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The Silent Film Quarterly ——————————————————————————
Volume II, Issue 4 Summer 2017
Table of Contents Editor’s Message
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Lewis Walker
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Lea Stans
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Annette Bochenek
10
Silents In Review San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2017
Claire Inayat Williams
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Lost But Not Forgotten
Lewis Walker
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Charles Epting
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Departments: Coming Attractions
A Roundup of New Releases
Silent-ology
Enchanted Images: Georges Méliès and the Féerie
Hometowns to Hollywood
From Piqua to Hollywood: Buster Keaton’s Birthplace
The Mountain Eagle (1927)
Original Features: Who Was Ricardo Cortez?:
An Interview with Author and Historian Dan Van Neste
Silent Serial Stunt Women:
Larry Telles
Daredevils Without A Net
Murray Leinster & His Silent Films: Wenllian J. “Billee” Stallings
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As Told By His Daughter
Classic Features: Don’ts to Screen-Struck Girls: Advice From A Screen Star
Mary Miles Minter
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The So-Called “Jazz Age”:
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Mrs. Wallace Reid
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The Problems Confronting Young People Today
Cross-Word Puzzle:
Originally published in The Universal Weekly, November 29, 1924
The Young Lady On The Cover:
A.W. Sobler
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Has Large And Varied Collection In Which She Takes Great Pride ————————————————————————————————— .
Editor’s Message The second year of Silent Film Quarterly has come to an end! I was speaking with one of my columnists recently, and I realized that I’ve called every issue so far my favorite. It sounds trite, then, for me to say that this is my favorite issue yet. However, I genuinely do feel that Issues 7 and 8 are the most varied, interesting editions of Silent Film Quarterly yet. As I was preparing this issue, I realized I needed one more original article to really round it out—and out of the blue, Ms. Billee Stallings sends me an email informing me that her father was famed science fiction author Murray Leinster, and she has an article ready about the silent films he wrote. Serendipity, fate—whatever you call it, it’s the little things like this that have made the first two years of the magazine such a joy. I’d like to briefly explain the final article in this issue, which appears on page 52. My full-time profession is the postage stamp business, and I love any connections I am able to make between stamps and silent films. A dear friend of mine, Cheryl Ganz (former curator of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, amongst countless other titles and accolades) was researching a project of her own when she came across an article about Corinne Griffith’s stamp collection. As someone whose life revolves around these two topics, I thought it was too perfect not to include. This is almost certainly the first time anyone has read it since it was originally published 99 years ago. With that, I’m off to begin planning Issue 9. Thank you to everyone who has helped make these first two years such a success. Your editor, Charles Epting
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Write for Silent Film Quarterly! Want to write for Silent Film Quarterly? The magazine is always looking for interesting original content about the silent era, including feature articles and reviews of silent films. Please contact the editor at charleseptingauthor@gmail.com if interested or for more information.
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Coming Attractions: A Roundup of New Releases by Lewis Walker So far this year we have seen a bumper crop of silent films being released on bluray, and only being half-way through the calendar year leaves me hopeful for the remaining 6 months. Recently there have been some very exciting announcements of upcoming films getting the restoration and releases they deserve. To begin with, the end of June sees a Hitchcock classic being re-released on bluray by Criterion. The Lodger (1927) is widely considered as Hitchcock’s first masterpiece of the craft he mastered, set in London it tells the story of a landlady who suspects her new lodger is a killer, not unlike Jack
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the Ripper. The use of the camera is masterful, and shows how easily Hitchcock could bring the suspense and horror from his later work to silent cinema. Also included is another Hitchcock/Ivor Novello collaboration called Downhill (1927) and is a greta opportunity to see two Hitchcock silent’s presented in the impeccable way Criterion manage each time. What’s always exciting is that Criterion have not been as prolific as other distributors in releasing silent films, and while I understand that Hitchcock is very mainstream, it does bode well for more silent films to be released this way. F licker Alley continue a truly phenomenal year with a 2K restoration of The Lost World from 1925. Presented here is the most complete version up to this date, drawing on newly found footage. The film was premiered at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and a snippet was released through the Flicker Alley showing a beautifully blue tinted scene of the stop animation dinosaur chasing Wallace Beery and co through a jungle. It also includes a newly commissioned score by Robert Israel, which is also cause for celebration. This is truly a really exciting release, and if its half as good as I expect it to be this could be potentially the best release of the year. Flicker Alley continue to release important and exciting films and if they continue in this vein will have a very large and influential catalog to rival other distributors like Criterion. Serials were an integral part of silent cinema, enticing the audience back again and again to see how the story would continue. What’s unfortunate about the serials is that it’s extremely hard to find a complete story, as some parts have been lost or destroyed and to get a completed version is
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is no different. Next is Zaza (1923) starring Gloria Swanson and directed by Allan Dwan. I am a huge fan of Dwan’s work with Douglas Fairbanks, and being able to see him work with another heavyweight of silent cinema in Swanson is very exciting. This is the first time this particular film has been released in the United States and will showcase two heavyweights of silent cinema weaving an entertaining story of love in the jazz age! Yet again we have an wide array of films presented on Blu-ray and DVD from exciting directors, stars and studios. If 2017 continues like this our libraries will ned considerable more room! I can’t wait to see what the likes of Kino Lorber and Flicker Alley have left for this year, and I’m sure we will be pleasantly surprised! extremely rare. Fortunately for us The Sprocket Vault have done just that and will be releasing The Mysterious Airman, a 10 part serial, for our viewing pleasure. This is an important release as its going to be a new type of silent film, and an interesting part of film history. Clocking in at just over 200 minutes the set will be a great addition to any library. Kino are releasing two new films, which are both very exciting! First is a release that already created some excitement in England through the release from Eureka’s Masters of Cinema features Emil Jannings in Variete (1925). Jannings plays one part of a tiro of trapeze artists, in which a love triangle develops. Seeing any performance from Jannings is a masterclass in acting, and this film
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Enchanted Images: Georges Méliès and the Féerie by Lea Stans There is much to love about the great film pioneer Georges Méliès. He was a technical wizard, a delightful performer, and an artist whose gorgeous work can still inspire awe. And charmingly, he was a man who believed in dreams, capturing many of them on the screen one handpainted set at a time. Today, Méliès’s century-old-or-older films serve as reminders of an era more open to whimsy and wonder. They have a knack for taking us modern viewers out of our comfort zones, appearing so old-timey to our eyes that they could almost come from a different planet. Even as we enjoy the moving cardboard props and fantastical backgrounds, we have to remind ourselves to stop holding the films at arm’s length. But to cinemagoers in Méliès’s own time, the filmmaker’s work was not only exceptional but also familiar. For as a matter of fact, his films were drawing upon a long history of theatrical enchantment– specifically, the French theater genre of the féerie. The meaning of the term “féerie” is a combination of “fée,” or “fairy,” and “féer,” or “to enchant.” The genre is little-known and littlediscussed today, but it’s key to
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understanding Méliès’s distinct style—and the style of other filmmakers as well. Thought to have largely developed in the early 1800s, it actually drew upon the elaborate 16th and 17th century ballets commissioned by European courts. Based on fairytales and mythology, some of these ballets were several hours long and were performed at Versailles and other not-tooshabby locations. These luxurious ballets featured more than just dancing, but also pantomime, tableaux, singing, and stage magic. Designers created fanciful costumes that were sometimes so elaborate that they restricted actors’ movements. The plots, which grew increasingly thinner as the focus shifted to spectacle, featured fairies, witches, imps, gnomes, gods and goddesses galore. It was an honor to write and design these elaborate shows, and big names such
Court ballet at Versailles, 1600s.