Media History Digitation Project - Please Help

Research today is far and away a very different animal than it was even five years ago.  Digitation is the real wonder of the internets, really and truly it is.  Searchable PDFs rather than blinding yourself scrolling through page after page after bloody page of microfilm.  It's a wonder!

Who would have thought that a huge number of newspapers would be digitized, available for use either for free or by a nominal subscription rate?  Free at your local public library (via Proquest) or pay online at places such as Newspaperarchive.com.

One of the greatest free sites is Internet Archive and my absolute favorite spot for silent film research is the Media History Digital Archive.  Thousands of pages of hard to find periodicals such as Wids Daily, Photoplay and other periodicals I never even heard of, all scanned and fully searchable, all for FREE.

While using this is FREE to anyone who happens along, it does cost some money and loads of time for the periodicals to be scanned, processed and uploaded.  They're asking for our help.  The goal is pretty modest ($5000) if you ask me and well worth a donation of $10, $20, $50 or more if you can afford it.

Donations may be made via the MHDA website or a dedicated effort at the Domitor site.  What is Domitor?

DOMITOR, the international society for the study of early cinema, is an association for people interested in cinema from its beginnings to 1915. The organization strives to explore new methods of historical research and understanding by promoting the international exchange of information, documents, and ideas. Recognizing that the work of the world's film archives has made accessible a growing body of early films and research materials pertaining to early cinema, Domitor also seeks to promote close relationships between scholars and archivists. Domitor is not an acronym: it revives the name that the father of the Lumière brothers once proposed for their projector of motion pictures.

From the Domitor website's donation page:

The Media History Digital Library (MHDL), a non-profit initiative dedicated to digitizing collections of classic media periodicals that belong in the public domain for full public access, has recently made a commitment to scanning periodicals, documents, and materials from the early period (1890s to 1915). Domitor will take the lead in raising funds for this important venture.


MHDL's early cinema project comprises at least 50,000 pages of material, including Moving Picture World (much of 1912-1918 is already online); all six volumes of the 1912 US vs MPPC trial transcripts; catalogs from Kleine, Biograph, and others; and house organs, such as Universal Weekly (1912-1915). Other materials, such as foreign-language publications, are also on the horizon. Not only will these be accessible wherever there is an internet connection, but in much better (and downloadable!) versions than are currently available through interlibrary loan.

So Domitor is calling on its membership—or any interested party—to raise the funds needed for this stage of the project. Our goal is to raise $5000—enough to put 50,000 pages online by this summer—by January 1, 2012. So please click on the paypal link below and give generously. All contributions are fully tax deductible.

I use this resource more times than I can count, I gave and hope you will consider making a donation, too.  $5000 for 50,000 pages of material is a pittance to pay for such an important resource.  Please, do your bit and give generously!

Happy Thanksgiving

I've got plenty to be thankful for in 2011.  Good friends, lots of good movies and what I hope is a good attitude. 

Thanksgiving, for me, is the official start of holiday themed movie viewing.  While I will never willingly watch Plymouth Adventure ever again, here's a little Thanksgiving treat from one of my favorite holiday films from 1942, Holiday Inn starring Bing Crosby, Marjorie Reynolds and Fred Astaire.

Bing singing I've got plenty to be thankful for with the wonderful Louise Beavers.

I'm thankful that there are some readers here who have stuck around given my irregularity in posting.  While it's a tad early to make any resolutions in the new year, I will resolve to work harder and post more.  You have no clue how many draft posts there are awaiting completition in the queue!  In any case, thanks for reading and commenting when warranted.

Lastly, here's an odd bit of cheesecake that is holiday themed.  Let's hope that because Esther Williams is presenting a crown to this bird that he was spared being the dinner and got to live out his days on the MGM backlot.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Rudolph Valentino and Nita Naldi - A Perfect Partnership

Rudolph Valentino and Nita Naldi were not only co-stars, they were good friends. Valentino and Naldi shared a wonderful partnership onscreen in three films. We celebrate their partnership in 2012 with a calendar featuring some wonderful stills from Cobra, Blood and Sand and A Sainted Devil. The calendar also features a couple of candid shots of Rudy and Nita off screen.

Click below for a full preview.  The calendar is 13x19, spiral bound and handsome in glorious black and white!  $25.00 the perfect gift for any silent film fan.

Lulu has a 25% off coupon code through Nov. 30th: enter this code at checkout: NOVPHOTOS25

Let me also take a moment to shamelessly self-promote my book Rudolph Valentino The Silent Idol, once more.  Blurb is currently running a promotion (good through November 28th) for 20% off the cover price.  Simply enter LYNDA22 at checkout (remember to use ALL CAPS) and the discount is yours.

Rudolph Valentino The Silent Idol by Donna L. Hill | Make Your Own Book

Do Your Bit for Film Preservation

Want to make a donation for a really worthy cause?  Want to get something really wonderful in exchange?  Something you can enjoy for the next twelve months?  If the answer is yes, I have the perfect feel good thing for you.

The Silent Film Benefit Calendar courtesy of Rodney Sauer (fearless leader of the Mont-Alto Motion Picture Orchestra) and designer of the annual calendar.

The 2012 edition is the special "Animal Edition" and how can you resist it, it's got Rin Tin Tin, Brown Eyes from Buster Keaton's Go West and a herd of others, a veritable who's who from the silent era.

