Clara Bow #13 -- February 28, 2014

Red haired Clara Bow was probably the most popular silent actress after Mary Pickford. In this item from the December, 1928 Moving Picture World, Clara displays some of her 33,000 monthly fan letters.  I like her expression. 

Zoetrope -- 27-February-2014

From The Young Folk's Cyclopædia of Games and Sports by John Denison Champlin and Arthur Elmore Bostwick, 1890. Several times when I was young I took a book out of the Anza Branch Library that explained how movies work.  I can't remember the title.  I tried to make several of the devices in the section on early moving picture devices.  The zoetrope was harder than the thaumatrope.  I finally produced a good zoetrope for a college class that combined science and humanities. 

ZOETROPE.  A toy by which a succession of figures in different attitudes are made to appear like a single one in motion.  The simplest form of the toy consists of two disks fastened on the same axis, six or eight inches apart, so that they will turn on it together.  The figures are arranged on one, as shown in Fig. 1, and in the other are a number of slits equal to that of the figures.  The figures represent some action at successive instants ; thus, in the first picture the man has his bow drawn to one side ; in the next it is pushed a little farther along, and so on.  If any one look through the slits while the discs are turned, and direct his attention to any one spot, he will see a different picture in that spot every time a new slit comes in front of his eye, and he will not see one picture moving away from the spot and another coming up, because the pasteboard between the slits then comes between.  Thus he will see in the same place a succession of momentary pictures, each in a slightly different posture, and it will seem to him as though he saw the man playing the bass viol.  In this way an endless variety of movements may be counterfeited. 

The disk bearing the figures is often made a little smaller than the one with the slits, and fastened with it on the axis at the same point (see Fig. 2). The observer then looks through the slits at a mirror, and the effect is the same as before.  The zoetrope in this shape is more easy to manage.  Another form is a round box, open at the top, which revolves on an upright stand (Fig. 3).  The figures are on strips of paper which fit around the inside of the box, and the slits are vertical ones in the edge. 
Six such slips are shown in Fig. 4.  The observer looks through the slits toward the figures on the opposite side of the box.  The effect is the same as before, though in this case the figures and slits are moving in opposite directions.  An arrangement has been devised by a Frenchman for showing the zoetrope to a large audience with the aid of the MAGIC LANTERN.  The word zoetrope is from the Greek zoe, life, and trepein, to turn.  The toy is also called the Magic Wheel and the Zoöpraxiscope, from the Greek zoe, life, praxis, action, and skopein, to see. 

Jeffries-Johnson and Gotch-Zbysko -- February 26. 2014

This page from the 09-July-1910 Moving Picture World has ads for two kinds of fight films.  The Frank Gotch-Stanislaus Zbysko professional wrestling match on 01-June-1910 for the world heavyweight championship saw Gotch win the first fall in less than ten seconds (he attacked Zbysko during the handshake), and the second in 30 minutes.  This was before professional wrestling matches were scripted.  The film was produced by the Selig Polyscope company. 

James J Jeffries had been heavyweight boxing champion from 1899 to 1905, when he retired undefeated.  He came back in 1910 to answer the pleas of racists who did not like Jack Johnson, an African-American, being heavyweight champ.  They met in Reno, Nevada on 04-July-1910.  Johnson dominated the fight for 15 rounds.  Jeffries' corner threw in the towel so he would not get knocked out. 

The ad promises exclusive film rights, but many cities and states, fearing racial unrest, banned the film.  In 1912, Congress banned interstate transportation of fight films. 

The Jeffries-Johnson film is available in several versions on YouTube. 

Jim Jeffries settled in Burbank, where he trained boxers and promoted fights in an old barn.  The fights were popular with people in the film industry.  The barn is now at Knott's Berry Farm. 

Grauman's Chinese #35 -- February 25, 2014

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.

