60 linear ft. of papers

The Brad Roberts collection of newspaper movie advertisements contains clipped ads from newspapers published in three American cities, Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. The files are arranged chronologically and include titles filed alphabetically for half-page ads and small movie ads. There are some miscellaneous clippings, lobby cards, and title storyboards by Saul Bass.

Roberts, who grew up in a Boston suburb, began clipping newspaper movie ads of motion pictures he was interested in, primarily horror and Walt Disney films, when he was 6 years old. By the time he was 11, in 1961, he saw it as his own personal archive and realized the need to collect ads from every movie from every genre in order to compile a comprehensive collection. He clipped primarily from the Boston newspapers until he saw his first Sunday New York Times theatre section in 1961. He then began buying the New York Times every Sunday, and daily editions when an important movie was opening, to augment the Boston papers. Upon moving to Los Angeles in 1978, he continued to buy the New York Times, but replaced the Boston papers with the Los Angeles Times. He continued clipping up until the primary avenue of film promotion moved from newspapers to the Internet around 2010.

The collection is representative of three of the nation’s major movie markets. Newspapers represented in the collection include the Boston Herald, Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix (weekly), The Real Paper (weekly), New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times, and L.A. Weekly.