Academy Cinema posters
A Blonde in Love (CZ 1965) — The typeface used for the title is similar to a condensed Cheltenham/Gloucester, possibly a woodtype version. For the small sans serif, see Stephenson Blake’s Grotesque No. 6 and 8.
Various woodcut style posters for the Academy Cinema in London made by Peter Strausfeld in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. For more information visit: mikedempsey.typepad.com
Breathless (FR 1960) — The title is set in caps from Albertus, with charmingly unbalanced spacing. The bold gothic caps used for “The Academy Cinema” and elsewhere in the series exhibit qualities that have been captured in contemporary anthologies/reinterpretations like Rhode, Knockout or Champion Gothic.
Alphaville (FR 1965) — Among digital fonts, Clarendon Extra Condensed by Wooden Type Fonts is a good approximation for “Alphaville”.
A Generation (PL 1955) and Edward and Caroline (FR 1951) — The red caps appear to be from Playbill, Stephenson Blake’s reinterpretation of 19th-century “French Antique” wood type – a face that also appears on other posters of the series. Among the smaller types, there is Gill Sans Italic.
The Confrontation (HU 1969) — More Playbill, SB Grotesque, Gill Sans, condensed Clarendon and other unidentified faces. “In colour and ’scope” is in Britannic Italic. There are several digitizations, but none of them includes the italics. For the actors’ names, see The Godfather’s Haunted Lineage.
The King of Marvin Gardens (US 1972) — Big actors’ names are set in a style generically called Antique, stemming from Figgins’ Antique. Giza and Ziggurat are related digital versions. Smaller names are in caps from Windsor. The small type at the bottom is Latin Bold or similar.
AKA Wedding in Blood (FR 1973) — The generically named Egyptienne comes somewhat close for “Red Wedding”. The italic for “brilliant…” is very similar to Doric Italic No. 1.
Tonite Let’s All Make Love In London (UK 1967) and Dutchman (UK 1966) — WTC Banger from Borutta’s Wood Type Collection appears to be based on a model very similar to largest type. Unfortunately Mateusz Machalski doesn’t mention the sources of his digital interpretation.
8 Comments on “Academy Cinema posters”
A lovely series! Thank you for this contribution, Michael. I have added a couple more IDs and also mentioned a few digital options, but there are still several unidentified typefaces here. We’d be happy to hear from anyone with a better knowledge of English wood and metal type.
Thanks for responding to my request on your fine Instagram, Michael! I added another typeface guess on the caption for The King of Marving Gardens. I assume it’s another generic wooden Antique, but perhaps someone can get more specific.
The type is lovely, and I know that’s what we’re here for, but those illustrations are sublime. These have found their place into my wood type canon.
I’ve always loved this set!
MPI No.507 also has a similar model to the largest type of Tonite Let’s All Make Love In London.
The font’s description suggests that an original type was introduced by William H. Page & Company.
Good find, thanks, getsuren!
It’s odd that not even Britannic’s once-popular bold italic seems to have got into any of the digital releases. I believe Berthold offered it as one of their fonts that got tied up in rights issues. The bold italic certainly saw some use into the mid-1990s in post-metal form: I’m just old enough to remember it being used for branding of rail routes in south-east England on the side of trains. (Britannic’s 'italic’ is really an oblique, but like Grotesque 215 its 'f’ is descending, so luckily the presence of 'Uckfield’ confirms these are using the correct italic and it’s not machine-sloped, even if they didn’t have an 'fi’ ligature.) Softmaker has Grenoble Serial which is very similar, but it has a true italic.
Thanks for the link to Network SouthEast’s route symbols, Blythwood! I can confirm that Berthold Fototypes had Britannic in 3 styles (regular, bold, bold italic). It’s shown in their E1 (1974) catalog and still in the grey one from 1988. I don’t know if Berthold converted it to digital, but someone did. There’s a version by ClassicFontCorporation from 1993, which doesn’t sound very legit. I’m not aware of an official source to license it. Grenoble Serial Heavy Italic also goes by the name of Bastion (FontBank).
For those who are looking for something in the same ballpark, here are three contemporary options from well-equipped families, by living type designers. From top to bottom: Darby Sans Poster Black Italic (Commercial Type), Granville Bold Italic (Production Type), Domaine Sans Text Black Italic (Klim):