LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT question
JimNeibaur
A friend called and read me the December obit of a Chicago-born film collector
who had recently been working as a film professor at UCLA. The article stated
that this man's collection included rare titles including LONDON AFTER
MIDNIGHT.
Does anyone know more about this?
Jim
FilmGene
<<The article stated
that this man's collection included rare titles including LONDON AFTER
MIDNIGHT.>>
The collector was David Bradley, who also directed some independent films in
the late forties and did a few low budget items for MGM in the fifties.
His collection was enormous, included 16mm and 35mm positives and negatives,
many of them quite rare. However, those who knew the collection denied that
"London After Midnight" was one of them. I believe them.
Gene Stavis, School of Visual Arts - NYC
Jeffrey Mark Gaboury
JimNeibaur wrote in message
<19980204181...@ladder02.news.aol.com>...
>A friend called and read me the December obit of a Chicago-born film
collector
>who had recently been working as a film professor at UCLA. The article
stated
>that this man's collection included rare titles including LONDON AFTER
>MIDNIGHT.
>
>Does anyone know more about this?
>
>Jim
Dear Jim
In reply to your query "London After Midnight" is a film starring Lon Chaney
filmed in 1927 and directed by Todd Browning. It is a murder mystery with
Chaney playing a detective & a Vampire!?! It is considered one of his most
frightening characters.
Sharply pointed false teeth with small wires held his mouth in a hideous
fixed grin. He allegedly used chemicals to dilate his pupils in order to
give the character a hypnotic stare and used fine wires across his eyelids
to make his eyes protrude. Lon Chaney was known to disfigure himself in
order to create the remarkeable makeup effects for which he is so justly
famous.
To my knowledge this is a "lost" film, and no copies are known to exist.
If the collector actually has this film he has a real FIND!
JimNeibaur
Jeffrey stated:
To my knowledge this is a "lost" film, and no copies are known to exist.
If the collector actually has this film he has a real FIND!
--------
Yeah, to my knowledge also. That is why I am surprised nobody has mentioned
this obit other than me. Forgot the individual's name (first name David).
Since he worked out of UCLA, I figured some of the others in this NG may have
known him personally.
If a print of LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT does in fact exist in this guy's
collection, I would be interested in more information.
Jim
ChaneyFan
>>>If a print of LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT does in fact exist in this guy's
collection, I would be interested in more information.
This was discussed a few weeks ago. The collector is David Bradley and he did
NOT have a print. He saw the MGM nitrate in the 1950s which is where the
misinformation came from.
================
Jon Mirsalis
Chan...@aol.com
http://www.sri.com/biopharm/misc/jonfilm.htm
Lon Chaney Home Page: http://members.aol.com/ChaneyFan
JimNeibaur
Thanks, Jon, for clearing that up for me. Apparently this had been discussed
already at the time Mr. Bradley died, but I missed the thread (late again).
Jim
C. McCoy
Jeffrey Mark Gaboury wrote:
>
Gasp!!! Would this be Gaboury AS IN...???
EckHarDT50
Actually, there's good news and there's bad news.
The good news is that someone has indeed found LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT.
The bad news is that it's Al Detlaff. ;->
Joe Eckhardt
Michael Gebert
In article <19980204183...@ladder03.news.aol.com>,
film...@aol.com (FilmGene) wrote:
> His collection was enormous, included 16mm and 35mm positives and negatives,
> many of them quite rare. However, those who knew the collection denied that
> "London After Midnight" was one of them. I believe them.
It was stated in the obituary that he had a print, according to his widow.
To believe that, one would have to believe that he kept it an incredibly
close secret but had instructions for his widow to mention it to the first
person she talked to after his death. I assume a reporter, knowing a tiny
bit about famous lost films (of filmland), or perhaps being given LAM as
an example of a famous lost film, promptly garbled that and got it into
print while writing about Bradley's collection of OTHER rare films.
Similar things have happened lately having to do with stained dresses and
Secret Service agents, for instance.
Robert Birchard
If in fact the reporter stated that Bradley's widow ,ade the
assertion that he had LAM you would have to question the reliability of
the story on the most basic level. David Bradley was not married.
--
Bob Birchard
bbir...@earthlink.net
http://www.mdle.com/ClassicFilms/Guest/birchard.htm
ChaneyFan
>>>It was stated in the obituary that he had a print, according to his widow.
WILL EVERYONE PLEASE STOP THIS RUMOR!! David Bradley did *not* have LONDON
AFTER MIDNIGHT. What's more, there is no widow!
DSPB
....Okay, I give up! I confess! I own the ONLY print of "London After
Midnight"! And I'm going to burn it! Burn it, do you hear?
....I'm lighting the match now....WHOOF!...There it goes!
Sorry, it's gone...Gone forever, now...yup...gone...
