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I’m a big old movie fan. I collect vintage glass movie advertising slides. Movie Advertising slides were shown between films the same way movie preview "trailers" were shown. They were made and used from shortly after the turn of the century until the 50's, although there were still a few movies advertised this way into the early 60's. The glass slides measure about 3 1/4 inches by 4 inches, and often had the same art that adorned a poster or lobby card for the film. Many are painstakingly hand-tinted. As the price for old movie posters and lobby cards escalates, the advertising slide collectables market remains relatively undervalued. It is a great way to start a movie memorabilia collection on a budget, and with minimal space.
 (This slide art is almost identical to the lobby card for the film.) I started out collecting movie slides because I got gifted with some. Back in the early 80's I helped my granny clean out her barn and attic. We found a set of advertising slides from a car dealership in the 1920's and she gave them to me. Except for this "starter" set of mine, I collect slides that advertise upcoming movies exclusively. However there is a complete market of it’s own for the old advertising slides that sold products. You can find old slides from the teens, 20's and 30's hawking everything from shoes to flour to automobiles.
 (From my first set of slides: an ad for Overland Automobiles) Once I started collecting I scoured antique and collectable sales and auctions. Sometimes I went for months without finding a single slide, but sometimes I found antique dealers with whole boxes of slides from some old theater. But in the last couple of years, my best finds have been on Ebay. The most I’ve ever paid for a slide was $250, for “The Canary Murder Case” with Louise Brooks, a rare find. But barely a half-dozen of the slides in my collection cost more then $25 each to acquire. Many were purchased for under $10.
 The main things to consider when looking at condition is cracks and scratches in the glass, and water damage or heat damage to the painting between the two layers of glass that make up the slide. (Later slides have only one layer of glass, and much more care has to be taken not to scratch the painted surface.) Most slides aren’t yet worth enough to make faking them profitable, so you usually don’t need to worry much about fakes or reproductions. However, a lot of famous silent films were re-released in the 30's. Some big films of the 30's and 40's, especially horror films and blockbusters like "Gone With the Wind", were re-released in the 50's and 60's. The slides produced to advertise the re-release are generally worth a lot less then the ones made for the original run. A big name star like Chaplin or Garbo always makes a slide worth more, as does striking artwork.  (In this glass slide, you can see the water damage in the lower left corner.) © Linda Merritt keeps a page devoted to vintage movies, and has a livejournal, thedabara_cds, where you can often find more Old Movie Advertising Slides. Don't foreget these too!
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