The Cathay Gallery

Cathay Classics Film Stills

An exhibition of original lobby cards featuring scenes from Cathay’s Chinese Classic Films
1 August to 20 September 2008

To complement the Cathay Chinese Classics Posters exhibition showcased in September 2007, The Cathay Gallery is now featuring a collection of lobby cards from the various Chinese films made by Cathay.

These 8” X 10” lobby cards on display are originals and depict film stills of scenes from Sun, Moon & Star (1962), From the Highway (1969), Fairy, Ghost, Vixen (1965), Escorts Over Tiger Hill (1969), Calendar Girl (1958), Air Hostess (1958), The Magic Fan (1967), Scarlet Doll (1958) , Wedding Bells for Hedy (1960) & many more.

Cathay’s Film Studios
Cathay Organisation’s studios in Hong Kong made more than 240 Chinese films between 1956 to 1974.

The studios, Motion Picture & General Investment Co Ltd (MP & GI) was established in 1956 by the late Dato Loke Wan Tho. With Dato Loke at the helm, MP & GI became a successful and formidable film production and distribution company. It was later re-named Cathay Organisation (Hong Kong) Ltd.

The genre of films produced ranged from romance, comedies, dramas, musicals, tragedies, suspense to period dramas.

The stable of Cathay stars included the inimitable & talented Grace Chang who was also known as Ge Lan. She became a huge success after starring in Mambo Girl (1957) which was MP & GI’s first hit. There were also other beautiful leading ladies such as You Min, Li Mei, Loh Ti, Lin Dai, Yeh Fung, Lin Tsui, Ting Hao, Pai Lu Ming, Tien Ching, Soo Fung, Chang Chung Wen and the debonair male leads like Peter Chen Ho, Chang Yang, Lei Zhen and many more who became household names throughout Asia.

Lobby Cards
Lobby cards were the early tools for pre-publicising a movie that was coming to the cinema. They were pinned up in showcases at strategic locations of a cinema that would catch the attention of the cinemagoer. These lobby cards would thus tell the cinemagoer of forthcoming films by giving them an idea of what the film was about. They usually depicted scenes from the film as well as portraits of the star especially if the star was the main attraction of the film and was popular. Today lobby cards have all but disappeared, replaced by the video monitor that plays trailers of the forthcoming films instead.

The first lobby cards were 8" x 10" black and white stills which were soon replaced with lobby cards that were produced using a brown and white rotogravure* process. Some of these brown and white cards were hand painted creating colour lobby cards. By the 1920's, studios were using a photogelatin/collotype** process for printing their lobby cards. There were three standard sizes for what are now known as lobby cards/sets ; Standard 11" x 14" (issued in sets), Mini or Midget 8" x 10" (issued in sets) &Jumbo 14" x 17" (issued singly or in sets).

* Rotogravure - The method of engraving an image to an image carrier. Images are usually engraved on a copper cylinder with rotogravure in order to be further pressed on paper reels. The process of rotogravure is often referred to as "gravure" for abbreviation.
** Photogelatin/collotype - a photographic plate made with a gelatin film, capable of highly detailed reproductions

The Cathay Gallery is located at 2 Handy Road, #02-16 The Cathay
Open Mondays to Saturdays, 12noon to 8pm. Closed on Sundays & Public Holidays. Admission is Free.
For more information, email corporate_services@cathay.com.sg