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Posted by: Karen Fishman
The following is a guest post by Daniel Blazek, Recorded Sound Technician, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center The Tonight Show has become such a cultural institution in America that it is hard to imagine that early episodes were lost, as so many early television programs on tape were erased when subsequent broadcasts were taped over …
Posted in: National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Recorded Sound, Television
Posted by: Mike Mashon
The following is a guest post from Rachel Parker, a Processing Technician in the Moving Image Section. “Welcome to the Packard Campus Theater. Please power up your laptops and portable devices and be sure to speak loudly enough during the film so that everyone can hear you.” Not a usual pre-movie show request, is it? …
Posted in: Motion Pictures, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Packard Campus Theater
Posted by: Mike Mashon
We wrap up our June series of westerns and end the month with a live comedy performance from two very funny women, Jody Kerns and Sonya King. Thursday, June 26 (7:30 p.m.) B Western Double Feature The Utah Trail (Grand National, 1938) Tex Stewart (aka “The Pecos Kid”) and his sidekicks arrive to help out …
Posted in: Motion Pictures, Packard Campus Theater
Posted by: Mike Mashon
Silent films were never silent. From their earliest days as an exhibition attraction, motion pictures were accompanied by some form of music–typically a piano, a musical combo in more modest sized houses, and sometimes an entire orchestra in movie palaces. In some instances, the pianist was joined by a drummer employing sound effects, something I’ve …
Posted in: Film/Video, Motion Pictures, Paper Prints
Posted by: Karen Fishman
Imagine looking page by page at magazines devoted to radio, recorded sound, film, and television that previously could only be viewed by a visit to a library or an archive. In the past few years, we’ve been working with the Library’s Document Scan Center to digitize around 1 million pages of public domain media-related periodicals …
Posted in: Recorded Sound
Posted by: Mike Mashon
Saddle up as our Westerns series continues, including a terrific silent film this Saturday starring William S. Hart, cinema’s first major cowboy star. Thursday, June 19 (7:30 p.m.) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Warner Bros., 2007, R-rated*) Robert Ford, an eager recruit into the notorious James-Younger Gang, comes to grow …
Posted in: National Film Registry, Packard Campus Theater
Posted by: Bryan Cornell
As the perfect June weather makes it increasingly difficult to suppress thoughts of beautiful beaches, gentle breezes, and swaying palm trees, a Hawaiian getaway might seem the perfect solution. Let us offer this brief appreciation of the wide influence of Hawaiian music with links to audio from the Recorded Sound Section’s National Jukebox as background research. One of Hawai’i’s most beloved composers was …
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by: Mike Mashon
Our focus on Westerns this month continues. Thursday, June 12 (7:30 p.m.) Monte Walsh (National General, 1970) Acclaimed cinematographer William A. Fraker made his directorial debut with this melancholy Western about a down-and-out ranch hand who finds himself part of a dying west. Lee Marvin stars as the title character with Jack Palance (in a …
Posted in: Motion Pictures, Packard Campus Theater
Posted by: Mike Mashon
The Library’s moving image collections are large (1.4 million film reels and videotapes with more arriving every day) and almost unimaginably diverse. We may not have every film or television show ever produced, but it’s a rare occurrence when Moving Image Research Center staff can’t help a patron find at least a little something related …
Posted in: Film/Video, LGBTQ, Motion Pictures