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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
Posted by: Mike Mashon
Like a lot of boomers, The Brady Bunch (ABC, 1969-1974) was a beloved television show of my early youth. It was easy to envy the Bradys. They lived in a large, airy house with a big kitchen, a magnificent open staircase, and, especially, a yard made out of artificial turf. Occasionally a celebrity like Joe …
Posted in: Copyright, Television
Posted by: Mike Mashon
Thursday, June 5 (7:30 p.m.) “Range Busters” Double Feature “The Range Busters” was a lucrative film series of 24 Westerns on the adventures of a trio of cowboys, produced by George W. Weeks and distributed by Monogram Pictures. Many of the movies were filmed at the Corriganville Movie Ranch. B-Western actor Ray “Crash” Corrigan came …
Posted in: Motion Pictures, National Film Registry, Packard Campus Theater
Posted by: Karen Fishman
Fans may have difficulty imagining Little Richard, the self-professed “King of Rock and Roll” as a struggling newcomer, but in a recording acquired last year Richard registers his surprise at first hearing his hit “Tutti Frutti” on the radio while lying in bed one night, (at about 8 minutes 50 seconds into the interview). …
Posted in: National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Recorded Sound
Posted by: Mike Mashon
The Library’s moving image collections began with a bureaucratic decision. In August 1893, an unnamed employee (but most likely W.K.L. Dickson) of the Thomas Edison Laboratories in West Orange, NJ, where work had been going on for several years to develop motion picture photography, sent sequential frames from various camera tests to the Copyright Office. …
Posted in: Copyright, Motion Pictures, Paper Prints
Posted by: Karen Fishman
Even during the coldest and darkest days of winter, baseball fans look forward to February, when a glimmer of hope appears as pitchers and catchers report to Spring training. Baseball fans throughout the world start dreaming of a World Series championship and everyone knows The Void will soon be over. The Recorded Sound Section’s collection …
Posted in: National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Recorded Sound
Posted by: Mike Mashon
While it’s very easy to identify the oldest surviving motion picture registered for copyright—Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, which I talked about in this post—it’s much trickier pinpointing the oldest copyrighted television program. [I’ll wait here while you do an internet search on “first copyrighted film” and then “first copyrighted tv show.” See what …
Posted in: Copyright, Television