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Posted by: Mike Mashon
Yesterday was a pretty momentous day in America, and not just because so many of us got a head start on breaking New Year’s resolutions. It also was a significant milestone in the history of intellectual property rights for a variety of expressive works, including motion pictures. Put simply, motion pictures with renewed copyrights published …
Posted in: Copyright, Film/Video
Posted by: Mike Mashon
Rarely has the arrival of a film at the Packard Campus occasioned as much anticipation as the day in April 2015 when the sole surviving nitrate print of the first cinematic adaptation of Frankenstein (Edison Manufacturing Company, 1910) was accessioned into our collection. It’s not because the film is all that revelatory—it’s most decidedly not—or …
Posted in: Film/Video, Motion Pictures, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center
Posted by: Mike Mashon
This guest post was written by Amy Jo Stanfill, Processing Technician in the Moving Image Section and coordinator of the Silent Film Project. RKO’s St. Louis Blues, directed by Dudley Murphy and starring Bessie Smith, was named to the National Film Registry in 2006. This two-reel early sound short premiered in New York before the …
Posted in: Film/Video, Motion Pictures, National Film Registry
Posted by: Mike Mashon
I spent a good deal of early 2016 planning for the Orphan Film Symposium, reviewing proposals with my co-programmer Dan Streible. Since we already knew that the theme would be Sound, I also started spelunking our collection for films about sound in all its many aspects that could either be screened at Orphans, blogged about, …
Posted in: Film/Video, Orphan Film Symposium, Radio
Posted by: Mike Mashon
It’s a good week for silent film lovers at the Packard Campus Theater with four consecutive programs starting Wednesday. And as usual, all will be accompanied by live music. We welcome London favorite Stephen Horne for two WWI related-screenings on Wednesday (On the Firing Line with the Germans, about which I wrote last week) and …
Posted in: Film/Video, Motion Pictures, Silent Film Project
Posted by: Mike Mashon
During the centenary observance of World War I, we’ve been prioritizing the preservation of films in our collection pertaining to the conflict. Foremost among these is a film called On the Firing Line With the Germans, shot in 1915 by Wilbur H. Durborough and his cameraman Irving Ries. Library staff members George Willeman and …
Posted in: Film/Video, Motion Pictures, World War I
Posted by: Mike Mashon
It’s ironic that Calvin Coolidge—30th President of the United States and a man so famously taciturn his nickname was Silent Cal—was also the first President to make wide use of mass communication. His December 1923 State of the Union address was the first time any President had appeared on radio and his March 1925 inauguration …
Posted in: Film/Video, Motion Pictures
Posted by: Mike Mashon
Dwight D. Eisenhower–born on this date in 1890–is widely credited with being the first Presidential candidate to use television advertising; you can see many of his 1952 TV spots at the excellent web site The Living Room Candidate maintained by our colleagues at the Museum of the Moving Image. Eisenhower’s media team also produced a …
Posted in: Film/Video, Motion Pictures
Posted by: Mike Mashon
No one can doubt Thomas Dewey’s (1902-1971) impressive resume. As a federal prosecutor and then as Manhattan District Attorney, he convicted the head of the New York Stock Exchange for embezzlement, and his relentless pursuit of Mafia crime bosses turned him into a national celebrity and the inspiration for the radio show Gangbusters. As Governor …
Posted in: Film/Video, Motion Pictures