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Archive: 2014 (60 Posts)

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The Mishaps of Musty Suffer

Posted by: Mike Mashon

In 1947 the Library of Congress acquired the George Kleine collection of 456 film titles as well as stills and correspondence. Kleine was a pioneer motion picture producer and distributor who’s not well known today but was an important part of the early American film industry. He was the “K” in Kalem (named for Kleine, …

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Now Playing at the Packard Campus Theater (November 6-8, 2014)

Posted by: Mike Mashon

A couple of special program notes: we’re postponing Thursday’s scheduled “Verdi and the Silent Film” program and replacing it with the 1982 film version of La Traviata starring Plácido Domingo. And on Saturday we’ll be joined by filmmakers Alex Steyermark and Lavinia Jones Wright as they talk about their documentary The 78 Project. Thursday, November …

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When Polio Was Defeated by a Vaccine…and a Seven-Year-Old Girl

Posted by: Mike Mashon

She remembers the “hot packs”–towels soaked in boiling water, wrung out, then wrapped around her legs. She remembers the blisters. She remembers the endless hours of physical therapy, the manipulation of her limbs, especially her right leg, the one affected by polio. She also remembers the kindness of her doctors and nurses, the friendships she …

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Now Playing at the Packard Campus Theater (October 30 — November 1, 2014)

Posted by: Mike Mashon

Thursday, October 30 (7:30 p.m.) The Witching Hour (Paramount, 1923) In this second of three film adaptations (1916, 1923 and 1934) of Augustus Thomas’ hit Broadway play, Jack Brookfield (Elliot Dexter)–a gambler with clairvoyant and hypnotic powers–is able to win at cards through his unique gift. However, when he inadvertently hypnotizes young Clay Whipple (future …

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The “Thriller” at the Packard Campus Theater

Posted by: Mike Mashon

The following is a guest post by Cary O’Dell, Assistant to the National Recording Preservation Board. Sometimes TV comes full circle. Certainly this is true among certain small screen genres. For example, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, which debuted over the tube on December 6, 1948 and picked its weekly winning singer/comic/dancer via an in-studio applause-o-meter, …

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Now Playing at the Packard Campus Theater (October 9, 2014)

Posted by: Mike Mashon

Thursday, October 9 (7:30 p.m.) James Garner on Television Maverick (ABC, 1957-1962) Although he had already appeared in several movies, Maverick is generally credited with launching James Garner’s career. He starred as Bret Maverick, a cardsharp from Texas who traveled across the Old West and on Mississippi riverboats, regularly getting in and out of trouble. …