First Pictures Out of Russia in Two Years -- July 12, 2023

Motion Picture News, 07-July-1923

Fox released "Red Russia Revealed," a two-reeler using footage shot in the USSR. "The Issues of a Military Despotism." "A Panic Stricken Country Under Red Rule." Blood drips from the hand that holds cards with photos of Lenin, Trotsky and "Kalenin" (Mikhail Kalinin). "Soldiers Forcing Priests at the Points of Bayonets to Search Gravel for Gold." "150,000,000 People Fighting the Wolf of Famine." "The Iron Heel Crushing a Nation." I wonder if the producers were for or against.

Motion Picture News, 07-July-1923

Motion Picture News, 14-July-1923

Look at the tongue on that wolf.

Are You Booked? -- June 7, 2019

Moving Picture World, 07-June-1919

The Red Scare went on in the United States after the successful Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and other revolutionary but unsuccessful movements such as the Bavarian Soviet Republic. Bolshevism on Trial was "A box office winner. A patronage builder. An all-round success."

Moving Picture World, 21-June-1919

An interesting variety of theaters, theater chains and circuits were happy with the results.

Americanism Versus Bolshevism -- May 9, 2019

Moving Picture World, 17-May-1919

This colorful ad reflects the Red Scare which went on after the successful Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and other revolutionary but unsuccessful movements such as the Bavarian Soviet Republic. Prolific producer Thomas Ince was preparing Americanism Versus Bolshevism, a story of young Americans falling under the influence of Communists and Anarchists.  Movies and common people often got the two mixed up.  The movie was released as Dangerous Hours.

Moving Picture World, 03-May-1919

Bolshevism on Trial was based on a novel by Thomas Dixon, who also wrote the books on which The Birth of a Nation was based. "Bolshevism held up to the world a mask of idealism...But what has been seen to lie behind the mask?"

Moving Picture World, 17-May-1919

The creature in the second page looks like Trotsky.

Bolshevism on Trial -- April 7, 2019

Moving Picture World, 05-April-1919

This colorful ad reflects the Red Scare which went on after the successful Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and other revolutionary but unsuccessful movements such as the Bavarian Soviet Republic. Bolshevism on Trial was based on a novel by Thomas Dixon, who also wrote the books on which The Birth of a Nation was based.

Three Hearty Laughs, Two Snickers and One Chuckle to Each Minute -- March 25, 2019

Moving Picture World, 15-March-1919

100 years ago this month, this trade ad showed Harold Lloyd and his leading lady Bebe Daniels.

Moving Picture World, 01-March-1919

"One a week beginning March 9th."

Moving Picture World, 15-March-1919

I don't say this very often, but I have no idea what this caption means.

Moving Picture World, 22-March-1919

"Look Out Below" was Harold Lloyd's first thrill picture.

Moving Picture World, 15-March-1919

This is the first time I have seen the phrase "breath-retarding."

Moving Picture World, 22-March-1919

Harold and Bebe pose in the snow.

Moving Picture World, 22-March-1919

President Wilson returned from the peace conference aboard the USS George Washington.  He watched several movies, including five with Harold Lloyd and company.

Moving Picture World, 29-March-1919

"One reel comedy every week."

Moving Picture World, 29-March-1919

We don't see the term "dry goods store" much nowadays.  Think department store.

Moving Picture World, 29-March-1919

"A Sammy in Siberia" was set during the Allied intervention in Siberia during the Russian Civil War.

Moving Picture World, 22-March-1919

The Rolin Studio was in the Bradbury Mansion, on Bunker Hill.  The best way to get there was by riding the funicular Court Flight.

A circa-1930 view of Court Flight, showing the sandwich shop which provided additional revenue to the line. Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Archive (c) 2004, Title Insurance and Trust / C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, 1860-1960, CHS-M8486. All rights reserved.

