1927 DOCUMENTARY B&W – 28 minutes

 

1927 LINDBERGH BIOGRAPHY B&W -- 28 minutes

 

ANGEL ON BROADWAY (1964) – 14 min

Short film about Broadway's "Angel investors." Featuring actors: Alec Guinness, Zero Mostel, Marguerite Cullman, Sidney Michaels.

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BENNY RUBIN in "Julius Sizzer" (1931) Comedy – 20 min

This iconic Jewish comic plays a nice naive Jewish boy mistaken for a notorious gangster.

 

BENNY RUBIN in "Dumb Dicks" (1932) – 20 min

Two incompetent private detectives pose as swamis in order to infiltrate a gang of bank robbers.

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CAR CLIPS 1930s – 10 min

 

CIRCLE LINE TOUR FILMS (1950s) – 15 min

Shot in both black and white and color, this classic 1950s tour film shows great New York shots as it traces the tour around Manhattan Island and into upstate New York.

CRAZY AIRPLANE CLIPS 1920s Parts 1-10-- 20 min

 

CRAZY AIRPLANE CLIPS: JETS 1960s – 2 min

 

“CHINA CRISIS: The Story of the Fourteenth Air Force” (1948 – 40 min)

A history of the establishment of the Fourteenth Air Force. Describes the military operations performed in China and India against the Japanese by the Flying Tigers of the American Volunteer Group and commander Claire Lee Chennault. Includes footage of an airlift over the notoriously dangerous "Hump" in the Himalayan mountain. Subjects: United States. Army Air Forces. Air Force, 14th.; World War (1939-1945); World War, 1939-1945; Campaigns; Aerial operations, American; Military operations, Aerial; American

GE Films Color & B&W Part 1 (60 minutes)

Two 1930/40’s sales films about there factory. Great stock footage. Film print somewhere in the collection.       

      

CHICKEN FOOTAGE: Chicken American Style National Broiler Council

Color film short 28 minutes, various commercials 10 minutes (total 38 minutes)

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HANKSCRAFT – 50 minutes

Ideas in Motion rare color sales film of motion displays for iconic advertisement promotion

 

HIROSHIMA Short -- 15 minutes

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INTERNATIONAL BURLESQUE 1950, starring Betty Rowland, Vince Barnett B&W -- 60 minutes

 

MARY KAY sales film -- 28 minute

Mary Kay Inc. is an American privately owned multi-level marketing company.

This is a rare sales film founded by Mary Kay Ash in 1963. 

Fun Fair 1940’s – 10 min

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MODEL AIRPLANE MEETUP (1949) -- 25 min

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PASSPORT TO GLAMOUR

The 12th Cannes Film Festival B&W (also in 16mm print) 26 minutes

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SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Interview with the famed writer (10 minute)

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THE WHEAT FARMER (B&W) -- 22 minutes

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THE HOLLYWOOD MOVIE REEL (approx 55 min)

This potpourri consists of clips not included in the Classic Days of the Silent Screen. There is also some rare and unusual footage which had collected in an unmarked box in my studio. A fascinating series of images which have somehow found their way into my collection. First we give you a terrific coming attraction trailer for Vitaphone's THE JAZZ SINGER WITH SOUND, which includes shots of the film's star, Al Jolson, and some rare footage from the opening night showing Hollywood's top producers and stars turning out for the premiere.

Next up is a rare 1919 newsreel featuring Samuel Gompers, King Albert visiting the U.S., U.S. Steel's Chairman E.H. Gary, John D. Rockefeller, the world's oldest man (who, at 70 years old, is comparatively young by today's standards), champion woman fencer Edythe Hudson in various fencing and fashion poses, various shots of silent film talent with behind-the-scenes footage of silent-filmmaking. The newsreel is followed by some rarely-seen trailers for silent films, including Johnny Hines in THE LIVE WIRE, Colleen Moore in IRENE, NORTH OF 36 with Jack Holt and Noah Beery, Gloria Swanson in MADAM SANS GENE, and THE AMEN VENUS with Ford Sterling.

Rounding off the tape is a series of images including a strange shot of a Victorian-dressed girl tightrope-walking with a parasol while she removes several layers of clothing, The New York Times' owner Adolph Ochs discussing the function of the press, various Twenties beach shots, the Lindbergh parade, jazz bands, people as they listen to the radio and play phonographs, Broadway pictures of Al Jolson in front of the Winter Garden's NO, NO NANETTE marquis, Mack Sennett chase scenes, girls exercising, show girls dancing, a musician playing a banjo, bathing beauties of the Twenties getting arrested, daredevil plane stunts, and exterior shots of the Ziegfield and Chen theaters...and much, much more!

