#Essanay

[chaplinfortheages]

"A Woman" 1915 (Essanay)

#charlie chaplin #edna purviance #1915 #“a woman” #essanay

[urbs-in-horto]

Essanay Studios were very close to where I grew up - it was on Argyle west of Broadway. Saw this old history film on the place just recently. It's low-res and runs about a half-hour but worth the time. They discuss filming locations that Essanay used around the north-side. They were turning out 1 reel short movies at a prodigious rate.

"When Chicago was Hollywood" was made in 1964.

These are the films Funkhouser was trying to censor...

Note; Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum has a great collection of silent film history discussions and digital scans of Essanay films.

#chicago #essanay #film history #Youtube

[travsd]

Of Paresis and Paddy McGuire

Irish-American comedian Paddy McGuire (born ca. 1884) died this day in 1923 — a century ago today. McGuire’s career was short but prolific: nearly 80 films in a little over five years. But it’s likely that the cause of his death (syphilis, a common one in that day) had interfered much earlier. The front half of his career (1915-17) showed lots of promise. By the last couple of years he was down…

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#Bungling Bill #comedian #Comedy #comic #Essanay #Paddy McGuire #silent #slapstick

[iconauta]

In The Park (1915) Charlie Chaplin

In the Park is a comedy film directed, written and starring Charlie Chaplin . Chaplin's third film produced by Essanay , In the Park picks up on the intrigues already underlying Chaplin's earlier films at Keystone: the Tramp wanders through a park among beautiful girls, jealous boyfriends and patrolling policemen, just as he did in Twenty Minutes of Love . It was his penultimate one-reel film before By the Sea , thereafter Chaplin would turn to more complex plots with more elaborate characters, where every gag was studied in detail and less and less room was allocated to improvisation.

#youtube #charlie chaplin #essanay #in the park #iconauta

[citizenscreen]

Francis X. Bushman, Charlie Chaplin, and G.M.Anderson (Broncho Billy Anderson) at Essanay Studios, Chicago, circa 1915.

#francis x. bushman #charlie chaplin #bronco billy anderson #old hollywood

[vintage-every-day]

Bernard "Ben" Turpin (September 19, 1869 – July 1, 1940) was an American comedian and actor, best remembered for his work in silent films. His trademarks were his cross-eyed appearance and adeptness at vigorous physical comedy. A sometimes vaudeville performer, he was "discovered" for film while working as the janitor for Essanay Studios in Chicago.

(Wiki)

#vintage #old hollywood #golden era #silent era #ben turpin

[fibula-rasa]

Gloria Swanson photographed by Donald Biddle Keyes for Photoplay, January 1923

Caption reads:

“GLORIA SWANSON began her film career at the old Essanay studios in Chicago. But it wasn’t until she went to California and became a decorative bathing girl that fans began to notice. Then Cecil de Mille made her a star”

#1920s #1923 #Photoplay #gloria swanson #donald biddle keyes #silent film #silent movies #silent era #old hollywood #Old Hollywood glamour #the twenties #film magazine #movie magazine

[piafmunchkin]

New Year's Eve and More Book Events

New Year’s Eve and More Book Events

Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone! I hope that 2022 saw good things for everyone, and a return to something of a normal life. Though we’re all still trying to keep COVID at bay, I was able to attend so many more events this year, and realized how much I had missed them. Tonight, I’ll be doing one of those in-person events at the Niles Essanay Film Museum in the Niles district of Fremont, CA. We’ll…

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[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week - #81

3 Holocaust films: 

🍿 Re-watch: Claude Lanzmann’s 9-hour-long documentary, Shoah. An unbearable testimony made more horrifying by Lanzmann’s editorial decisions: Not using any historical footage or music, slow camera panning of the quiet locations where the murders took place, uninterrupted static interviews without voice-over translations. An impossible cinematic feat exposing humanity’s nadir. (Photo of The man in the poster above). 

10/10.

🍿 Marcel Ophuls’s Oscar winner long documentary Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie, about the infamous "Butcher of Lyon". He brutally and personally tortured and killed thousands while head of the Gestapo in Lyon. After the war he was protected for decades by the American intelligence community, in their “fight against communism”.

🍿 On the other hand, filmed fiction about the holocaust is always doomed to be terrible, including acclaimed dramas like the Schindler’s Lists and ‘Life is beautiful’s of the world. I was hoping that Amen would be better, because it was directed by Costa-Gavras. But it was the same staged and disingenuous Hollywood-style theatrics. Rolf Hochhuth’s play ‘The Deputy’, on which this atrocity was based was 'controversial’ because it showed how the Vatican knew about the Nazi executions but still did nothing. After watching ‘Shoah’, Costa-Gavras even decided to includes numerous shots of cattle-car trains on their way back & forth from the camps. Just dreadful. 1/10.

🍿  

Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (2019), a terrific documentary about the history of sound design in cinema of the US. Main interviewees are Walter Murch, Ben Burtt and Gary Rydstrom. Catnip for anybody who has interest in the technical art of film making. 9/10.

