Before social media, movie posters drummed up interest in upcoming films and Bob Tanenbaum was the person who designed those posters.
By 1977, the artist worked on “Battlestar Galactica,” “Planet of the Apes,” “Cujo,” “Corvette Summer,” “Hell or High Water” and “A Christmas Story.”
“The way the movie industry looked at it, if the movie was a hit, it was because of the poster, if the movie was a bomb, it was because of the poster,” Tanenbaum said.
His job was to capture the essence of a film that oftentimes he had not even seen or was not even made yet.
Tanenbaum said that he would be told what the movie was about and he would have to figure out a concept.
After he was given the plot of the film, he would get the actors’ headshots and then hire and photograph models specifically for their bodies.
He said that when budgets were right on a movie, his kids, grandkids and even his wife would stand in as models, free of charge.
The poster for “The Color of Money,” a film Paul Newman won the Oscar for Best Actor, which he likes to think is because he painted the actor’s face onto his shoulders.
In the poster for “Seems Like Old Times,” Tanenbaum originally had Goldie Hawn in a bikini.
Through six versions of the same painting, he changed what Goldie was wearing, with executives settling on her dressed in a nightgown.
Tanenbaum began creating intricate art as a teenager and turned that into a profession after college and military service.
When he moved to Los Angeles from the Midwest in 1964, he was hired to illustrate magazine and newspaper ads like Smokey the Bear, followed by work for the Dodgers and the NFL.
He then designed big ad campaigns with Sunkist, Levis and AT&T before his career drawing movie posters.
Tanenbaum now teaches art classes and pens autographs for fans who recognize his artwork in some of Hollywood’s biggest films.