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ODD MOVIE REELS Vol. 1

A strange assortment of material from all over. An Aesop's Fable cartoon entitled "A TOYTOWN TALE" is a silent copy of an early sound cartoon that is still pretty entering (and has a new musical track added), about the playing and fighting between the different toys in a shop at night, with a girl doll going through an array of suitors (including a toy soldier) before finding her true love, and fighting off a succession of out-of-control toys. Pathe News presents "THE SWIM PARADE," written and directed by Robert Youngson (the maker of Laurel & Hardy's Laughing '20s, among many other superb documentaries), tells the story of aquatic sports from 1905 onward.

 

The 1905 beach footage sets the stage, dealing with women's swimming outfits--by 1917, during World War I, the outfits get shorter, supposedly as a way of helping to save material for the war effort, and the women are becoming athletes--footage from 1926 depicts beachside beauty contests in Atlantic City, New Jersey and Galveston, Texas, and we also get glimpses of a pre-Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller, and Lt. Col. Frieberg's unsuccessful attempt to swim the English Channel (he's pulled from the water only a few hundred yards from his goal), and we see part of the successful 14 hour 34 minute Channel swim by Gertrude Edderly, as well as the parade in her honor--1933 brings "beach pajamas" for women into the picture, and Eleanor Holm swimming--and 1948 introduces the French bikini bathing suit, and shots of champion swimmer Ann Curtis in action, and the competition between Zoe Ann Olsen and Vicky Drake.

 

"YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY" tells how Social Security works, in terms of who is covered, how much they pay (the tax on individuals in those days was 2 percent, but the maximum benefit was only $200 a month, for a widow with two children!), and we also get glimpses of ancient analog computers at work in the Social Security office. "LEAF" comes to us courtesy of the American Tobacco Institute, which wants to remind us of just how much a part of American history and heartland tobacco is, showing us family-owned tobacco farms and taking us back to the American Revolution, when money to arm Washington's men was provided by a French loan secured by the Virginia tobacco crop--viewers also get a good account of how tobacco is grown and what changes and new strains have been introduced since Europeans first encountered the plant in its harsher, more bitter original Native American form.

 

ODD REELS Vol. 2 (approx 60 min)

This sequel continues our voyage into our attic of rare and interesting reels of odd bits and short subjects.

1. THE BIG BOUNCE, presented in Technicolor by Bell Telephone, covers the launching of the Echo satellite (which marked the first time a human voice - President Eisenhower's - traveled into space), the future of live picture transmissions, and various shots of the Goldstone Tracking Station, Bell Laboratory, and the Delta Rocket's launch at Cape Canaveral.

2. ANTS, produced by Encyclopedia Britannica Films (undated, but we place it between 1930 and 1950 -- it's hard to tell), features detailed photography of, you guessed it, ants. It follows mound builders, household and carpenter ants. And it documents how they mate, give birth, build their homes, and hunt.

3. BRING THEM BACK ALIVE, produced in 1947 by Wilding Picture Company for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, is a detailed short which shows what happens if you do not have their new "Life Guard Tubes Blow Out Safety Tires."

4. UNTITLED TIRE FILM, produced by the United States Rubber Company in 1957, is a safety film which shows their new steel thread rubber tires and their results in tests of their staying power.

 

ODD REELS Vol. 3 (approx 60 min)

A dazzling array of material on New York City across the years. "BROADWAY BY DAY" (scored to "Give My Regards To Broadway") takes us on a 1930 tour of the street from Yonkers to the city line at the Bronx border, downtown through streets with trolleys on them (the Bronx had trolleys until 1947) to the Broadway subway, past 125th Street in Harlem (with Kosher butcher shops very visible), down to 72nd Street and to Columbus Circle, with an elevated train line visible), to the view along Broadway down from 57th Street, to the entertainment district in the 40's and the city south of there, past 14th Street and down to the Battery--along the way we glimpse clothes, cars, stores, styles, and other artifacts of a past long gone.

"BROADWAY--ONE ROAD ONE STREET" is a look at the celebrated by-way from 1957, showing the stretch along the 40's entertainment district, including lots of movie and play marquees (the film THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, with Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, was running, and Gene Krupa had a show going at the Basin Street club). "HIGH SCHOOL PROM," from Coronet Films, is pretty dorky but funny even from this organization (remember "HOW TO DATE"?), giving a late 1950's look at preparing for a high school prom: How to dress, how to pick a corsage, how to call for a girl, and the "fun" of planning a prom. SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE is seen discoursing on Sherlock Holmes and spiritualism in a 1930 newsreel appearance.

The Word Parade presents "THE WONDER CITY," a look at New York City of 1947 (approximately), including Greenwich Village, old Pennsylvania Station (the tearing down of which led to the passing of the landmarks preservation law), the Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the FDR Drive, Grant's Tomb, Riverside Church, and Harlem as it looked in those years (with some racist terminology used by the narrator). Sportlight presents "FEMININE CLASS," showing the lady athletes of Wellesley swimming, rowing, horseback riding, and skiing.