While visiting Mont-Alto's website you can also order other fun items such as CD's and DVDs featuring the excellent Mont-Alto Orchestra.  Ideal gifts that are perfect for the silent film fan's Xmas list, yes, Black Friday starts now!

Happy Halloween

Joan and I hope that your Halloween is spooktackular!

RIP Barbara Kent - One of the Last Actors from the Silent Era

It's time for me to join the online chorus and comment on the passing of former actress Barbara Kent.  She was an actress for only a few years and by all accounts lived a full and happy life after she retired from the screen.  She died last week at the age of 103 with the distinction of being one of the last surviving actors of the silent era.  (LA Times Obit; New York Times Obit).  We're counting down former silent film players much as people noted the passing of the WWI veterans in the past.  Not too many remain from the silent era and the last of the WWI veterans are gone.  Kent has been little remembered outside the silent film community.  She left a couple of wonderful performances including 1927's Flesh and the Devil, 1928's Lonesome and 1929's The Shakedown.

Garbo and Gilbert so dominate Flesh and the Devil, it's hard to remember Kent as the young girl who did not get her man.  Her charm in that film is quite evident, she was a pretty little thing.  Paul Fejos' Lonesome is a touching and wonderful film and it's really difficult to get to see it.  Really crappy gray-market bootlegs do not do the film any justice and are more than a little bit illegal.  Lonesome is really worth seeking out on the big screen, heck, I'm dying to see it on the big screen. (Anyone at the SF Silent Film Festival listening? Can we get it, can we, huh?)  Lonesome is one at the very top of my wish list for a big screen event. 

I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Barbara Kent and James Murray in The Shakedown on the big screen during the 2010 San Francisco Silent Film Festival.  You can read the program notes at their online archive.  It was the sleeper hit of the weekend for me and is still a film I want to see again.  I remember Kent being charming and pretty, which is pretty much all that was required in this film.

Here's my recap of the film from and earlier blog post:

The Shakedown 1929 William Wyler: James Murray, Barbara Kent and Jack Hanlon.

This was the best film of the weekend for me. This was a small film, a programmer and William Wyler’s second film. It was, in short, a revelation. That Wyler could pretty much come out of the box and give us a film that moved at breakneck speed and tell a story with such slim and easily hackneyed material in such an entertaining fashion shows what a raw talent he was. The film also showcased what a tragic loss was the career of James Murray. I’d only seen him in King Vidor’s 1928 film The Crowd. He’s affecting in that film. In The Shakedown he is even more moving, more natural. This illustrated to me all the more how tragic that his career was so short and his end so swift. Murray’s scenes with young Jack Hanlon as the orphaned boy are great, very natural camaraderie between the two and blossoming into a very heartfelt father and son-like affection. Murray and Hanlon’s tears were real, so too were mine. Barbara Kent, who is one of the few silent players still with us, had little to do but to look pretty. She did that well. Harry Gribbon mugged and did his scenes with the boy to great effect. I came away so pleased with the film. It’s a sleeper and was my favorite of the weekend. A programmer that hit a home run out of the ballpark and into McCovey Cove.

As mentioned above, veterans of the silent film era number only a scant few these days.  Mickey Rooney and Diana Serra Cary aka Baby Peggy come to mind immediately.  We can't keep them here, but we can remember them, especially if their films survive for our enjoyment.  Barbara Kent was not Clara Bow, nor even Colleen Moore, but she was for a time, a real charmer on screen with a few really wonderful films to remember her by.  Thanks for everything and Godspeed.

On the Bedside Table - Myrna Loy The Only Good Girl in Hollywood

Emily W. Leider, author of Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino and Becoming Mae West has penned a biography of one of my favorite actresses who began in the silent era and blossomed in the talkies.  Order at Amazon.com.

I've been slow to read this, much to my chagrin.  I've not wanted to put the book down.  It's that good, yes, it is really THAT good.

One wishes they could write as elegantly and as engagingly as Emily Leider does about the subject of her latest biography, Myrna Loy. Leider's impeccable research coupled with her elegant prose make for a thoroughly enjoyable read.


Myrna Loy is a much beloved star from Hollywood's golden age. Publicity at the time declared her to be a perfect wife on screen and it was assumed she was as much off screen as well. Leider informs us this was not the case. Leider chronicles Loy's life and film career with just the right touch. There is a nice balance between the biography and the chronicle of the film career. Unlike so many other biographies of the last few years, this is not padded out with recaps of film plots. Leider's prose, in so many ways, reflects or mimics the manner, the lightness, the quirkiness of Loy's own voice as she tosses off quips with William Powell. It's a pure delight to read.

Loy's life was very full and really devoid of scandal like so many other stars of the day. Perhaps this might make people overlook Loy as the subject of a biography. They should not, Leider's excellent detective work uncovers some secrets that Loy kept under wraps or only hinted at in Loy's own excellent autobiography Being and Becoming. Leider also fills us all in on Loy's interesting life as an activist. Myrna Loy was really much more, much deeper than Nora Charles and this book tells you why. I'm beyond grateful she portrayed Nora Charles as delightfully as she did, but I'm more grateful to read about and learn from her life off screen. Not a perfect wife, but quite a life. If you're a fan of Myrna Loy and her films, this is a must read.
 
I forgot to add a comment on the judicious use of photos in the book, most are shots I'd not seen.  Some incredible portraits, like the Ted Allan portrait used on the cover.