The following is a guest post by Jenny Paxson of the Packard Campus.
Wednesday, November 1 (7:30 p.m.)
Marty Stuart Sessions: Connie Smith (Live)–SOLD OUT
Country Music Hall of Famer Connie Smith will be joined by her husband and multiple Grammy-Award winning country music singer-songwriter Marty Stuart in a live performance, as part of the ongoing “Marty Stuart Sessions” concert series at the Packard Campus Theater. The evening will include an in-depth conversation between Smith and Stuart on her musical career and the evolution of female country music stars over the years. The talk will be followed by a musical performance by both artists. The “Marty Stuart Sessions” concert series is made possible in part by the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and the Marty Stuart Congress of Country Music. The event is free and open to the public. Tickets are required for entry and can be reserved at conniesmith.eventbrite.com beginning Monday, October 16 at 9 a.m.
Thursday, November 2 (7:30 p.m.)
Safety Last! (Hal Roach – Pathe, 1923)
Harold Lloyd created what is considered the most recognizable image in silent comedy: the man dangling from a clock in Safety Last! Lloyd’s feature-length “thrill” comedy casts his as a country boy who seeks fame and fortune in the big city and ends up the unwitting human fly forced to scale a tall building. Lloyd’s future wife, Mildred Davis, appears as “The Girl.” The film is being shown in in honor of the centennial of Lloyd’s “glasses” character which first appeared in his 1917 short Over the Fence. As Lloyd himself wrote, “The glasses would serve as may trade-mark and at the same time would suggest the character–quiet, normal, boyish, clean, sympathetic, not impossible to romance.” Safety Last! (Lloyd with glasses!) was added to the National Film Registry in 1994. Also on the program is the 1951 comedy short Peculiar Patients’ Pranks in which appears as his pre-glasses Lonesome Luke character. Live musical accompaniment will be provided by Andrew Simpson.
Friday, November 3 (7:30 p.m.)
Hud (Paramount, 1963)
Hud will be introduced by John Bailey, ASC. A member of the Library of Congress’ National Film Board, John is an award-winning cinematographer whose films range from American Gigolo, Groundhog Day and Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters to this year’s How to Be a Latin Lover. In October, he was elected as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In Hud, Paul Newman received his third Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of the title character; the surly and unscrupulous son of a Texas rancher who locks horns with his father over business and family matters. Loosely based on Larry McMurtry’s debut novel, Horseman, Pass By, the film received a total of seven nominations winning for Best Actor in a supporting role for Melvyn Douglas as Hud’s father Homer Bannon; Best Actress in a Leading Role for Patricia Neal as the housekeeper Alma Brown, and Best Cinematography for James Wong Howe. In his recent article Horseman, Pass By and Hud: From Novel to Film, for theasc.com, Bailey wrote a modern day assessment of the film: “Naked and narcissistic self-interest have always been a dark undercurrent to the limpid surface stream of American optimism and justice, but it is not a reach to see the character of Hud as an avatar of the troubling cynicism of that other side of American Populism–the side that espouses a fake concern for one’s fellow man while lining one’s own pockets.”
Saturday, November 4 (7:30 p.m.)
Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (Universal, 1955)
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello’s prolific work on radio, film and television made them one of the most popular comedy teams of the 1940s and early 1950s. Meet the Keystone Kops, one of the team’s later film efforts, is set in 1912 and follows the exploits of Bud and Lou (as Harry ‘Slim’ Pierce and Willie ‘Tubby’ Piper) as they purchase the Edison Movie Studio in Orange, New Jersey. When discovering that the seller, Joseph Gorman (Fred Clark), swindled them, they follow the grifter to Hollywood where he has assumed the identity of a European director at Snavely Pictures. Some bumbling and circumstances result in Pierce & Piper becoming Snavely’s new slapstick comedy team. The comic duo go on to save the day by enlisting the aid of the Keystone Kops in capturing Gorman, who has absconded with the studio’s payroll. Two members of the original Keystone Kops of silent films appear in the picture: Hank Mann and Heinie Conklin. There’s also a cameo by pioneering, silent-era, comedy director and producer, Mack Sennett. The film will be introduced by Bob Furmanek, co-author of Abbott and Costello in Hollywood. Furmanek was the personal archivist of the Abbott and Costello estates and is the founder and CEO of the 3-D Film Archive, the first organization dedicated to saving and restoring our stereoscopic film heritage.
For more information on our programs, please visit the website at: www.loc.gov/avconservation/theater/.