Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Carole Lombard 75 Years -- January 17, 2017

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75 years ago yesterday, on 16-January-1942, beautiful and funny actress Carole Lombard, who had been in Indiana selling war bonds, boarded a Transcontinental and Western Air Douglas Sleeper Transport, a close relative of the DC-3, to return to Hollywood.  The airplane crashed into a mountain in Nevada, killing everyone aboard, including Carole Lombard and her mother.

 She started out appearing in silent comedies for Mack Sennett, floundered around a bit during the talkie transition, and then became a big star, appearing in many favorites including My Man Godfrey, Nothing Sacred, Twentieth Century and To Be Or Not To Be.  She had a special knack for screwball comedies. 

Lombard had been married to William Powell, and was married to Clark Gable.  Both men were shattered.

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Saturday, January 14, 2017

Tom Mix Signs With Fox -- January 14, 2017

Moving Picture World, 13-January-1917

Tom Mix was the biggest cowboy star in silent movies. He and his horse Tony had many adventures in Selig Polyscope Company and later Fox films.This item from the 13-January-1917 Moving Picture World announces his signing with Fox.  "He will produce for Fox the same type of western features which made him so popular with Selig Company."  Leading lady Victoria Forde was his fourth wife. 

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

DVD: Accidentally Preserved, Volume 4 -- January 10, 2017



They're at it again.  Famous film accompanist Ben Model has produced a fourth volume of the Accidentally Preserved series.  This time, Model dug into his collection of old 9.5mm prints, which were made for the home rental or purchase market. Most of the movies in this collection only exist in old home use prints.  Naturally he also created the musical scores.  Volumes 1, 2 and 3 of Accidentally Preserved used 16mm prints.

The DVD begins with a brief text introduction to 9.5mm films.  Pathé introduced the format in 1922.  The films, printed on safety stock, were eventually distributed across Europe, in the UK and the United States.  16mm was more popular in the US.  Pathé subsidiaries continued to sell and rent 9.5mm films until around 1960.


The US subsidiary was called Pathex.

The first movie in the set was "Nonsense," a 1920 Mermaid Comdies two-reeler, directed by Jack White and released by Educational.  It starred Jimmie Adams and Sid Smith as two farmhands who competed for the attention of Marvel Rea, the beautiful niece of the farmer.  The unidentified bad guy calls her "Mary Hickford" in one intertitle.  There was little plot, but there were lots of gags and it moved right along.

Exhibitors Herald, 07-May-1921
This movie was released in both two and one-reel versions in 9.5mm.

The Ninety and Nine was a 1922 Vitagraph feature based on the popular 1902 melodrama by Ramsay Morris.  The greatly abridged 9.5mm version dashes through bits of the story to get to the huge forest fire scene.  Warner Baxter is the hero and Colleen Moore with long hair is the leading lady.  The town simpleton looks like Harpo Marx.

The locomotive used to make the dash through the fire has the railroad name on the side of the cab painted over and the number of the locomotive, 1379, is mostly obscured.  The locomotive should have been numbered 99.

Exhibitors Herald, 19-May-1923
The Ninety and Nine was a major production and exhibitors used a variety of tricks to promote it, including an automobile disguised as a locomotive.

Bobby Ray starred in "Meet Father," an Arrow film, in 1924.  It also stars Josephine the Monkey from The Navigator and Pete the Dog from Our Gang.  Bobby loves a girl whose father wants her to marry a tough boxer.  Bobby is absent-minded and not tough.  He carefully studies a book on fighting.  Bobby uses his little car to chase the boxer over a famous cliff in the Pacific Pallisades.

"The Wages of Tin" is a 1925 Hal Roach two-reel comedy starring Glenn Tryon.  The 9.5mm version is one reel.  Glenn reads a book on how to operate an automobile.  He rents a Model T Ford to impress Blanche Mehaffy.  Things don't go well.  The intertitles must be from a UK version.  "That'll be another two quid."  "I say, can I write you a cheque?"

Mae Marsh stars in a two-reel cut-down of a Vitagraph feature, Tides of Passion.  Her husband is a louse.  He ships out for India and forgets her.  He fools around with other women and falls overboard on the way back.  He gets the woman who rescues him, Laska Winter or Winter Blossom, pregnant.  He dies.  Mae Marsh tries to help with the baby, but the mother gets jealous.  There is a nice rescue from the rocks when she tries to commit suicide.  It goes by quickly.

Photoplay, July, 1925
Photoplay said the feature version was slow.  The abridgement may have been an improvement.

"A Man's Size Pet" starred cowboys Ben Corbett and Pee Wee Holmes as a pair of rivals who played tit for tat in the west.  There is a bear and a guy in a bear suit.  Leading lady Dorothy Kitchen, also known as Nancy Drexel, was really cute.

Pathescope 9.5mm Sound, 1956-7
This movie was listed in the Pathescope 1956-1957 catalogue.

"Walter's Paying Policy" was a 1926 British short starring Walter Forde, who had elements of Harold Lloyd in his style.  Walter and his rival worked for Busy Bee Insurance (You Won't Get Stung) and needed to sell a policy to the owner of a famous vase to get a big promotion.  It was funny.

The Fleischer Brothers, known for their animated cartoons, also made live action movies, like the Carrie of the Chorus series, in the 1920s.  "Morning, Judge" starred former chorus girl Peggy Shaw as a chorus girl who gets involved in problem with small-town prudes.  It was cute.

Moving Picture World, 04-September-1926

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Peggy Shaw was also cute.

Update 26-January-2017.  Ben Model reports that the movie was not "Morning Judge" but "Chicken Cooped."  

Ben Model's music was great.

I highly recommend the dvd.  

