Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda in "The Big Street"

This is the original one sheet movie poster for the 1942 RKO drama "The Big Street" starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda, based on the story by Damon Runyon. This film is arguably Lucille Ball's best dramatic performance, and it was her personal favorite out of all the movies she made. It's heartbreaking to say the least, but I don't want to give any of it away. Henry Fonda is also excellent, but it's really Lucy's film. This poster has some of the best artwork of Lucy that I've ever seen, along with the one sheet poster for the musical "Best Foot Forward" that she did at MGM a few years later. But the headshot of her on this poster is a real work of art.

Below are photos of it before and after restoration and linenbacking. The bleaching process took all of the dirt off and brought back the color, the tape was removed, some paper inserted where it was missing, mostly at the bottom of the "B", and some minor touch up work here and there. It's one of my favorites in the collection, and well worth having restored I think. The photos were taken with a flash, in person the colors are more rich and saturated... Enjoy... 

 

 

Here's the first ten minutes of the movie...