Theater Galleries

About the Artist : Little is known about the reclusive John J. Lomasney. Born in Ireland in 1899, he emigrated to California and worked briefly as a set painter at Warner Brothers and Paramount at the dawn of the golden age of cinema. In 1936 he moved to Hawaii with his mother Mary and found work for the Royal Hawaiian Theater chain as a staff artist. At that time, theaters still attracted their customers with studio "one sheets" displayed in the glass cases in front of the theater. Lomasney discarded the studio posters and, using film stills as inspiration, painstakingly fashioned his own original posters. He seldom did more than four posters for a film and each one is unique, a one-of-a-kind creation. Lomasney was known as an eccentric. His only interests were movies and painting. Always meticulous, he wore a sport coat and trademark bow tie and smoked White Owl cigars. While working in his studio, he was quick to silence anyone whose conversation rose above a whisper. Dick Howard, the Royal Hawaiian’s director of advertising in 1970, describes Lomasney as "slow, meticulous and very detailed. His entire life was focused on movies… practically the only subject capable of moving him to speak." Lomasney spent every day of his working life creating this treasure of movie nostalgia. After 40 years, he left the Royal Hawaiian without a single painting of his own, taking only a paintbrush. In those days, studio-trained painters were schooled to be anonymous. Only two of his original signatures are known to exist. Lomasney died at the age of 90 in 1989 and was buried beside his mother in Diamond Head Memorial Park. One of the most astonishing aspects of Lomasney’s versatility and inventiveness is the skill with which he dramatically integrates billing requirements with huge luminescent portraits of such idols of the day as Errol Flynn, Sophia Loren, Natalie Wood, Fred Astaire, Gregory Peck, and John Wayne. From Rudolph Valentino to Elvis Presley, Lomasney’s contribution to this exciting art form will be treasured forever.

About the Artist