A THOUSAND CLOWNS

Original British 30 inch x 40 inch Quad Poster for the 1965 Fred Coe Romantic Comedy A THOUSAND CLOWNS, based on his original play by Herb Gardner and starring Jason Robards, Barbara Harris, Martin Balsam, Barry Gordon, William Daniels and Gene Saks plus Buster Keaton’s RAILRODDER.

New York drop-out, TV joke writer Robards, shares a single-room flat with his 12-year-old nephew Gordon to the concern of welfare officer Daniels. Then there’s Saks as Mr Chuckles the Chipmunk TV star the kids love to hate: Balsam as Robards’ agent brother and Harris as Daniels’s assistant who moves in with Robards.

The poster art is by Peter Strausfeld. Strausfeld was interned in the Isle of Man at the Onchan Internment Camp during the War where he met the Austrian producer George Hoellering. In 1947 Hoellering opened the Academy Cinema on Oxford Street and invited Strausfeld to produce some posters for the cinema which he did in wood and lino-cuts till his death in 1980.

The Academy Cinema, built in 1913, was saved from conversion to a shopping arcade in 1928 by Elsie Cohen of the original Film Society, who proceeded to run it as an arthouse which is how it was ran till it’s closure in 1986.

The posters became a London landmark, in fact very few were used outside of London, resulting in very small print runs of 3-500.

Printed by Ward & Foxlow Ltd., 19 Harcourt Street, London W1H 2AX

The poster is in fine unfolded (rolled) condition.