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Posted by: Cary O’Dell
The following is a guest post by Harrison Behl, Reference Librarian at the Library of Congress’ Recorded Sound Research Room. One of the consistent joys of reference work is fielding a question that opens a new avenue into a subject and then tracing a lead through our collections. The scale of our holdings in the …
Posted in: Recorded Sound, Recorded Sound Research Center
Posted by: Cary O’Dell
Never say “Never”! With our September 14, 2022 blog post “Does Someone Know My Name?,” I thought the Library’s—and my—long mystery photo saga had come an end. In the beginning, we had over 100 unknown photos. At the time of the September posting, we had just 17 left. By any measure, this effort had been …
Posted in: Unidentified Stills
Posted by: Cary O’Dell
This coming weekend at the Packard Campus Theater (19053 Mt. Pony Road / Culpeper, VA) The streets are still mean this month at the Packard Campus as we celebrate film noir, specifically L.A. noir. You’ll never look at California the same way again. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2022 @ 7:30pm L.A. Confidential (Warner Bros., 1997) Based …
Posted in: Motion Pictures, National Film Registry, Packard Campus Theater
Posted by: Cary O’Dell
At the Packard Campus, whether you are sitting in our theater, walking down the halls or, of course, digging deep into one of our collections, you never know who you are going to bump into. Nor do you ever know where that meet-up will take you. Archivist Frances Allshouse recently had an encounter like this. …
Posted in: Bob Hope Collection
Posted by: Cary O’Dell
Not surprisingly, Jerry Lee Lewis (who passed away last month at age 87) was a very early addition to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. For his song “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” recorded in 1957 and added to the NRR in 2005, author Joe Bonomo wrote for the LC the following essay on/tribute …
Posted in: National Recording Registry, Recorded Sound
Posted by: Cary O’Dell
Here are some of the titles from the Library’s motion picture collections–many preserved by the NAVCC film laboratory–that we’re loaning for exhibition this month. As always, we can’t guarantee that schedules won’t change or links get broken, but this is our best information at the time of publication. Campus Theatre Lewisburg, Pennsylvania HALLELUJAH (1929) 35mm …
Posted in: Film Loans
Posted by: Cary O’Dell
This coming weekend at the Packard Campus Theater (19053 Mt. Pony Road / Culpeper, VA) Strap on your fedora and brace yourself for a smoky room. This month the Library of Congress Packard Campus looks a noir films, specifically those set in that notorious city of angels, Los Angeles. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2022 @ 7:30pm …
Posted in: Motion Pictures, National Film Registry, Packard Campus Theater
Posted by: Cary O’Dell
L.A. NOIR. Los Angeles, the City of Angels, ground zero for film noir. From the pages of a Raymond Chandler novel to the embodiment of his detective Philip Marlowe on the big screen, L.A., the city itself, has been a main character. The seedy, dark side of Los Angeles explained in books found the perfect …
Posted in: Motion Pictures, National Film Registry
Posted by: Cary O’Dell
What is the Spanish word for “terror”? You’ll find out if you watch George Melford’s 1931 US-made but Spanish-language adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic novel. Filmed concurrently with the US/Bela Lugosi-version, “Drácula” is considered by many film scholars to be better than the English version. This version was added to the Library of Congress’ National …
Posted in: Film Essay, Motion Pictures, National Film Registry