THE PORTRAIT POSTER

Photo by Sam Tata

Jacob Potashnik, one of the producers of Leonard, Light My Cigarette experimental film, tells the story:

"Emile Pirro was an old man in pretty desperate shape. He was being forced out of his studio in Montreal due to months of back rent and damage that he had caused due to a misguided adventure having to due with him setting up a photo lab.

I ran into him by pure accident and he started showing me his life's work out of the hundreds of boxes in his studio. While going through his stuff I happened upon a box of posters. Emile explained to me that during the  mid-60's his close friend Sam Tata, a well known photographer, had taken some picture portraits of Leonard Cohen. One of these was chosen and Emile had hundreds of posters made up. The reason for making all these posters is no longer clear but Emile told me that they have never been distributed, never been seen and that only one or two ever left his studio.

They are 36 by 24 inches, black and white, with "Leonard Cohen" in type set across the top. They show a very handsome Leonard standing in front of his door. "

We asked Leonard where this photo was shot.

"It's the upper duplex back-door of the house on Rue St. Dominique in Montreal where I used to live. Morton Rosengarten (Krantz in The Favourite Game), my old friend, lived downstairs and now occupies both floors.  We bought the place together around 1970."