For more than 50 years, the most important way people found out about movie showtimes was their local newspaper. Described as “The Holy Grail of movie memorabilia,” the Press Room’s collection encompasses nearly 60,000 original printing proofing blocks of vintage newspaper cinema advertising. In addition to the blocks, the collection contains original printed reference-art known as ad slicks, and master plates used to create the paper molds—called flongs or mats—that were sent to newspapers and used by their printers to cast printing blocks out of hot metal.

The blocks in this collection were all produced by KB Typesetting by Loren Kelley. Settling in Omaha, Nebraska, Kelley and partner Joseph Bondi founded KB Typesetting and became Hollywood’s go-to manufacturer of printing plates and flongs due to their unparalleled quality and central location, making it the perfect hub for sending ads to newspapers across the nation. Starting in 1932, Kelley kept every test block KB produced to test their production process and cataloged them for the next 50 years until he closed the shop sometime in the early 1980’s. 

Discovered in an antique shop back room by DJ Ginsberg and Marilyn Wagner 15 years later, the blocks were featured in Adam Roffman’s documentary “The Collection.” During a 2017 screening, Alamo Drafthouse co-founder Tim League became enamored with the trove of vintage movie adverts and within moments of walking out of the theater, Tim began a nearly two-year process of acquiring the collection with the intent of giving it a second life by sharing it with the world. The Press Room is continuing Ginsberg and Wagner’s work of preserving the blocks by printing, archiving, exhibiting and educating movie-lovers about this incredible collection.