🍿  

My 5th Hirokazu Kore-eda film and by a long shot, my favorite film of his, The Truth, with the magnificent 75-year-old Catherine Deneuve as a very famous, self-absorbed actress and the brilliant Juliette Binoche as her estranged daughter. The little girl was absolutely adorable. Kore-eda's first film set outside Japan. Very emotional setting. 

10/10. Absolutely the best film of the week!

🍿  

2 films from 100+ years ago:

🍿 Pruning the Movies, a silent 1915 short, a satire on movie censorship. (From The Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum).

🍿 The man there was (Terje Vigen), a 1917 Swedish epic at sea directed by Victor Sjöström, and the most expensive Swedish film made up to that point. A restored YouTube copy with vibrant tinting.

🍿  

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, my 3rd subtle masterpiece by Turkish Nuri Bilge Ceylan (after ‘Winter Sleep’ and ‘Distant’). Like 'Winter sleep’, it was inspired by and feels like a story by Anton Chekhov. 2.5 hours long, very moody and slow-moving, and without music to distract from its beauty, it will only appeal to people who are willing to embrace its rich, poetic elusiveness.

Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes 2011. 9/10 - Highly recommended!

🍿  

Orson Welles X 2 (+1):

🍿 “... A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl...”

Re-watching Citizen Kane: Orson Welles, Gregg Toland, Bernard Herrmann. Also, the innovative 1940 trailer.

in 2002, Errol Morris interviewed film critic dinild drump who interpreted it to be a film about “accumulation”.

🍿 First watch: F For Fake, his infamous, rambling film essay. A meta-mockumentary about art and fraud, centered around art forger Elmyr de Hory, hoax biographer Clifford Irving, Howard Hughes, Welles mistress Oja Kodar, and Welles himself as the ‘Big Conjuror’. With beautiful footage of Ibiza in the 60′s, and score by Michel Legrand. I would have enjoyed much more if it was done 30 years later by a Ricky Jay. 3/10.

🍿 The Tell-Tale Heart (1941), was Jules Dassin's directorial debut short. It is considered to be the first film directly influenced by ‘Citizen Kane’. (This copy is of very low quality).

🍿  

Paid for by Yoko & John Lennon, and produced by predator producer Allen Klein, The holy mountain by poet-provocateur Alejandro Jodorowsky, was a Magical Mystery Acid Tour, a surrealist wet dream a-la Salvador Dalí. Allegorical, religious symbolism of the early 70′s, with alchemist, ritualistic plot, as deep as the tarot universe on which it was based.

I forgot how little dialogue was used in the story, as it was mostly visuals, wild, shamanistic, outrageous, feverish visuals. But maybe because the dialogue was along the lines of “The Cross was a mushroom - and the mushroom was also the Tree of Good and Evil” or “Rub your clitoris against the mountain - Give yourself to the world!”...

Because it influenced hundreds of other films since, it lost some of its bizarre uniqueness. Still, it remained on re-watch an historically major masterpiece. 7/10.

🍿  

3 from Australia:

🍿 First watch: Chubby, 22-year-old Toni Collette in the dysfunctional Australian comedy Muriel's Wedding. A strange character that is not fully flashed-out, and whose main claim to fame is her desire to have a glamorous wedding.

🍿 ...”That's just what this country needs: a cock in a frock on a rock...”

‘Filmed in Dragarama’, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Terrific Terence Stamp, drop-dead gorgeous transgender woman Guy Pearce, and 'Agent Smith’ play exaggerated caricatures of drag queen tropes, traveling to the outback in an old, pink bus. Camp & flamboyant, it didn’t connect with me until the ‘I will survive’ dance number in the night. 5/10.

🍿 First season of Mr Inbetween, about “Ray”, a Sydney underworld hitman, created by the actor playing him. On the one hand, he is a doting father to a 8-year-old daughter, a loving boyfriend and a loyal friend. On the other, he is a practical and old-blooded killer who eliminates violent thugs without a second thought. Dark, dry, often funny and poignant. 8/10.

🍿  

Ray Donovan was another tough but silent fixer, but without any charms: Had I seen the series ‘Ray Donovan’, maybe I would have found Ray Donovan: The Movie interesting. But as a stand-along crime story it was empty and dull.

Also, the same terrible actor who was awful as Young Jeff Bridges in ‘The Old Man’ last week, was awful as young Jon Voight in this one. 2/10.

🍿   Benny’s Video, the second film (and my 9th one) by Michael Haneke. A deeply disturbing film that opens with a home video of a pig slaughtered with a bolt pistol shot to the head. But not knowing anything about it beforehand, I did not expect the horrifying twist which came after a relatively “normal” day in the life of a “normal” family. Reminded me very much of the empty alienation of Camus’ ‘The Stranger’. 