Dachshund Gets Licked by Three Allied Pups -- October 21, 2018

Moving Picture World, 26-October-1918

Henry (Pathé) Lehrman started out at Biograph, then went to Keystone with Mack Sennett, then left Sennett to found L-KO (Lehrman Knock-Out) Komedies. He left L-KO to produce Sunshine Comedies for Fox. Sunshine Comedies frequently featured pretty girls and lions.  "Mongrels" had no lions or pretty girls, just dogs.  The story of a German dachshund attacking a French poodle, who gets rescued by a British bulldog and an American terrier, was an allegory of the war.

Moving Picture World, 26-October-1918

"A dachshund, wearing a Hun helmet, comes along, crosses the line and attacks the poodle."

Moving Picture World, 05-October-1918

Bud Fisher's Mutt and Jeff was the most popular comic strip in America for many years. Augustus Mutt and Jeff had many timely adventures. The cartoon in this ad, "Bulling the Bolsheviki," has the boys in Russian during the revolution.  The ad also promotes Fox Sunshine Comedies.

Moving Picture World, 26-October-1918

I have never seen the term "bomb inhalers" before.

October: Ten Days That Shook the World -- November 7, 2017

www.listal.com

Today is the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.  I know that today is November, but in Russia, where they were still using the Julian calendar, it was 25-October-1917.  John Reed, an American journalist with radical tendencies was there.  After he returned to America and fought the government to get the papers he had brought with him, he wrote a book that he called Ten Days That Shook the World.  The book was a great success.  Vladimir I Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks, read the book and liked it.  He wrote an introduction for later editions.

Grigori Aleksandrov and Sergei Eisenstein made a movie called October to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the revolution.  When the film was recut and release internationally, it was  titled October: Ten Days That Shook the World.  The film took little from the book except the title.

I saw the film years ago and fouond it exciting, especially the storming of the Winter Palace. 

The Russian Revolution -- September 29, 2017

Moving Picture World, 08-September-1917

The Russian Revolution was a hot topic by September, 1917.  Czar Nicholas II and his family were already dead, but most people didn't know that.  Some years ago I worked with an older man who had grown up in the Soviet Union.  He was surprised that I remembered when Alexander Kerensky had died.  He said they called Kerensky something like "The man of five minutes." 

Herbert Brenon's The Fall of the Romanoffs (sic - JT)  featured a Russian clergyman called Iliodor, who wrote a book about Rasputin.  His real name was Sergei Mikhailovich Trufanov. 

Moving Picture World, 08-September-1917

 I'll bet the movie required some reshooting because of current events. 

Moving Picture World, 15-September-1917

Among the characters in this ad is Kaiser Wilhelm II, a cousin of Czar Nicholas. 

Moving Picture World, 22-September-1917

The review by Edward Weitzel says that the movie reflected "the swift onrush of events" and that Iliodor "was surprisingly excellent before the camera." 

Moving Picture World, 29-September-1917

This two-page spread is flanked by Czar Nicholas and Kaiser Wilhelm. 

Moving Picture World, 01-September-1917

"The only official motion pictures of the Great Russian Revolution." 

Moving Picture World, 08-September-1917

"Presented by the Skobeleff Committee for the relief of Russian Wounded and Disabled Soldiers."  I have not been able to learn anything about the committee. 

Moving Picture World, 29-September-1917

"joined the advancing hosts of democracy" -- didn't work out. 

The Fall of the Romanoffs -- July 17, 2017

Moving Picture World, 30-June-1917

100 years ago, on 17-July-2017, Bolshevik revolutionaries murdered the Russian imperial family, who were imprisoned in Yekaterinburg.  The Soviets did not admit the whole family was dead for another eight years, and many people were convinced that the youngest daughter, Anastasia, had escaped.  She didn't.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for the Romanovs, but no one deserves to die that way.  

Herbert Brenon's The Fall of the Romanoffs (sic - JT)  featured a Russian clergyman called Iliodor, who wrote a book about Rasputin.  His real name was Sergei Mikhailovich Trufanov.