 

ODD REELS Vol. 4 (approx 60 min)

A group of children's films. "THE LITTLE SNOWMAN" is a musical/dance short starring LaVerne Higham, Howard Anthony, and the Burton Twins--a couple building snow figures of a man and woman start singing, and a pair of dancers replace the snow figures and perform, and a little snowman appears at the end of the short. "HOLLYWOOD SUNKIST KIDDIES ON PARADE" (1931) features child performers on the level of the Little Rascals in terms of dancing and singing, with intentionally bad jokes bounced between the ringmaster and a young heckler; dance numbers include a production number done to "The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady." "FLICKER FLASHBACKS" is a sort of precursor to Jay Ward's Fractured Flickers, with a narrator making funny comments to footage from "The Admiral's Message aka Chased By Spies (1908) and The Sheik's Wife aka Passion In the Desert (1908). "Feathered Follies," an AESOP FABLES cartoon in which a flock of birds defends itself from a visiting cat.

"FUN AT THE FAIR" is a British documentary depicting the rides and games at an amusement park (fun fair to the British) sometime after World War II. "MOVIE VIEWS" is an excerpt from a Hal Roach newsreel using the familiar Roach/Laurel & Hardy/Little Rascals background music over shots of skyscraper workers and a children's parade. "AMERICA DUNKS" is a mock documentary (mock-umentary?) about donuts and dunking starring veteran silent screen comic Snub Pollard. And "ROBIN HOOD" is a "Krazytoons" cartoon music, complete with arias and done in a style midway between Warner Bros.' Looneytoons and Max Fleischer's work, telling the story of Robin's rescue of Maid Marian from a forced marriage to the Sheriff, with Robin's "Merry Men" drawn as animals (Friar Tuck is a pig etc.).

 

ODD REELS Vol. 5 (approx 60 min)

"HOLLYWOOD ON PARADE" (1932): Richard Arlen and his wife are seen at home, talking with their mailman, who then runs into Mary Pickford, Bing Crosby, and Tom Mix on a visit to the studio. "MAKING STARS" (1935) is a Betty Boop cartoon depicting a baby talent contest with some racist stereotypes of the era included. "RUBINOFF AND HIS VIOLIN" has the violin virtuoso showing off his prowess on a very flamboyant rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumble Bee." A Mattel toys spot announcement preceded "MOVEMENT," a short documentary look at how movies were invented, going back to Edison and the Lumiere brothers, the early "kinetescope," and studies of the motions of sharp shooters, dancers, and body builders in action, leading up to the first public showing of a motion picture on a screen in 1895. "MEMORIES OF OUR PAST" is a silent documentary depicting a 1903 joyride in a buggy down New York's Riverside Drive, ending at a very fancy (and long-gone) restaurant on the drive;

Tommy Burns and Bill Squires battle each other in highlights from their May 7, 1907 championship fight in Colma, California; and the aftermath of the April 18, 1906 San Francisco earthquake is shown, with scenes of chaos in the streets; men and women dance in a nightclub, and the New York City subway makes its first official run in wonderful 1904 footage depicting station entrances, VIP guests, and the trains themselves running along the tracks at Grand Central Station; the documentary concludes with some miscellaneous scenes from stage dramas from early in this century, and footage from the pioneering full-length comedy feature "Tillie's Punctured Romance," starring Marie Dressler and Charlie Chaplin.

 "THE MARCH OF TIME" takes a close look at radio broadcasting in the post World War II era, pointing out that 82 of every 100 Americans own radios--we get a close look at the radio rating service G.E. Hooper, and glimpses of Jack Benny and Rochester, Fibber McGee & Molly, Edgar Bergen and Charley McCarthy, Fred Allen, and Walter Winchell at work behind the scenes; and criticism of radio from one of its founders, Lee De Forest, for the low-garde content of most radio; attacks on music programming for its supposed excess of commercials; and shots of legendary producer Norman Corwin, along with renowned conductors Arturo Toscanini, Serge Kousevitsky, and others, along with glimpses of radio soap operas such as "Ma Perkins" being performed in the studio.

 

ODD REELS Vol. 6 (approx 60 min)

"YOUR STAKE IN TOMORROW": A U.S. Army recruiting film about three young men on a Pershing Missile crew; in flashbacks, we see a high school senior in his job as a check-out clerk decide to try the Army Aptitude Test, and enlist to become a trainee at the Artillery and Missile School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; the helicopter crew chief recalls his days on a farm, and his desire to fly, which he realized once he met an army air crew, took the aptitude test, and qualified for Army Aviation School; and a digital computer repairman tells of choosing the army as an alternative to college.

