Although directors like Griffith, Eisenstein, Lang, Ford and Hitchcock were largely ignored by intellectuals of their day, their films are now at the heart of our culture. In fact, the cinema seems to have shaped the twentieth century more than any other art form. Designed to attract attention and create desire, film posters were the principle way people found out what was showing at their local cinema. Today, the imagery of the film poster has come to be known as 'key art'. It is expected to unlock, in perhaps sixty seconds or less, the heart of the film, or at least to generate enough interest to open the public's wallet at the box office. Posters would accompany the films they were designed to promote from one cinema to the next. Those that survived were returned to the distributors when the film run had ended. With studios turning out an average of one film a week and always being cost conscious, archiving this material was never a priority. In fact, when studio store rooms were full, having served their purpose, film posters were usually mass destroyed. In other cases, extensive usage, wars, fires and all kinds of natural disasters have helped to make the vintage film poster scarce.		Chaplin made 35 films at Keystone Studios in 1914. Posters for only six of these films have survived
The unique effect that comes from merging illustrations, lettering, layout and colour that creates a 'movie-at-a-glance' image interests graphic designers. Historians and social scientists know that when films and their posters are chronicled, they provide significant insight into how our lifestyle values have changed over time. The constant flux of fashions, prejudices, propaganda and social customs from distinctive and changing eras can all be found in film poster art. By encompassing a vast range of styles and designs, the film poster is attractive to an endless array of tastes. As was formerly the case with filmmakers, film posters and their designers never received the recognition which they deserved. Today, as well as being collectibles, film posters are increasingly considered works of art and important historic documents. Acknowledging the film poster as an art form in its own right, we eventually came to the idea of opening a commercial gallery where our collection can be viewed and acquired. In October 1995 the Reel Poster Gallery was opened.