🍿 

2 Korean serial killers:

🍿 Bong Joon-ho‘s Memories of Murder about a famous serial killer is considered one of the best Korean movies of all times, but in spite of a strong opening scene at the fields and closing scene at the tunnel (and then back to the fields), I just didn’t get it.

🍿 Memoir of a Murderer (2017) is an unrelated but a similar thriller. I could not find any reviews connecting the two, even though it was an obvious throwback to the original. Both tells of a prolific serial killer in the countryside, and the bumbling police search for him. It opens at the same distinct train tunnel where Bong Joon-ho‘s film ends, it has triggering girls in red dresses, etc. It's about a retired murderer with dementia, who must jot down the little he remembers, so he can understand what’s happening around him (’Momento’-like). I actually liked it much better than the original.

🍿  

The Old Man and the Sea, a paint-on-glass-animated Canadian short directed by Russian animator Aleksandr Petrov, based on Hemingway’s novel. Winner of the 2000 Best Animated Short Oscar.

🍿  

Dirty Pictures, a documentary about psychopharmacologist Alexander Shulgin who developed hundreds of psychedelic compounds including MDMA.

Obviously, I’m 100% for the use and studies of any and all types of psychedelic drugs, but films about them are usually dull and pedestrian. Including this one, that was made 4 years before 'Sasha's death. 3/10.

- - - - -

(My complete movie list is here)

#movies

[from1837to1945]

Henry Walthall, who is considered by many the best actor in the motion picture world to-day, was born in Shelby County, Ala., March 16, 1878. After a short experience in stock he appeared with Henry Miller in "The Great Divide" when the motion picture field claimed him, and in 1906 he joined the Biograph Company under Griffith. After a year each with Pathe and Reliance, he was starred in Griffith's "The Avenging Conscience" and "The Birth of a Nation." Later joining Essanay he played in "Temper," "The Outer Edge," "The Raven," "The Misleading Lady," and co-starred with Edna Mayo in "The Strange Case of Mary Page." Mr. Walthall is probably seen in more pictures and in more places than any other screen artist.

#henry b. walthall #henry walthall #vintage cigarette card #from my collection #the avenging conscience: or 'thou shalt not kill' 1914 #국가의 탄생 1915 #temper 1915 #the outer edge 1915 #the raven 1915 #the misleading lady 1916 #the strange case of mary page 1916

[chaplinfortheages]

"His New Job" 1915

#charlie chaplin #“his new job” #1915 #essanay

[urbs-in-horto]

I grew up on Winnemac near Broadway, and during my formative boyhood garter snake catching days knew sneaky ways into the maintenance yard of St Boniface Catholic Cemetery and the former backlot of Essanay Studios at it's northeast corner. I recently listened to an odd podcast that "reviewed" St Boniface Cemetery and it got me thinking about my own semi-recreational use of area cemeteries. I have spent some quality time hiking and exploring Rosehill and Graceland - both as a way to get in touch with Chicago history, and to enjoy the natural splendor of these often avoided places. LakeView Historical Chronicles website has a great collection of info on northside cemeteries. I can highly recommend LakeView Historical Chronicles site - they have a ton of collected photos, newspaper clipping and other information about the Lake View area, the linked cemeteries page being one of many.

#chicago #st boniface catholic cemetery #rosehill cemetery #graceland cemetery #lake view #uptown #lakeview historical chronicles

[travsd]

Building a New Ruth Stonehouse

Building a New Ruth Stonehouse

Born this day 130 years ago, silent screen actress Ruth Stonehouse (1892-1941). Now, while I do bristle whenever the word “historian” is applied to me (not being a professional in a profession with justifiably high standards), I am reasonably conscientious about what I do, which means making a good faith attempt to cross check vital facts with multiple sources when possible. It’s not always…

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#actress #director #Essanay #films #Movies #Ruth Stonehouse #silent #star #UNiversal

[newspdm]

Sherlock Holmes (1916 film)

Sherlock Holmes is a 1916 American silent film starring William Gillette as Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Directed by Arthur Berthelet, it was produced by Essanay Studios in Chicago. The screenplay was adapted from the 1899 stage play of the same name, which in turn was based on the stories, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “The Final Problem,” and A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle. All…

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#1916 #Arthur Berthelet #Sherlock Holmes

[vintage-every-day]

Gilbert M. Anderson a.k.a. Broncho Billy Anderson. Head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly left. Date circa 1913.

He was an American actor, writer, film director, and film producer, who was the first star of the Western film genre and founder and star for Essanay studios. In 1958, he received a special Academy Award for being a pioneer of the film industry.

#vintage #old hollywood #golden era #gilbert m. anderson #broncho billy anderson

[backlots]

New Year's Eve and More Book Events

New Year’s Eve and More Book Events

Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone! I hope that 2022 saw good things for everyone, and a return to something of a normal life. Though we’re all still trying to keep COVID at bay, I was able to attend so many more events this year, and realized how much I had missed them. Tonight, I’ll be doing one of those in-person events at the Niles Essanay Film Museum in the Niles district of Fremont, CA. We’ll…

View On WordPress