactive imag- ery. He takes risks only when creating for those having adult themes. What strikes me about his work isn’t just the volume, it’s the volume of iconic work coupled with his range of imagery. He’s not a “one trick pony”. That isn’t to say he doesn’t have some “tells”, he does. He often uses negative space, and silhou- ettes. Both of which I plan to use in my own work. He used these techniques in mid-ca- reer - Dirty Harry, Bullitt, Cool Hand Luke, and all through his later work, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Mystic River, and of course the iconic, very creepy and unfor- gettable poster for The Exorcist. But he also likes visual analogies. The canoe coming out of the eye in the poster for Deliverance - playing on many themes in the movie, the group of friends being watched and hunted by the antagonists, Jon Voight’s character seeing what they were doing to his friends, the fear, and aggression of the image itself, nothing is quite as terrifying as a sharp object in your eye. Sometimes he His work has become what every graphic chooses a minimalist look with lots of neg- designer secretly and not so secretly, pines ative space, as in the poster for The Way for. His commercial art, has become “just” We Were, which is just a black and white art. photo, with most of the image bleached out and Redford and Streisand walking Bill Gold is still alive and is now 95 years old. together along a beach, shown in high I am overwhelmed with admiration for his contrast, walking into the red title beneath talent, and deeply envious of what I know their feet. With family films or comedies, must have been a fun, interesting and he is very vaudevillian and traditional in his fulfilling professional life. I can only hope to approach, grouping illustrations in a kind have one half as satisfying. BILL GOLDgraphic designer Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) Strangers on a Train (1951) Casablanca (1942) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Night and Day (1946) Dial M for Murder (1954) The Big Sleep (1946) The Silver Chalice (1954) Escape Me Never (1947) East of Eden (1955) Winter Meeting (1948) The Wrong Man (1956) Mister Roberts (1955) The Searchers (1956) Searchers The A Face in the Crowd (1957)(1956) Dick Moby Baby Doll (1955) The Four Seasons (1981) The James Dean Story (1957) Giant (1956) Hard Country (1981) Splendor in the Grass (1961) The Pajama Game (1957) Lone Ranger (1956) On Golden Pond (1981) (1980) Eyes Those Lips, Those The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) Gypsy (1962) The Funhouse (1981) (1980) Time in Somewhere For Your Eyes Only (1981) Only Eyes Your For Top Secret Aair (1957) (1981) Titans the of Clash The Music Man (1962) Deathtrap (1982) Bomb Nude (1980) The The Old Man and the Sea (1958) Man (1980) Stunt The My Fair Lady (1964) Evil Under the Sun (1982) (1981) Love Endless Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964) All the President's Men (1976)Firefox (1982) The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox (1976) Sex and the Single Girl (1964) Honkytonk Man (1982) The Enforcer (1976) The Great Race (1965) I, The Jury (1982) Fellini's Casanova (1976) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) My Favorite Year (1982) Gable and Lombard (1976) Bonnie and Clyde (1967) Breathless (1983) Camelot (1967) Marathon Man (1976)Cross Creek (1983) The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)Eddie Macon's Run (1983) Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970) Cool Hand Luke (1967) Portnoy's Complaint (1976)Mystic River (2003) The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) The Fox (1967) The Wiz (1978) No Blade of Grass (1970) The Ritz (1976) Lady Sings the Blues (1972) SugarlandThe Express (1974) Dog Afternoon Day (1975) Wait Until Dark (1967) W.C. Fields and Me (1976)Agatha (1979) Ryan's Daughter (1970) (1975) Pool Drowning The Alien (1979) The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1972) Zandy's Bride (1974) Bullitt (1968) Greased Lightning (1977) Barry (1975) Lyndon Funny Lady (1975) Funny The Yakuza (1974) Yakuza The A REALA Piece of the ActionChapter (1977) TwoCOOL (1979) Soldier Blue (1970) What'sHAND Up, Doc? (1972) (1975)Times Hard Funny Girl (1968) Julia (1977)Exorcist II: The HereticEscape (1977) from Alcatraz (1979)Start the Revolution Without Me (1970) Mahogany (1975) Day for Night (1973) A Dream of Kings (1969) Smokey and the BanditThe Last Married Couple in America (1980) (1977) Fun with Dick and JaneThe Great (1977) Santini (1979) The Go-Between (1970) The Exorcist (1973) Old Curiosity Shop (1975)The Gauntlet (1977) Hair (1979) There Was a Crooked ManHigh (1970)In Plainsthe Line Drifter of Fire (1973) (1993) The Prisoner of Second AvenueThe Sentinel (1975) (1977) Scavenger Hunt (1979) The Bell Jar (1979) There's a Girl in My SoupO (1970) LuckyA Perfect Man (1973) World (1993) Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977) The Bridges of Madison County (1995) Raerty and the Gold Dust Twins (1975) The Promise (1979) Dorian Gray (1970) Oklahoma Crude (1973) Bloodbrothers (1978) Can (1980) You Way Which Any Return of the Pink Panther (1975) Mississippi Burning (1988) The StarsPapillon Fell on (1973) Henrietta (1995) California Suite (1978) A Clockwork Orange (1971) Moonwalker (1988) ThePat Old Garrett Curiosity & Billy Shop the (1995) Kid (1973) Rooster Cogburn (1975)Convoy (1978) The Accused (1988) Woodstock (1970) Little Miss Marker (1980) ScarecrowAbsolute (1973) Power (1997)Heartbreak Ridge (1986) The Dogs of War (1980) War The Dogs of Rosebud (1975) The Long Riders (1980) Diamonds are Forever (1971) The Invasion of the BodyThelonious SnatchersThe Jazz Singer (1980) Monk: (1978) Straight, No Chaser (1988) True Crime (1999) Heaven's GateHeaven's (1980) Steel Yard Blues (1973)Platoon (1986) The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)Movie Movie (1978) Great Balls of Fire! (1989)Fiddler on the Roof (1970) Bronco Billy (1980) The Sting (1973) Hamburger Hill (1987) Same Time, Next Year (1978) The Hindenburg (1975) Night Visitor (1989) Get Carter (1970) The Way We Were (1973)Orphans (1987) The Wilby Conspiracy (1975) Pink Cadillac (1989) Klute (1971) Fame (1980) Fame The Front Page (1974)The Believers (1987) A Matter of Time (1976) McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)Law and Disorder (1974)The Untouchables (1987) A Star is Born (1976) Medicine Ball Caravan (1971)Mame (1974) Bird (1988) Deliverance (1972) 99 and 44/100% DeadColors (1974) (1988) Jeremiah Johnson (1972)The Odessa File (1974)The Dead Pool (1988) Gorky (1983) Park High Road China to (1983) Never Say Never Again (1983) Again Never Say Never The Sting II (1983)The Sudden Impact (1983) Champions (1984) City Heat (1984) Harry & Son (1984) Splash (1984) The River The (1984) Tightrope (1984) Tightrope Pale Rider (1985) Pale Best Shot (1986).