-Unka Denny
"Excuse me a minute, my ear is full of milk..."
-Oliver Hardy
ScotJohn96
Unka Denny said:
>....Okay, I give up! I confess! I own the ONLY print of "London After
Midnight"! And I'm going to burn it! Burn it, do you hear?
So Denny burned his print of LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT--too bad. Fortunately, my
35mm print of the film is okay...uh oh. Checking my print, I see that it's got
vinegar syndrome, laser rot (how'd THAT happen?), and a waxy yellow buildup.
Maybe I used too much furniture polish on it--or maybe I didn't use enough? I
wonder what glass cleaner would do? Oven cleaner--?
Scott
MKELO
Better yet, use what I used on my LAM nitrate: steel wool. Works wonders while
rewinding.
Best,
Mk
Michael Gebert
In article <34E51E...@earthlink.net>, Robert Birchard
<bbir...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> If in fact the reporter stated that Bradley's widow ,ade the
> assertion that he had LAM you would have to question the reliability of
> the story on the most basic level. David Bradley was not married.
I may have assumed widow, it mentioned some female survivor-- who was the
source of the quote, which I did not make up (which is not to say that the
facts in the quote weren't made up), in the obit which ran in the Chicago
Tribune.
C. McCoy
Checking my print, I see that it's got
> vinegar syndrome, laser rot (how'd THAT happen?), and a waxy yellow buildup.
Don't scrape it off! It might be Lon Chaney!
RobtMcKay
Chaneyfan wrote:
>What's more, there is no widow!
And there is no disputing this fact!
ChaneyFan
>>>I may have assumed widow, it mentioned some female survivor-- who was the
source of the quote, which I did not make up (which is not to say that the
facts in the quote weren't made up), in the obit which ran in the Chicago
Tribune.
Many years ago I was interviewed for an article about my piano accompaniment
for silents that appeared in the Raleigh News and Observer. A reporter and
photographer came to the house and I was interviewed for about an hour and this
woman took copious notes. When the article appeared my jaw hit the ground when
I saw some of the quotes I was attributed with saying. My favorite was that I
said, "There were about 150 silent features made." I'm sure there was someone
reading the article who said, "Who is this Mirsalis idiot?" What I said was,
"I have played for about 150 silent films." There were numerous other
misquotes that were equally stupid and inexcusable.
Big name papers do it to. About 2 years ago I was interviewed by Time magazine
at work about a study I had done for the National Cancer Institute. In the
interview I said something like "there is some interesting data that shows that
some protease inhibitors found in soy beans can cause pancreatic lesions in
rats that could lead to cancer." When it appeared in print this got converted
to "One word of caution: eating soy beans may cause cancer." (Thankfully I
wasn't attributed with the quote since they received numerous letters and calls
refuting it. They did call me back to get a clarification, but never published
a correction.)
After this incident (and sadly, half a dozen others like it), I now no longer
believe *anything* I read in the print media! What probably happened in the
Bradley interview is that someone said something like, "David had a very large
film collection and has seen many silent film that are now considered lost,
like LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT." David did see LAM in the 50's and hated it. I'm
sure that's how the quote suddenly appeared as "He owned a print of LONDON
AFTER MIDNIGHT."
Michael Gebert
In article <19980215092...@ladder03.news.aol.com>,
chan...@aol.com (ChaneyFan) wrote:
> When it appeared in print this got converted
> to "One word of caution: eating soy beans may cause cancer."
Well, now I think we know where the misinformation about London After
Midnight came from. If Jon Mirsalis can simultaneously misnform the world
on both silent film and nutritional matters, is there any perfidy to which
he will not stoop?
Jon, stop spreading the story that David Bradley had London After
Midnight! Now! And don't anyone listen to anything Jon has to say about
cigarettes or nitrites in bacon! I'm not 100% sure he didn't work on cold
fusion or the magic bullet, either.
(Actually, Jon, I think you should call your local Democratic party
organization, like that drug policy guy did, and urge them to go after
Linda Tripp. Then you'd be promptly subpoenaed by Ken Starr, and we could
write the whole Lewinsky affair off as your work.)
Robert Birchard
ChaneyFan wrote:
>
> >>>If Jon Mirsalis can simultaneously misnform the world
> on both silent film and nutritional matters, is there any perfidy to which he
> will not stoop?
>
> fire that burned LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT, and it was me, not Mary Duncan, that
> threw FOUR DEVILS in the ocean.
That's "4 Devils", Jon--just like it's "7th Heaven". And here all
these years I've been blaming poor Mary. You probably sold the old
silver to Kodak and the nitrates to Farmer John, too. Where is Captain
Celluloid when you need him?
ChaneyFan
>>>If Jon Mirsalis can simultaneously misnform the world
on both silent film and nutritional matters, is there any perfidy to which he
will not stoop?