Volume One:
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/2014/01/dvd-accidentally-preserved-january-27.html

Volume Two:
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/2014/03/dvd-accidentally-preserved-volume-2.html

Volume Three:
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/2016/01/dvd-accidentally-preserved-volume-3.html







Sunday, January 8, 2017

Wife Tamers -- January 8, 2017


Film Daily, 22-March-1926

Lionel Barrymore and producer Hal Roach were going through a hard patch when Roach featured Barrymore with comic Clyde Cook in "Wife Tamers" with Gertrude Astor as Barrymore's wife.

A note at the bottom of this ad says that it is a cornerblock provided to theaters to use in newspaper advertising.

www.imdb.com

Friday, January 6, 2017

Do You Know This Man? -- January 6, 2017

Moving Picture News, 06-January-1917
Snub Pollard was born in Australia.  He supported Harold Lloyd in most of his early movies.  Later, producer Hal Roach gave Pollard his own series, where he frequently performed with Marie Mosquini. I always liked Snub's mustache. 

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Grauman's Chinese -- Jeanette MacDonald -- January 3, 2017


In July, 2012 we paid a return visit to Hollywood and Grauman's Chinese Theater.  Sid Grauman was a San Francisco showman who came to Los Angeles and built three major houses, the Million Dollar, the Egyptian, and the Chinese. The theater has hosted many film premieres, but is most famous for the hand and footprints (and hoofprints and nose prints and other types of prints) in the forecourt.

Red headed singer and actress Jeanette MacDonald left her hand and footprints and wishes to Sid Grauman for continued success on this slab on 04-December-1934 (DSC_0029).  Jeanette MacDonald starred in several wonderful films with Maurice Chevalier and in one of my all-around favorites, San Francisco with Clark Gable.


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Sunday, January 1, 2017

Three Years -- January 1, 2017

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I launched this blog three years ago today, on 01-January-2014.  I split it from my other blog, The Pneumatic Rolling-Sphere Carrier Delusion.

In 2016, I participated in five blogathons:
The Second Annual Buster Keaton Blogathon
Buster Keaton and the Passing Show of 1917
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/2016/02/buster-keaton-and-passing-show-of-1917.html 

The Classic Movie Ice Cream Social Blogathon
The Illusion of Motion
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-illusion-of-motion-may-20-2016.html

The Olivia de Havilland Centenary Blogathon
Olivia de Havilland on the Air
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/2016/07/olivia-de-haviland-on-air-july-1-2016.html  


The Classic Movie History Project Blogathon 
Movie Theaters in the Teens 
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/2016/08/movie-theaters-in-teens-august-5-2016.html 


The At the Circus Blogathon 
Charlie Chaplin and the Flea Circus
https://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/2016/11/charlie-chaplin-and-flea-circus.html  


In January I wrote about The Marcel Perez Collection and Accidentally Preserved, Volume 3, DVDs from Undercrank Productions.  I wrote about the dvd of Sherlock Holmes with William Gillette. 

We observed Faye Dunaway and Jessica Walters' 75th birthdays.   

We observed the 100th anniversary of the death of Arthur Johnson, who had appeared in the first movie directed by DW Griffith.  

Alan Rickman, Haskell Wexler, Vilmos Zsigmond all died around the same day.   Abe Vigoda died. 

In March, I decided to cut on my posts again.  I stopped several monthly series.  We observed the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising. 

We celebrated the 75th birthday of Wolfgang Petersen.  We celebrated the 100th birthdays of Mercedes McCambridge and Sterling Hayden.  

George Kennedy and Patty Duke died.

We observed the 125th birthday of Sam Jaffee.

In April we marked the 125h birthdays of Colonel Tim McCoy and Wallace Reid, the 100th birthday of Gregory Peck and the 75th birthdaya of Julie Christie and Ann-Margaret.  

In May I reached the of the News of the Week as Shown in Films series, which stopped running in Motography magazine in May, 1916. We marked the 75th anniversary of the release of Citizen Kane.  I finished the Iconic City Hall series because I never found number 6 of 6.  We marked the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland. 

We  celebrated the 75th birthday of actress Senta Berger.

In June, we marked the 100th anniversary of the drowning of actor Page Peters. 

In June, the Greatest of All Time, Muhammed Ali died. 

We marked composer Cole Porter's 125th birthday.

In July, we celebrated the 100th birthday of Olivia de Haviland, who is still alive.  We marked the 125th birthday of Blossom Seeley. 

Noel Neill and Garry Marshall died.

In August we visited the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. 

In August, Gloria DeHaven and Fyvush Finkel died.  Even worse, Gene Wilder died.

In September, I started a new weekly series, The Best Show in Town, based on a group of art displays on Market Street.  We celebrated the 100th birthday of the National Park Service.  I spoke to kids at Good Shepherd School in Pacifica about the current DAR essay contest, which was inspired by the anniversary.

I neglected to write about the 100th anniversary of the release of Intolerance.  

In October I finished the short series, The Best Show in Town. 

In October Vin Scully retired after broadcasting Dodgers games for 68 seasons.

Andrzej Wajda and Pierre Étaix died.

In November, we marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Jack London. 

In November, Robert Vaughn, Lupita Tovar and Florence Henderson died.   Lupita Tovar was 106 years old.

After Donald Trump won the presidential election, I thought about doing a post on The Manchurian Candidate, because of Putin's efforts to help Trump win the election.  I was too depressed.  

In December, we marked the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.


We celebrated the 100th birthday of Kirk Douglas, who is still alive.  We also celebrated the 100th birthdays of Betty Grable.  

John Glenn, Michèle Morgan and Zsa Zsa Gabor died.  Carrie Fisher died one day and her mother Debbie Reynolds died the next.  

The image shows actress Polly Walters, who appeared in small parts in many movies.