"The Cameraman" in Canton, OH

My friend Alison sent me a notice that the Canton Palace Theatre (located in beautiful downtown Canton, Ohio) will be showing The Cameraman this Sunday.

Here's the text of the email she forwarded me (with extensive grammatical edits by me):

On Sunday, November 23rd, in celebration of the theatre's 82nd birthday, the Canton Palace Theatre will be showing the classic silent film "The Cameraman" starring Buster Keaton. Accompanying on the Kilgen Theatre Pipe Organ will be nationally known theatre organist Clark Wilson.

This film is considered a masterpiece in comedy film making, used in film schools to demonstrate filmmaking techniques in comedy. See it as it was supposed to be seen, in a 1926 silent film theatre, with the theatre pipe organ.

Champagne reception at 430pm with the film at 545pm, $15
Silent film alone, at 5pm, $10
The Canton Palace Theatre 605 Market Ave North
330-454-8172 for information

I'm hoping to be able to make it, but I'm not sure. But if any other silent film fans plan to go, let me know and I'll definitely meet you there!

NYTimes Review of Griffith

A few posts down is a notice of some Kino DVDs on sale, along with my mentioning the D.W. Griffith box set.

Today's New York Times has a (favorable) review of the box set.

I guess I will have to buy it, after all!

Other Blogs: Lillian Gish

I have a not-so-secret fondness for clothing and shopping, and one blog I happened to stumble upon while on a fashion frenzy is from a young woman who loves thrift-store shopping (as I do), and uses as her inspiration silent film stars!

It's really encouraging that appreciation for silent films and the stars of the era are filtering down to the next generation.

A recent posting from Rhiannon has her talking about her biggest silent star influence, Lillian Gish. She recently found a silent-era scrapbook, and has been posting scans of some of the pages not only of Lillian but of others, as well. I thought I would add a link to her site in case anyone is interested in seeing the photos, along with her favorite short clip of Lillian (from The Mothering Heart).

An Answer!

Recently I added the Photo Album to the site, and the first album to go up was my collection of Kromo Gravure actor/actress cards.

At the time, I had asked (rhetorically, I thought) if there were any sets other than the first one.

Well, the short answer is: Yes!

On a mission to spend my hard-earned money, I visited one of the sites listed under the Memorabilia section on the At the Movies pages, Things-and-other-stuff.com, and to my (very pleasant) surprise I found an entire page on the sets with a truly astounding amount of information.

So, I'm passing it along (although I have included a link on the Photo Album page). I'm really excited; it's very interesting!

More Kino DVDs on Sale

More sales from Kino.

One that looks particularly interesting: D.W. Griffith: Father of Film, a three-part documentary from Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. It's currently available for pre-order; I might have to dig in for that.

In conjunction, they're taking preorders for the Griffith Masterworks 2 DVD set, which also looks interesting.

Lillian Sweetser and Romaine Fielding

I'm doing a great clean-out of my desk (as mentioned previously), and came across an article I'd intended to add to the site: A brief sort-of follow up to the story that's in the Features section, on Lillian Sweetser, a scenarist from an area near where I live.

Seems that Lillian wrote a scenario for filmmaker Romaine Fielding; during the course of his research, the director of a documentary about Fielding came across Sweetser's name and contacted her daughter for an interview.

It's an interesting story, and (again) a nice sort-of follow up to the Lillian one.

Published Article - Fred Thomson

I almost forgot! Friday I got my copy of Leben magazine, which features an article from yours truly!

Leben is, according to their Web site, "A quarterly, four-color magazine that tells the stories of the Protestant Reformers and those who have followed in their footsteps through the ages."

I was contacted a few months ago about having my Silent Star of the Month biography of Fred Thomson included in the magazine, and was thrilled to have been asked. It's always nice to hear that modern audiences would find the stars (or any aspect, really) of the silent era interesting.

The site hasn't been updated with the new issue (as of this writing), but I assume it will be in the coming days (if you're interested to see the cover and my name/the article on it - chances are, this will be of interest only to my family, and only because they have to pretend to be excited; it's part of the deal).