OK. I ADMIT IT! I did it. I did it all. I set up Monica, and I started the
fire that burned LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT, and it was me, not Mary Duncan, that
threw FOUR DEVILS in the ocean.
ScotJohn96
MKELO said:
>Better yet, use what I used on my LAM nitrate: steel wool. Works wonders
while rewinding.
Thanks for the advice! Since my print of LAM is a fine grain dupe, I'm going
to use fine grain sandpaper on it.
Scott
RickH23703
In article <mgmax-15029...@pool-207-205-143-124.chia.grid.net>,
mg...@mindspring.com (Michael Gebert) writes:
>(Actually, Jon, I think you should call your local Democratic
>party
organization, like that drug policy guy did, and urge them to go
>after
Linda Tripp. Then you'd be promptly subpoenaed by Ken Starr, and we
>could
write the whole Lewinsky affair off as your work.)
Are you saying MONICA LEWINSKY has a copy of LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT???
Rick Hoover
Michael Legge
----------
In article <19980216120...@ladder03.news.aol.com>,
rickh...@aol.com (RickH23703) wrote:
Rick Hoover
No, Monica Lewinsky actually PLAYED the vampire. Can't you tell by the
teeth?
Phantom of Hicksville
AAbramsNY
And Linda Tripp is obviously the Bride of Frankenstein!!!!
Michael Gebert
> Are you saying MONICA LEWINSKY has a copy of LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT???
Okay, so I listened to the tapes at Linda Tripp's and I heard this very
distinctive sound in the background-- clearly Rosa Rio playing
accompaniment to some film, but one I didn't recognize from my exhaustive
collection of AccuSpeed tapes. So I took the tapes to a lab and had them
isolate the sound and then speed it up 6x (so that it no longer ran nine
hours), and compared that to a cutting continuity of London After
Midnight, and the cues fit perfectly. The question is, who in the White
House told Monica Lewinsky to watch London After Midnight, and were they
using Chaney to frighten her out of testifying?
dsu...@concentric.net
In article <mgmax-16029...@pool-207-205-143-6.chia.grid.net>,
mg...@mindspring.com (Michael Gebert) wrote:
I don't know. I wonder how good her view was, though, from under the desk.
C. McCoy
ChaneyFan wrote:
>
> >>>If Jon Mirsalis can simultaneously misnform the world
> on both silent film and nutritional matters, is there any perfidy to which he
> will not stoop?
>
> OK. I ADMIT IT! I did it. I did it all. I set up Monica, and I started the
> fire that burned LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT, and it was me, not Mary Duncan, that
> threw FOUR DEVILS in the ocean.
>
And he deflowered Lillian Gish too! I saw it all through my
peephole!
Michael Gebert
> And he deflowered Lillian Gish too! I saw it all through my
> peephole!
So that was What the Butler Saw!
Jakob Lřvschall
> > > His collection was enormous, included 16mm and 35mm positives and
negatives,
> > > many of them quite rare. However, those who knew the collection
denied that
> > > "London After Midnight" was one of them. I believe them.
I am a newbie to this ng, and I was just wondering if any of you
enthusiasts out
there could post a list containing all the known lost, shelved and/or rare
silents?
--
/MovieBeaver
http://users.cybercity.dk/~bcc13951/
FThomp1065
>
>I am a newbie to this ng, and I was just wondering if any of you
>enthusiasts out there could post a list containing all the known lost, shelved
and/or rare silents?
It'd be a much shorter list naming those that *aren't* lost.
Frank Thompson
ChaneyFan
>>>It'd be a much shorter list naming those that *aren't* lost.
Either way, we are talking about thousands of titles (lost or found)...not
something that can easily be posted.
Earlyfilm
In <01bd43c9$909c6ce0$LocalHost@defaul>t,
"Jakob Løvschall" <be...@vip.cybercity.dk> wrote:
>I am a newbie to this ng, and I was just wondering if any of you
>enthusiasts out there could post a list containing all the known
>lost, shelved and/or rare silents?
You can easily see what this NG has said on that subject.
Go to: “http://www.dejanews.com”
That will get you to “Quick Search” which you do not want.
Select: “Power search”
Find: “Lost” (don’t click yet)
Groups: “alt.movies.silent”
Date: “Jan 1 95 to Mar 2 98” (or current date --
This data base does not go prior to 95)
Click “Find”.
This will get you over 1000 articles.
Unfortunately they will be out of sequence.
If you find any that look interesting, you click
on “View thread” to put that set in sequence.
To get back to the list, click “View results”
Have fun!
Earl.
NWCM
Hey Frank!
Lookin' good yesterday in the LA Times. Putting a bit of accurate film
history in the Calendar section. One question. Did they approach you
or did you just write a letter to them?
Nancy