Fox Film Corporation -- 20 Years of Progress (Part Three) -- July 1, 2023

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

100 years ago last month, the Fox Film Corporation celebrated "20 Years of Progress." 

Fox paid for a gaudy color section to promote its wares. 

William Fox purchased his first nickelodeon in 1904. He went on to develop a nationwide chain of movie theaters and to found one of the major production companies on the film industry. He overexpanded and lost everything in the Great Depression.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

I wonder what the third sister could not have gotten away with. 

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Swedish director Mauritz Stiller made The Blizzard in America. "And it ain't a fit night out for man or beast!"

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Does it Pay? I don't know, does it? The film is probably lost.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Lambert Hillyer, who directed a lot of westerns, made The Plunderer. This film is also probably lost.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Cameo Kirby was based on a play by Booth Tarkington. John Ford Directed.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Soft Boiled looks unique; it may still survive. The leading lady was Billie Dove. John G Blystone directed.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Most of Fox's famous authors are not famous today. I have read or at least heard of Booth Tarkington, Maurice Maeterlinck, Selma Lagerlöf, Gouverneur Morris and Zane Grey. 

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Shirley Mason was Viola Dana's sister. Fox was trying to change Buck Jones' billing to Charles Jones. I like Buck better.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Some of Fox's "World's Foremost Directors and Scenario Writers" are still well-known, like John Ford and J Gordon Edwards. Note that is only one woman.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Al St John and Clyde Cook had their own series of short comedies. Fox introduced a new line of Imperial Comedies. I like image of the Sphinx being tickled. Egyptian subjects were very popular because of the recent discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

"More Thrills, Prettier Girls, Funnier Gags" Fox Sunshine Comedies frequently featured pretty girls and animals. Fox Educational Entertainments were "Thrilling, amusing, different and yet Informative..." 

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Fox News, later Fox Movietone News, produced newsreels in the United States until 1963. The television network later disgraced the name Fox News. 

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Fox Film Corporation -- 20 Years of Progress (Part Two) -- June 30, 2023

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

100 years ago this month, the Fox Film Corporation celebrated "20 Years of Progress." 

Fox paid for a gaudy color section to promote its wares. 

William Fox purchased his first nickelodeon in 1904. He went on to develop a nationwide chain of movie theaters and to found one of the major production companies on the film industry. He overexpanded and lost everything in the Great Depression.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

I like this lurid ad for Hell's Hole, starring Buck Jones. Emmett J Flynn directed. "A 1924 Cine-Melodrama."

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

"Caught in The Net of Paris Night Life." Sounds like fun. J Gordon Edwards, step-grandfather of Blake Edwards, directed. 

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

No Mother to Guide Her is an interesting title. 

Monna Vanna was a German film, based on a play and opera by Maurice Maeterlinck.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

"An Honest Melodrama." I like the locomotive. 

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

John Ford directed Hoodman Blind, based on a play by Wilson Barrett and Henry Arthur Jones.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

"Popular All-American Cast."

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

The Eleventh Hour sounds like a wild one. Bernard J Durning directed. 

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

"What a Woman Pays for a Career."

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

"The Monster of Hate Conquered by a Woman's Love."

Fox Film Corporation -- 20 Years of Progress (Part One) -- June 29, 2023

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

100 years ago this month, the Fox Film Corporation celebrated "20 Years of Progress." 

Fox paid for a gaudy color section to promote its wares. 

William Fox purchased his first nickelodeon in 1904. He went on to develop a nationwide chain of movie theaters and to found one of the major production companies on the film industry. He overexpanded and lost everything in the Great Depression.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

"The Motion Picture Version/Mightier Than the Book."

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

The Governor's Lady was based on a novel by Alice Bradley and a play produced by David Belasco. Belasco, a native of San Francisco, liked naturalism. For The Governor's Lady, he built a Child's Restaurant onstage and the actors prepared food in the kitchen. 

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Great image. Notice that Bela Lugosi played a supporting role. 

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

John Ford directed Tom Mix in North of Hudson Bay. Dig that sweater. 

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Gentle Julia starring Bessie Love, was based on a novel by Booth Tarkington.

 

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

"Mr Gallagher and Mr Shean -- First Appearance in Pictures." Ed Gallagher and Al Shean were a vaudeville comedy team. Al Shean was the Marx Brothers' uncle. Their mother Minnie was his sister.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

"Old King Tut would marvel at The Shepherd King. Egyptian subjects were very popular because of the recent discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

The Shadow of the East was based on a novel by EM Hull, the man who wrote The Sheik.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

Six Cylinder Love was based on a play by William Anthony McGuire. Ernest Truex starred in the play on Broadway and then in the movie.

Motion Picture News, 30-June-1923

The Temple of Venus shot partially in Santa Cruz, California, was to star Jean Arthur (very young) and Phyllis Havers. Jean Arthur was replaced by Mary Philbin early in the shooting.

Bound for Glory -- September 7, 2020

www.listal.com

In honor of Labor Day, here is Bound for Glory, a 1976 biopic about Woody Guthrie. Hal Ashby directed and David Carradine played Woody. Most of the events in the movie are fictional but they reflect his real interest in social justice and helping migrant workers, who were mostly fellow Okies. Of course, the music is the best part.  

The Grapes of Wrath -- September 4, 2017

www.listal.com

John Steinbeck's novel about migrant workers fleeing the Dust Bowl, The Grapes of Wrath, was a big hit in 1939.  The next year, Darryl F Zanuck produced a movie version at 20th Century-Fox.  John Ford directed and Henry Fonda gave the greatest performance of his career.  The Joad family faced injustice and oppression, but kept moving west.  The New Deal camp was the place where they got treated like human beings.

"I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build - I'll be there, too."

Shirley Temple and Sid Caesar, RIP -- February 13, 2014

Shirley Temple started acting in movies when she was three.  Many people say that she gave them hope during the Great Depression.   I like her work for Fox, and her work when she got older.  I always cry during Since You Went Away.  She didn't help Graham Greene's career as a film critic.  The photo of Shirley Temple, Claudette Colbert and Jennifer Jones is from the wonderful site LucyWho (http://www.lucywho.com).

After she retired from the movies, she married a PG&E executive and went into politics, although she lost her one run for Congress.  She served as a UN representative and was ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. She died at her home in Woodside, down the peninsula from San Francisco.

When I was young I knew Sid Caesar from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.  Later, I read about then saw Ten From Your Show of Shows, a collection of kinescopes from his great television show.  I enjoyed it.  I began to learn about all the famous people who had written for the show, like Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, and Mel Tolkin.  He burned out from the pressure of live television and wasn't seen much while I was growing up.  When Caesar became sober, I saw him in more movies, like Silent Movie.  The photo of Sid Caesar and frequent co-star Imogene Coca is also from the wonderful site LucyWho (http://www.lucywho.com).