Litton collects publicity for his obsession

By Cecile B. Corral -- Home Textiles Today, 3/18/2002 12:00:00 AM

NEW YORK —

Manhattan Properties Company president Claude Litton and his famous collection of more than 1,000 antique and current movie posters — some of which can be espied in parts of the 295 Fifth Avenue building which the company owns — will be featured in the April issue of SmartMoney magazine.

The article discusses the financial success with his "obsession," a collection of posters that date from the 1930s through the present that he buys, sells and trades, Litton told Home Textiles Today.

Litton started his collection approximately 11 years ago when he came across a grouping of James Bond posters at the Atlantic City Antique Show.

"I put them up in my pool room in my basement, and then I started putting up more and more. And pretty soon it became an obsession," Litton said.

As many of the building's tenants can attest, Litton has "a New York theme going," as he described it, at his penthouse offices at 295 Fifth Avenue. The walls of the reception area are full of posters of movies featuring New York City subjects, including "West Side Story," released in 1961; the 1944 film "Greenwich Village;" the 1932 classic "The Heart of New York;" and "The Girl from Manhattan", from 1948.