Packard Campus Film Identification Workshop

SILENT FILM ARCHAEOLOGY:
A Packard Campus Film Identification Workshop

The staff of the Moving Image Section of the Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation will host SILENT FILM ARCHAEOLOGY: A Packard Campus Film Identification Workshop, during June 14-16, 2012. The workshop will include unidentified films from other film preservation archives in addition to those from the Library’s collection.

NOTE: Due to resource limitations, participation in this workshop in 2012 will be limited to film archivists and historians actively engaged in film preservation activities and research efforts devoted to American produced films of the silent era. No support will be provided by the Library of Congress for travel, lodging, meals, local transportation or other expenses incurred by participants.

SILENT FILM ARCHAEOLOGY: A Packard Campus Film Identification Workshop will be a three day event and take place at the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation, Culpeper, Virginia, during June 14-16, 2012. The majority of the films presented will be “silents” but will not be shown in silence. Phil Carli, Ben Model and Andrew Simpson will provide musical accompaniment. In addition to full days of workshop screenings, there will be evening public screenings of recent restorations the titles of which will be announced at a later date.

A recently completed study by David Pierce, now being prepared for publication by the Library of Congress, confirms what film archivists have long suspected---that 76% of all U.S. feature films produced between 1912 and 1930 no longer survive, or exist only in fragments in non-US film archives. In spite of this sobering statistic, it is known that most US film archives hold considerable amounts of both “unidentified” and “inadequately identified” films and film fragments from the silent era. The SILENT FILM ARCHAEOLOGY: A Packard Campus Film Identification Workshop will bring together practicing film archivists and researchers in an informal atmosphere for the purpose of screening 35mm prints and sharing comments and opinions, with the expectation that a significant number of the puzzles among the Library’s collection of unidentified and poorly identified films will be solved. Some film elements with sound tracks may also be screened.

It is hoped that this important film research and discovery effort will become a regularly scheduled Packard Campus activity, in service to the community of film preservationists, and that it can be expanded in the future to include all under-investigated areas of creative and technological achievement in the history of US motion pictures.

Prior registration is required and no reservations will be accepted after May 18, 2012. For more information, or to request a registration form contact: Rob Stone, Moving Image Curator at rsto@loc.gov. All registrants will receive additional information on schedule, housing and directions.

Unidentified Films Identity Revealed

I toil at a job that in grinding and very, very tough.... okay, actually I have one of the coolest jobs in the world. As an example of that fact I spent much of the week between the holidays winding through unidentified nitrate film. For those of you that are not cinegoons that would be like spending a week in Bermuda lounging on the beach.... gee, maybe I could wind through nitrate on the beach!? So, anyhow, I was able to identify some things and those are highlighted below. The rest I was able to take some frame grabs and note other information. Those films will be featured on the Nitrate Film Interest Group's Flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nfig/.

MISS NOBODY (Federated, 1920) with Billie Rhodes.  One reel only of a feature.  Library of Congress had this cataloged as UNIDENTIFIED MISCELLANEOUS #27 [how about that for a helpful title!].

MISS NOBODY (Federated, 1920)

MISS NOBODY (Federated, 1920)

MISS NOBODY (Federated, 1920)

SUITOR'S COMPETITION (Pathe, 1909).  LC had it as UNIDENTIFIED CROMWELL NO02: MAUD'S SUITOR.

SUITOR'S COMPETITION (Pathe, 1909)

SUITOR'S COMPETITION (Pathe, 1909)

SUITOR'S COMPETITION (Pathe, 1909)

SUITOR'S COMPETITION (Pathe, 1909)

SUITOR'S COMPETITION (Pathe, 1909)

THE CAT'S WHISKERS (Universal-Bluebird, 1925) with Neely Edwards and Thelma Hill.  We had this as UNIDENTIFIED HANSEN NO02: UNIVERSAL COMEDY.

THE CAT'S WHISKERS (Universal-Bluebird, 1925)

THE CAT'S WHISKERS (Universal-Bluebird, 1925)

THE CAT'S WHISKERS (Universal-Bluebird, 1925)

THE CAT'S WHISKERS (Universal-Bluebird, 1925)

THE CAT'S WHISKERS (Universal-Bluebird, 1925)

THE CAT'S WHISKERS (Universal-Bluebird, 1925)

UNITED STATES SMITH (Gotham, 1928) with Eddie Gribbon.  The Library of Congress had this one cataloged as UNIDENTIED BLACKHAWK SERVICE COMEDY.  We only have one reel of the feature, seems to be around reel 2. 

UNITED STATES SMITH (Gotham, 1928)

 

 

 

Heinie and Louie update

Here is some more information concerning a post I made back in December. This comes from Steve Massa and was originally posted on the silentcomedymafia.com site:

Hi Rob
Just found some info to go along with your blog entry on the Mittenthal "Heinie & Louie" series where you mention that Walter Kendig (Louie) died in October of 1915 but the series sailed on.

The shorts continued until early 1917 so there could have been a number of Louie "replacements." Mittenthal and Pathe seems to have tried to keep the Q.T. on the whole thing as only Jimmy Aubrey is billed in the Pathe Bulletins from 1916 on. Anyway, I came across this entry in the 10/21/1916 Motion Picture News Studio Directory:

"Redmond, Elmer E., comedian; b. Pittsburgh, May 5, 1887; educ. Pittsburgh; stage career, vaud. 5 yrs. as "Redmond and Smith" and "Starkey and Redmond," also in stock and in prods. of "Just Like John, " "Get-Rich-Quick-Wallingford," "Searchlights," "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," "School Days," "Panhandle Pete," etc.; screen career, Solax, 1 yr. with Eclair as comedian and asst. director, Famous ("Spitfire," etc.), Pathe (Louie in "Heinie and Louie" comedies). Hght., 5 ft. 4 in., wght., 124; dark brown hair, brown eyes. Ad., Screen Club, N.Y.C."

Haven't found any other trace of info on Mr. Redmond yet, but will check at Library when I go to work tomorrow.
Steve

More Educational Pressbooks

Here are another batch of pressbooks, enjoy:

Juvenile Comedies

While viewing an early Juvenile Comedy, ABOUT FACE (1924), a comment was made that the ones featuring "Big Boy" were much more enjoyable. Leaving that argument aside I give to you a few pressbooks of  "Big Boy" / Juvenile Comedies: