TCM November Treasures
RP Faiola
from the American Film Archives in November
50-Film Collection Includes the Original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from 1910
Turner Classic Movies will feature the world television premiere of More
Treasures from the American Film Archives on Sunday nights in November. More
Treasures from the American Film Archives is the second collection of rare
films from the movies' formative decades as presented by the National Film
Preservation Foundation, the nonprofit organization created by Congress to save
America's cinema heritage. The collection, which was released as a three-DVD
boxed set through Image Entertainment in September, covers the years 1894 -
1931, when movies progressed from a peepshow curio to the nation's
fourth-largest industry. The works in this festival include features, serials,
political spots, industrial documentaries, product ads, cartoons, newsreels,
promotional and instructional shorts and avant-garde works as preserved by the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, George Eastman House, the Library
of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art and the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
(Schedule is attached)
Scott Simmon, curator of the project and a professor of English and co-director
of the film studies program at the University of California, Davis, will join
TCM host Robert Osborne in introducing the films. Highlights include THE
WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ (1910, Nov. 7, 10 p.m.), the earliest surviving film
treatment of the classic L. Frank Baum story that would also form the basis for
the 1939 MGM musical. Dorothy is played by 9-year-old Bebe Daniels, later
famous for 42nd Street, and this silent Wizard was thought lost until a nitrate
print was discovered in 1983. CLASH OF THE WOLVES (1925, Nov. 14, 10 p.m.)
offers the rare chance to see canine star Rin Tin Tin in action in one of his
enormously popular starring vehicles, while RIP VAN WINKLE (1896, Nov. 21, 10
p.m.) features stage star Joseph Jefferson in his most famous role, offering an
unparalleled look back into 19th-century theatrical styles.
Turner Classic Movies, currently seen in more than 69 million homes, is a
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libraries, from the '20s through the '80s, commercial-free and without
interruption. For more information, please visit the TCM Web site at
www.turnerclassicmovies.com.
All Times Eastern
Schedule
Treasures from American Film Archives
Sunday, Nov. 7
TCM Special Presentation: Treasures from American Film Archives (Silent Sunday
Night included)
10 p.m. More Treasures from American Film Archives: Volume One (to be
played with audio
commentary on SAP channel)
· Two Men Dancing (W.K.L Dickson Experimental Sound Film) (late 1894 or early
1895, Edison Co.; 20 seconds)-preserved by the Library of Congress. The
earliest surviving sound film, produced as a test for Edison's
"kineto-phonograph."
· "Buffalo Bill's Wild West" in 1894-Annie Oakley (1894, Edison Co.; 20
seconds), preserved by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Sioux
Buffalo Dance (1894, Edison Co.; 20 seconds), preserved by the Library of
Congress; and Bucking Broncho (1894, Edison Co.; 20 seconds), preserved by the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Annie Oakley, Oglala Sioux and
cowboys from "Buffalo Bill" Cody's Wild West Show were filmed for the
kinetoscope in the first full year of the motion picture.
· The Suburbanite (1904, American Mutoscope and Biograph Co.; 9
minutes)-preserved by the Museum of Modern Art, an early family "sit-com"
satirizing New Yorkers' move to the suburbs.
· The Country Doctor (1909, Biograph Co.; 14 minutes)-preserved by the Museum
of
Modern Art, a pastoral tragedy about professional duty and among the earliest
masterworks by D.W. Griffith. Preserved from the original negative.
· The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910, Selig Polyscope Co.; 13 minutes)-preserved
by the George Eastman House, the first surviving film of L. Frank Baum's novel,
complete
with tornado and wicked witch, with 9-year-old Bebe Daniels as Dorothy.
· Advertising Films from the Library of Congress-Admiral Cigarette (1897,
Edison Co.; 30 seconds); Flash Cleaner-Cleans the Hands and Homes of Millions
(ca. 1920; 45 seconds); Buy an Electric Refrigerator (1927, Electric League of
Pittsburgh; 30 seconds); The Stenographer's Friend; or, What Was Accomplished
by an Edison; Business Phonograph (1910, Edison Co.; 8 minutes). Three
advertising spots and a comic workplace sketch demonstrating how productivity
and office sexual politics will improve with the introduction of Edison's
wax-cylinder dictaphone.
· The Invaders (1912, New York Motion Picture Co.; 40 minutes)-preserved by the
Library of Congress. The most accomplished early Western produced by Thomas H.
Ince at "Inceville," featuring polished Lakota Sioux actors and "101 Ranch"
cowboys in a
three-reel epic of Dakota treaties and wars. Directed by Francis Ford, who
plays the
cavalry commandant.
· The Hazards of Helen #26: "The Wild Engine" (1915, Kalem Co.; 14 minutes)-
preserved by the Library of Congress. A newly hired female telegraph-station
operator
faces disdain from her boss-until she leaps into action to prevent a runaway
train crash.
The 26th episode of The Hazards of Helen, one of the 1910s' popular series,
featuring
resourceful and athletic heroines.
