Movie Poster Restoration event - June 9, 2010 - Moberly Arts & Cultural Centre, Vancouver

The City of Vancouver Archives is inviting the public to see what they do – on a grand scale.


Archives conservators will be piecing together a huge - 81 inch by 81 inch - 1924 movie poster that was discovered in the Orpheum Theatre during renovations in the 1980s. The poster, Western Luck, offers a glimpse into popular culture in Vancouver in the 1920s. The Orpheum Theatre itself is one of my favourite Vancouver buildings - many happy hours were spent there - and now is a Canadian national heritage site.

Western Luck is a movie poster that is made from six separate sheets of paper, known as a ‘six sheet’, and relatively rare. Staff will join the sheets, flatten the poster and provide information to the public about the process.

When: Wednesday June 9, 2010 between 10:30 am and 2 pm.
Where: Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre, 7646 Prince Albert Street, Vancouver.

Student interns with the Archives have already put in about 100 hours of work to restore the poster. This poster was in very poor condition when received by the Archives in the early 1990s, but if stored properly, the restored poster can last 300 to 500 years or longer. Discussions are underway on long-term storage options.


Conservation started with surface cleaning, removal of the acidic paper backing and separation of the six poster sheets. Each sheet was then specially washed and lined onto Japanese backing paper. Washing removes the soluble acid from paper and increases its life expectancy.


For my 'film-crazy' friends, according to the OMDb, Open Movie Database, and a few other sources, Western Luck was a western (as I might have guessed), directed by George Andre Beranger. The writer was Robert N. Lee and the film starred Charles 'Buck' Jones, Beatrice Burnham, Pat Hartigan, Thomas G. Lingham, J. Farrell MacDonald, Edith Kennick, and Bruce Gordon.

This was written with information from the City of Vancouver Archives: http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/archives

The Orpheum Theatre, Vancouver, History & Heritage: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/cultural/theatres/orpheum/index.htm

Moberly Arts & Cultural Centre blog: http://moberlyartsculturalcentre.blogspot.com/