When I was a very little kid, I became sorta obsessed with the idea of having photos of actors,…read moremovies, cartoons, etc. that meant something to me in my tot's universe. Whether that was The 8th Man (cartoon character Jenny Heartsweet was my 1st painful case of unrequited love), or Gigantor, or the Little Rascals...these people (characters) were part of my life, they entertained me, cured boredom, and were almost like family members. I can remember standing in front of our black and white TV, attempting to take photos of Wheezer and Alfalfa with my father's Polaroid camera. I got crummy photos of our dark room and the light from the TV; nothing else.
Later, when I was 9 or 10, I was watching "House of Frankenstein" on TV and wiping away my youthful tears as Daniel realized his intense love for gypsy dancer Ilonka was never going to be returned because he was an "ugly hunchback." My father passed by walking from the kitchen, paused to watch what was transpiring on the TV screen, and said offhandedly, "Y'know, we're related to that guy." Astonished, I learned that my uncle had married the 1st cousin of the performer in question, old-time character actor J. Carrol Naish. After that, I desperately wanted a photo of "Cousin/Uncle" Naish but didn't know where I was ever going to find one. It had gone from wanting a photo of someone who was "like family" to someone who actually WAS family (although my father, after making that astonishing initial announcement, would later argue with me frustratingly that "We're really not related to the guy. After all, your uncle divorced her." "Yeah, but their kids are my 1st cousins! Which means J. Carrol is my...2nd cousin?" "You're really reaching, Ed..." And so it went, although it beat our later frequent arguments over Ronald Reagan, Republicans, my preference for partying over job-seeking, etc.)
(My oldest friend, a self made multi-millionaire, had a tiny photo of Naish in the back pages of a "Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine, and he traded me the tiny...and I do mean tiny...photo for 6 monster magazines of my own, as well as some Aurora monster models. I've told him since then that there's no clearer illustration of why he's now a multi-millionaire and I'm living paycheck to paycheck than that long ago "trade." But...I digress again...)
In the 80s, I was walking with some friends, half lit, in the East Village when we came across Jerry Ohlinger's store on East 3rd. I had never before come across a store that sold movie star photos, but Ohlinger's did. I remember it as very small, even grubby. I asked for a photo from the most obscure film I could think of, a cult horror movie called "Lemora: Lady Dracula." They had it. They also had Japanese photo books dedicated to various actors, including the "passionate" unrequited love of my young manhood, Nastassia Kinski.
If it wasn't quite the same as "dying and going to heaven," I was still wildly excited at my "discovery" of Ohlinger's.
I was a regular visitor, and collector, for years. It wasn't perfect. If you wanted Steve McQueen or Bette Davis, they had it. If you wanted Paul Naschy, or Soledad Miranda....maybe they'd have it. A friend and I once asked for a file on Yutte Stensgaard, the beautiful but untalented Danish actor/model who played the "lead" in Hammer's "Lust For A Vampire." The file we were brought featured photos of a wizened crone...obviously not OUR Yutte. We argued fruitlessly with the guy. Ah, well...at least I did finally get my photos of my childhood friends the Little Rascals and my "relative" J. Carrol.
You'd walk in, approach the front desk like you were ordering a sandwich, ask for the file on a particular actor/movie, and the employee would disappear into the back for a few minutes, and return with the file (hopefully). Nobody was ever unpleasant or abrasive, although some employees were friendlier than others. I remember a young man and woman who looked like they were brother and sister. They were always stone faced, no matter what. Whether you asked for a photo of Linda Lavin or Linda Lovelace, you'd get the same non-reaction, which caused my friends and I endless delight when we were half...or fully...lit.). You would usually find Jerry Ohlinger standing off to the side, invariably smoking a cigar.
At some point, the store moved to a bigger location on W. 14th St., and I was still a regular patron. The photos they provided were of very good quality, and I think you could also sometimes get posters there. At some point, probably with the advent of Ebay and Amazon, I stopped going into NYC.
I see that Jerry has passed away, and that the store is now located on W. 30th St.; you also need an appointment to get in. But they also sell on Ebay and Amazon, and so...I'm still a regular patron, albeit one who shops differently than he did in bygone years.
Glad to see that Jerry's still seems to be going strong. You have to go to Hollywood to find anything comparable, at least in my experience.