· Gretchen the Greenhorn (1916, Fine Arts Corp.; color tinted, 58
minutes)-preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Dorothy Gish stars
in this charming five-reel
feature about new American immigrants from diverse cultures who band together
against
an urban counterfeiting ring. Directed by Chester and Sidney Franklin.
· The Breath of a Nation (1919, International Film Service; color tinted, five
minutes)-
preserved by the George Eastman House. A cartoon about the temptations of
drink
during the first day of prohibition, animated by Gregory La Cava, later
director of My
Man Godfrey and other Hollywood classics.
· De-Light: Making an Electric Light Bulb (1920, Ford Educational Weekly; color
tinted, 12 minutes)-preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. A
documentary detailing the steps in produc ving a light bulb, from mining
tungsten to blowing glass.
· Skyscraper Symphony (1928; 9 minutes)-preserved by the George Eastman House.
Robert Florey's abstract "city symphony" of Manhattan.
· Greeting by George Bernard Shaw (1928, Fox Movietone News; sound, 5 minutes)-
preserved by the Library of Congress. Directing himself in this sound short,
George
Bernard Shaw expounds archly on politics and personalities.
Sunday, Nov. 14
10 p.m. More Treasures from American Film Archives - Volume Two (to be
played with audio
commentary on SAP channel)
·The Streets of New York in "Paper Prints"-preserved by the Library of
Congress.
What Happened on 23rd Street, New York City (1901, Edison Co.; 1 minute); At
the Foot of the Flatiron (1903, American Mutoscope and Biograph Co.; 2
minutes); and New York City Ghetto Fish Market (1903, Edison Co.; 2 minutes).
New York City crowds at the turn-of-the-century seen in actualities and staged
comic incidents. Newly preserved on 35mm from the paper copyright deposits.
· From Leadville to Aspen: A Hold-Up in the Rockies (1906, American Mutoscope
and Biograph Co.; 8 minutes)-preserved by the George Eastman House. Crime
drama, capping the 1905-06 craze for front-of-a-train viewpoint films.
Directed by G.W. "Billy" Bitzer.
· The "Teddy" Bears (1907, Edison Co.; 13 minutes)-preserved by the Library of
Congress and the Museum of Modern Art. A combination of fairy tale, puppet
animation, and political satire, in which Goldilocks is saved by Teddy
Roosevelt. Directed by Edwin S. Porter.
· Children Who Labor (1912, Edison Co.; 13 minutes)-preserved by the Museum of
Modern Art. Child-labor melodrama in which an industrialist's lost daughter
must earn her keep on the assembly line and survives thanks to Italian
immigrant workers. Produced in collaboration with the National Child Labor
Committee.
· Color Experiments from the George Eastman House- Excerpt from Concerning
$1000 (1916, Eastman Kodak Co.; two minutes); Excerpt from Exhibition Reel of
Two-Color Film (ca. 1929, Brewster Color Film Corp.; 4 minutes); and The Flute
of Krishna (1926, Eastman Kodak Co.; six minutes). Three successes at
reproducing natural color: Concerning $1000 is the first fiction film on
Kodachrome; Brewster Color's reel promotes color for claymation advertisements,
animated cartoons and street scenes; and The Flute of Krishna captures an early
performance by the Martha Graham Dance Company.
· The Surviving Reel of Lotus Blossom (1921, Wah Ming Motion Picture Co.; color
tinted, 12 minutes)-preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The
single surviving reel from the Los Angeles-based Wah Ming Motion Pictures,
formed to produce stories of China and provide employment for Chinese
Americans. Produced, written and co-directed by James B. Leong.
· Gus Visser and His Singing Duck (ca. 1925, Theodore Case; sound, two
minutes)-
preserved by the George Eastman House. A sound experiment that captures an
act unlike anything since the death of vaudeville.
· Clash of the Wolves (1925, Warner Bros.; 74 minutes)-preserved by the Library
of
Congress. Action-filled feature in which Rin-Tin-Tin, a top 1920s box-office
star, plays
a mixed dog-wolf who rescues the prospector who has tamed him.
· International News: Volume #8, Issue #97 (1926, Hearst Corp.; color tinted,
13
minutes)-preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. A newsreel from
December 1926, which roams from strange sports in Oregon to floods in Wales,
races in Tijuana, weapons in Britain and ceremonies in Rome where "Il Duce
hears a funny story."
· Now You're Talking (1927, Inkwell Studios; nine minutes)-preserved by the
Library of Congress. Animated and live-action instructional comedy from Dave
and Max Fleischer demonstrating the correct use and frequent abuse of the
office telephone.
· There It Is (1928, Bowers Comedy Corp.; 19 minutes)-preserved by the George
Eastman House. Homegrown surrealism at its finest. A two-reel comedy from
Charlie
Bowers, with stop-motion animation and camera tricks, in which Charlie is
dispatched
from Scotland to investigate a haunted house.
· A Bronx Morning (1931; 11 minutes)-preserved by the Museum of Modern Art.
A dynamic montage of workaday city life by 21-year-old Jay Leyda which won him
a
fellowship with Eisenstein in Moscow.
