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Posted by: Mike Mashon
Here at the Library, we’re dedicated to the acquisition, description, preservation and accessibility of our film, video, and sound recording collections regardless of perceived “worth.” We really do want to make it all available for future generations ̶ so we don’t necessarily prioritize beloved classics over a refrigerator ad or the song “Fido is a …
Posted in: Motion Pictures
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
The following is a guest post by Jenny Paxson of the Packard Campus. Thursday, September 6 (7:30 p.m.) The Maltese Falcon (Warner Bros., 1941) After two previous film versions of Dashiell Hammett’s detective classic The Maltese Falcon, Warner Bros. finally captured the true essence of Hammett’s story in 1941 by wisely adhering to the original …
Posted in: Motion Pictures, Musical Theater, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, National Film Registry, Packard Campus Theater
Posted by: Mike Mashon
Back when we were planning the Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation, one mantra we always kept foremost in our minds was “preservation for access.” It’s a simple concept and self-explanatory, but it also pithily illustrates an important guiding principle. Nearly every activity in this facility is in the service of access, be it acquisition, …
Posted in: Film Loans, Motion Pictures
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
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