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Posted by: Mike Mashon
I know lots of people whose passion for collecting films—and by that I mean good old fashioned celluloid reels—was inextricably linked to their passion for sharing them with friends and family. We usually associate “living room cinema” with home movies, but back in the day there were also countless numbers of junior impresarios presenting programs …
Posted in: Film/Video, Motion Pictures
Posted by: Bryan Cornell
This post was co-written by Karen Fishman and Mike Mashon. Here are some selections from the film and audio collection to help you celebrate The Fourth of July. The audio comes from the Library’s National Jukebox which includes over 10,000 streaming recordings dating from 1900 to 1925, a time when patriotic music was extremely …
Posted in: Film/Video, Jukebox, Motion Pictures, Paper Prints, Recorded Sound
Posted by: Mike Mashon
The following is a guest post from Rachel Parker, a Processing Technician in the Moving Image Section. “Welcome to the Packard Campus Theater. Please power up your laptops and portable devices and be sure to speak loudly enough during the film so that everyone can hear you.” Not a usual pre-movie show request, is it? …
Posted in: Motion Pictures, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Packard Campus Theater
Posted by: Mike Mashon
We wrap up our June series of westerns and end the month with a live comedy performance from two very funny women, Jody Kerns and Sonya King. Thursday, June 26 (7:30 p.m.) B Western Double Feature The Utah Trail (Grand National, 1938) Tex Stewart (aka “The Pecos Kid”) and his sidekicks arrive to help out …
Posted in: Motion Pictures, Packard Campus Theater
Posted by: Mike Mashon
Silent films were never silent. From their earliest days as an exhibition attraction, motion pictures were accompanied by some form of music–typically a piano, a musical combo in more modest sized houses, and sometimes an entire orchestra in movie palaces. In some instances, the pianist was joined by a drummer employing sound effects, something I’ve …
Posted in: Film/Video, Motion Pictures, Paper Prints
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
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: 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