Sunday, Nov. 21
10 p.m. Treasures from American Film Archives: Volume Three (to be
played with audio
commentary on SAP channel)
· Rip Van Winkle (1896, American Mutoscope Co.; four minutes total)-preserved
by the Library of Congress. Eight "mutoscope" reels with 19th-century stage
star Joseph Jefferson (1829-1905) in his most popular role. Photographed by
W.K.L. Dickson.
· Mr. Edison at Work in His Chemical Laboratory (1897, Edison Co.; one minute)-
preserved by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Staged vignette of Thomas Edison mixing chemicals in his laboratory, filmed in
the
open sunlight of his New Jersey studio.
· The Life of an American Fireman (1903, Edison Co.; six minutes)-preserved by
the
Museum of Modern Art. The most celebrated of early documentary narratives, in
which
a fireman saves his own family. Directed by Edwin S. Porter and James White.
· Three Films from the Westinghouse Works Series (1904, American Mutoscope and
Biograph Co.; six minutes)-preserved by the Museum of Modern Art. Three films
from the series documenting Pennsylvania's massive Westinghouse factory in
1904: an astonishing overhead view; the "girls" assembly line; and a grand
variation on Lumière's Workers Leaving the Factory.
· Falling Leaves (1912, Solax Co.; 12 minutes)-preserved by the Library of
Congress.
Domestic drama of a young girl determined to save her sister from tuberculosis,
by Alice
Guy-Blaché, the first and most prolific woman producer-director.
· Hollywood Promotional Films from the UCLA Film and Television Archive-
Exhibitors' Reel for Hands Up-A Cyclonic Western Serial (1918, Astra Film
Corp./Pathé; seven minutes); From CV News: Photographing Greed in Death Valley
(1923; four minutes); and Movie Lovers' Contest #4 [Marion Davies] (1926; color
tinted, three minutes). Three rare movie promo films: An action-packed reel to
convince theater owners to book the (now lost) Ruth Roland serial Hands Up; a
newsreel segment on the ardors of filming Von Stroheim's Greed in Death
Valley; and a star-identification contest tied in with local newspapers.
· De Forest Phonofilms: A Few Moments with Eddie Cantor (1923 or 1924; seven
minutes), preserved by the Library of Congress; and President Coolidge, Taken
on the White House Grounds (1924; four minutes), preserved by the Library of
Congress. Two of Lee De Forest's pioneering sound-on-film shorts: An
irrepressible Eddie Cantor tells ethnic jokes and sings "The Dumber They Are,
the Better I Like 'Em"; in the first sound film photographed at the White
House, a stolid Calvin Coolidge explains why Americans deserve tax relief.
· Inklings #12 (1925, Fleischer Co., six minutes)-preserved by the Museum of
Modern
Art. Visual puzzles animated by Dave Fleischer.
· Lady Windermere's Fan (1925, Warner Bros.; 89 minutes)-preserved by the
Museum
of Modern Art. Ernst Lubitsch's subtle masterpiece achieves the apparently
impossible:
finding silent-film equivalents for Oscar Wilde's epigrammatic wit. An
eight-reel feature
with Ronald Colman, May McAvoy and Irene Rich.
· Cockeyed-Gems from the Memory of a Nutty Cameraman (ca. 1925, Pathé Review;
color tinted, three minutes)-preserved by the George Eastman House. Early
optical-
printing tricks from city scenes.
· "The Prologue" from The Passaic Textile Strike (1926, International Workers
Aid
Pictures; 18 minutes)-preserved by the Library of Congress. Produced by
textile
workers and the American Communist Party during the Passaic, N.J., strike of
1926-7 to raise relief funds. Surviving complete is this two-reel "Prologue,"
a
docudrama acted by the strikers, mainly recent immigrants from Eastern Europe.
· Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (The Boys Are Marching) (1926, Fleischer/Red Seal; four
minutes)-preserved by the Library of Congress. A follow-the-bouncing-ball "Ko
Ko
Song Car-Tune" sing-along.
· Excerpts from Zora Neale Hurston's Anthropologic Footage of Alabama and
Florida (1928; 16mm, seven minutes)-preserved by the Library of Congress.
Before writing her great novels, Zora Neale Hurston returned south to document
African American folk traditions. Seen in segments of unedited footage are a
lumber camp, children's games, a baptism, and one of the last surviving slaves
with memories of Africa.
·Trailers for Lost Films-In the Days of Daniel Boone (1923, Universal serial;
color tinted, two minutes), preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive;
The Silent Flyer (1926, Universal serial; color tinted, one minute), preserved
by the UCLA Film and Television Archive; The American Venus (1926, Paramount;
two-color Technicolor, two minutes), preserved by the Library of Congress; The
Great Gatsby (1926, Paramount; one minute), preserved by the Library of
Congress; Beau Sabreur (1928, Paramount; one minute), preserved by the UCLA
Film and Television Archive; and The Patriot (1928, Paramount; three minutes),
preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. These tantalizing trailers
promote now-vanished films-and serve as reminders of the ongoing need for the
work of film preservationists. Among the many films known today only though
previews are Beau Sabreur with Gary Cooper, The American Venus with Louise
Brooks, the first adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and
Ernst Lubitsch's Academy Award-winning The Patriot.