Joan Crawford left her hand and footprints in the forecourt on 14-September-1929.  Among the movies in which she appeared that year was Our Modern Maidens.  (31/DSC_0050.JPG)

Victor Fleming 125 -- February 24, 2014

Director Victor Fleming was born 125 years ago yesterday, on 23-February-1889.  Although his contemporaries knew him as a director of movies like The Virginian with Gary Cooper and Walter Huston and Red Dust with Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and Mary Astor, his best-remembered movies today were both released in 1939 and were both taken over from other directors, The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind. 

Fleming served in the US Army Signal Corps during World War One.  When President Woodrow Wilson came to Versailles for the treaty negotiations, Fleming was his primary photographer. 

The Squaw Man 100 -- February 23, 2014

Be sure to click on the images to see larger versions. 

100 years ago today, despite what it says in this ad from the 24-January-1914 Moving Picture World, The Squaw Man premiered.  This feature was the first production of the Jesse L Lasky Feature Play Company, and the first movie directed by famous director Cecil B DeMille.  As the ad says, DeMille had a co-director: "The six reels of quivering action and cyclonic climaxes are now being produced in the exact locale of the play by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel."  The Jesse L Lasky Feature Play Company, a precursor to Paramount, had the humble slogan "But one production a month -- and that a masterpiece." 

This item, from the 31-January-1914 Moving Picture World, purports to show "one of the first 'stills' sent East from the Jesse L. Lasky studio at Hollywood, California." 

I like the design of this ad, from the 31-January-1914 Moving Picture World.  It offers states rights and world rights for the movie. 

This ad, from the 07-February-1914 Moving Picture World, touts:
-- America's Most Gripping Drama
-- The Stage's Most Popular Actor
-- The Best Cast Ever Assembled
-- Staged By Two Master Craftsmen
-- Produced by the World's Most Artistic Producer

"Every Detail Spells Class"

"The Pulsing Achievement of Dramatic Art."  From the 14-February-1914 Moving Picture World.  Note the lists of sold and still-unsold territories. 

One of the distributors from the previous ad, took its own ad in the same issue.  The William L Sherry Feature Film Company had secured the New York State rights to The Squaw Man and other production of the  Jesse L Lasky Feature Play Company, along with the Famous Players Film Company, another predecessor of Paramount. 

Louis Reeves Harrison wrote a review of the movie in the 21-February-1914 Moving Picture World.  I don't think DeMille would have appreciated this: "I have not seen Oscar Apfel's name made prominent in connection with this winner, but I recognize his handiwork without difficulty.  Cecil DeMille, I am told, put his heart and soul into making 'The Squaw Man' an unqualified success, but his unbounded enthusiasm could only act as a support to the unhampered skill and decided native ability of the active director." 

The same issue carried an ad saying that "Jesse L. Lasky presented Edward Milton Royle's thrilling western drama The Squaw Man with Dustin Farnum in the title role at the Long Acre Theatre last Tuesday before 1400 persons and the expressions of of the auditors as they left the theatre substantiated every word of praise we have lavished upon this superb production."

A two-page spread from the 07-March-1914 Moving Picture World shows that only four territories were still unsold.  It quotes critical praise from newspapers, magazines, including Louis Reeves Harrison's review from above, and Variety. 

The cover of the 28-March-1914 Moving Picture World featured The Squaw Man. 

An ad from the same edition talks about the Jesse L Lasky Feature Play Company's next production, Brewster's Millions, a story which has been remade many times.  DeMille remade The Squaw Man twice, once as a silent and once as a talkie.  It mentions that Brewster's Millions will be directed by DeMille ("Master Playwright, Director and Author of Numerous Dramatic Successes") and Apfel ("Acknowledged Peer of Directors and Genius of Innovators"). 

Washington -- February 22, 2014

In honor of George Washington's birthday, here is an ad for a series of educational films about Washington's life produced by Eastman Teaching Films, a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak.  The films were prepared in 1931 so they would be available for Washington's bicentennial the following year. 

The ad is from The Educational Screen, December, 1931.