Promo - worth $80,000 alone - was followed by 16 more Golden Age items

Sons were pulling up linoleum floor when they found 1932 Tarzan poster

Robert Basta and his sons Bob and Dylan found stash at their new home

A father and son found a stash of vintage Hollywood posters worth $240,000 pulling up the flooring in their new home.

Robert Basta, 56, and his two sons Bob and Dylan stumbled on a stash of 17 movie theater posters while renovating their home in southern Pennsylvania.

They feature stars like Clarke Gable, Maureen O'Sullivan and Laurel and Hardy at the peak of their careers.

Classic: This poster, valued at $80,000, is the only example of this style of promo image of the 1932 Tarzan the Ape Man film starring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan

Funny discovery: The Basta family also pulled up a promo for Any Old Port, a Laurel and Hardy short also from 1932

Unique: This poster for 1932's Red Headed Woman, starring Jean Harlow, is thought to be one of only third of its kind. The screenplay is by Great Gatsby author F. Scott Fitzgerald

A star is born: This 1940 poster for Sporting Blood is promoting Clarke Gable's first ever starring role

The stash had apparently been hidden under linoleum tiling in a back room by a previous occupant to protect the home's wooden floorboards.

But now, more than 80 years after some of the films premiered, the perfectly-preserved sheets are worth a tremendous amount of money.

Five of the prints - including one advertising 1932's Tarzan the Ape Man - is thought to be the only surviving example of its kind. The Tarzan posted is thought to be worth some $80,000 by itself.

Tinseltown classic: This poster for 1932 film Blonde of the Follies shows stars Billie Dove, Marion Davies and Jimmy Durante in the

Lucky find: Mr Basta's sons were ripping up flooring when they uncovered the posters. Pictured is a second Blonde of the Follies poster from the cache

Horror flick: Another of the posters advertises Doctor X, also from 1932, which follows a reporter investigating cannibalism

The Basta family found the posters underneath the flooring of an upstairs room which was part-way through being converted.

Dylan Basta, 22, had been asked to remove pull the floor up by his father to earn some extra money - and ended up stumbling on significantly more cash than he bargained for.

He sent his father a text saying 'Look what I've found', accompanied by a picture of his brother with the scrap of Tinseltown history.

After researching the full collection, the family realized how valuable the find was and contacted auctioneers, who have organized a sale of the posters this week.

The cache also contains the only known copies of posters from Sporting Blood, the 1931 film that gave Clark Gable his first starring role, and 1932 films Tess of the Storm Country, Congorilla and the Laurel and Hardy short Any Old Port.

Action film: This thriller, Congroilla, is another fruit of the 1932 season stashed under the Pennsylvania home's flooring

Western: Universal's A Rider of Death Valley, again from 1932, also featured in the treasure trove

Other highlights include a poster for MGM's 1932 bad-girl classic Red Headed Woman, one of only three known to exist, which is expected to sell for more than $30,000.

It is thought the posters belonged to a local artist who did work for his local movie theater. Mr Basta declined to say what town his house is in.

Mr Basta bought the six-bedroom house, built in the late 1800s, at a knock-down price in an auction because it was in very poor condition, and is his first unexpected find of a lifetime in the construction industry.

If he gets the full amount of money from the sale, Mr Basta plans to retire to the Philippines and open a restaurant.

Older: This image shows a scene from 1929's The Long Long Trail, starring Hoot Gibson as The Ramblin' Kid

Showtunes: The Dance of Life, an adaptation of the Broadway show Burlesque, is another 1929 film in the collection

He said: 'I have been in the construction industry all my life and have bought many houses to renovate.

'You always dream of coming across something valuable hidden in a closet or under the floorboards but it had never happened - until now.

'I had noticed there was newspaper from 1946 under the old lino of a small upstairs room that I was going to turn into a utility room, but I hadn't got round to talking the floor up.

'I was away on work recently and my son Dylan was home from college and wanted to earn some cash so I got him to rip up the lino, but I told him to save the newspaper in case it was interesting.

'I knew they were nice but I had no idea of their value until we put them into an internet search engine. We couldn't believe movie posters were so valuable.

Romance: This 1932 poster advertises Tess of the Storm Country, a remade silent movie

'I'm a simple man - I own my house but I don't have a pension and at some point soon I'll want to retire. The money from this sale will be life-changing.'

Grey Smith, director of posters at Heritage Auctions, who are conducting the sale, said: 'This discovery is quite simply a one-of-a-kind, never-before-seen-piece of Hollywood history.

'The posters all date from the late 1920s to the early 1930s. They are rarely seen and are in fantastic condition. They restore several missing chapters of Hollywood history.

'The highlight is the Tarzan the Ape Man poster - it's the only one-sheet poster in the world that pictures Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan as they appear in the film.

'The Red Headed Woman poster is only the third known poster of its kind in the world.

'Little did the Bastas know they were standing on a small fortune.

'This discovery should have people who own older homes running to peak under their floors to see what they might find there.'