"DRAW ME A TELEPHONE": A story of children visiting a telephone manufacturing plant and their impression of the machinery and equipment in art. "FLICKER FLASHBACKS" (directed by Richard Fleischer) presents clips from "Pull Down The Curtain Susie" (1904), "Flapper Fashions" (1920), and various other early silents, with humorous narrations, and a short film of Harry Houdini escaping from a straightjacket while hanging upside-down in midair. Outtakes from United States Army Air Force training films liven things up, as actors flub lines and scenes. And Frank Fontaine (Crazy Cuggenheim from the old JACKIE GLEASON SHOW) appears in a commercial plugging 1962 Plymouths, as an unhappy service station owner telling why the new Plymouths are cutting in on all of his business with their efficiency.

 

ODD REEL Vol. 7 (approx 60 min)

Coronet Films presents "THE DATING SCENE" (2nd edition of "Dating Do's and Don'ts--does that mean that they kept reusing the 1949 Ed Wood-directed 1st edition for 20 years?)--a surprisingly hip and insightful 1972 look at teenagers and dating, seen from the point-of-view of several couples at different stages of their relationships, expectations, and maturity, and the contrasts in their approaches to each other; the language, clothes, and hairstyles are as realistic here as the old Coronet films from the '40s were ridiculously phony, although this film is a hoot because it is an accurate portrayal of 1972 (sort of like a realistic BRADY BUNCH scenario).

WOVEN WITH RAYON is a documentary by Enka Rayon and Lemuel Ayers (from Roland Reed Productions, makers of MY LITTLE MARGIE) saluting rayon-made fashions in the spring, in a multitude of outdoor American settings, with lots of poetry in the narration. "ENGAGEMENT: ROMANCE AND REALITY" from the early 1970's depicts the expectations and reality behind marriage as experienced by several young couples--the honesty is refreshing (several couples admit they married because of accidental pregnancy) but the expectations of the participants, especially the younger ones, are shockingly naive; a professional marriage counselor also contributes to the discussions.

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ODD REELS Vol. 8 (approx 60 min)

"SCOTCH SONGS": The Columbians, Kay St. Germain, and Gene Morgan join in a series of lilting, sentimental singalong of old Scottish songs, including "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean," "The Charms of Annie Laurie," "The Campbells Are Coming Oh-Hoh," "Comin' Through The Rye," "Loch Lomond," and "Auld Lang Syne." Castle Films' The Music Album presents "SWING AND SING" (1948), with Will Osborne and His Orchestra, Martha Tilton and the Brian Sisters, and the Aida Broadbent Dancers, performing "Dancing On Air," "Boogie Woogie Man" (a spooky video with jack-o-lanterns and witches),

 "Dixie," and a Fantasia of dancing girls. The Emerson Yorke Studio and Sterling Films present "WHO'S WHO IN THE BRONX ZOO," a tour of the zoo (including its veterinary clinic) featuring shots of walabees, a king cobra, indigo snakes, kangaroos, tiger cubs, a lion, a hippo (at 43 years old, the oldest in captivity), toucans, hummingbirds, giraffes, elephants, pandas, a Kodiak bear, polar bears, sea lions, llamas, gibbons, and peacocks. WONDERS OF THE DEEP shows off old style diving gear and men in action underwater, including British scuba divers (called "lung divers" here) viewing sea life and examining the wreckage of the Breckonshire, and views of a submarine submerging as seen by a diver under the water as well as shots of torpedoes being fired (the first time ever seen from outside the sub underwater).

 Sportreel presents "DEEP END" depicting a diving championship meet, including slow motion views of the action; Universal-International presents The Answer Man Series "MIGHTY TIMBER" (1948)--included is footage of World War I bombing missions, and the evolution of aerial bombardment from handheld to rack-carried bombs; shots of loggers at work and the multi-year process between when a tree is cut and when it may finally make it to the mill (including shots of log-jams miles wide being broken up with dynamite); and the answer to the question, "How high does a tarpin jump out of the water?"

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THE HOLLYWOOD MOVIE REEL Vol. 1 (approx 60 min)

In the Thirties, before home videos, there were 16mm silent projectors if you were lucky enough to own one. Many people took their own home movies or were able to buy 16mm clips. A rare find of Keystone Kinescope movie reels showing the studios and stars of MGM, Universal, and Warner Brothers circa 1927, a series called "16mm Home Film Library" was processed at William Horsely Inc.'s film lab. This series has a terrific collection of shots in the studio. A 1949 Castle Home Sound Film with singers Dulcina and Judy Clark highlights the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, and includes such songs as "Taboo," "El Cumbanchero," "Boteando," "Managua Nicaragua." Next up is the rare STOLEN JOOLS, sponsored by the Camel company for a motion picture charity. This sound film highlights the golden greats of 1931 Hollywood. The short was shown before the main feature in the day's movie palaces. We also include a great trailer from THE SINGING KID (1936), starring the legendary Al Jolson.