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The Silent Film Bookshelf

June, 1999
[The Fabulous Tom Mix]

[Investing in the Movies]

[Road Shows]

[Confessions of a Motion Picture Press Agent]

[The Story of David Horsley]

[The Making of The Covered Wagon]

[Universal Show-at-Home Libraries]

[Baring the Heart of Hollywood]

[Fade Out and Fade In - Victor Milner, Cameraman]

[Robert Flaherty and Nanook of the North]

[Classics Revised Based on Audience Previews]

[J.S. Zamecnik and Moving Picture Music]

["Lost" Films]

[Filming Speeds]

[Projection Speeds]

[Nickelodeons in New York City]

[What the Picture Did For Me]

[Sunrise: Artistic Success, Commercial Flop?]

[Wall Street Discovers the Movies]

[Roxy - Showman of the Silent Era]

[D.W. Griffith Father of Film]

[Unusual Locations and Production Experiences]

[Cecil B. DeMille Filmmaker]

[Federal Trade Commission Suit Against Famous Players-Lasky]

[Geraldine Farrar]

[The Top Grossing Silent Films]

[Music in Motion Picture Theaters]

[On the Set in 1915]

["Blazing the Trail" - The Autobiography of Gene Gauntier]

[An Atypical 1920s Theatre]

[Salaries of Silent Film Actors]

[Orchestral Accompaniment in the 1920s]


We have posted Reader Comments on the use of this site in education.
    This site reprints original documents from the silent film era, and is curated by David Pierce.
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    May - "Lost" Films 

      Robert E. Sherwood is now best remembered as a three time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama and advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt. In 1923 Sherwood was Moving Picture Editor for Life and The New York Herald, when he published "The Best Moving Pictures of 1922-23," the only edition of a hoped-for annual review of quality film productions. 
      Sherwood selected 16 "Best Pictures" and 35 "Honorable Mentions." Of his 16 best, two are not known to exist in any archive or private collection, and the third, The Eternal Flame, is incomplete and unavailable. These three motion pictures are available only in stills and contemporary reviews, such as these well-written appreciations by Sherwood. 
      For a detailed account of twenty-seven missing silent feature films, see Frank Thompson's "Lost Films: Important Movies That Disappeared" (1996, Citadel Press). 

    April - Camera Speeds in the Silent Film Era

      Most cameras were operated by a hand-crank so the cameraman could control the speed at which scenes were filmed. As the  cameramen worked to increase the appreciation for their craft, they resented exhibitors who would ruin films by projecting them too fast. 

      Outraged by the published comments of exhibitors and projectionists, the camermen published their views in American Cinematographer. Cameraman Victor Milner took special exception to the statements of E.H. Richardson of the SMPE, Paul Perry objected to the comments of theatre owner Frank Rembusch, and John W. Boyle presented the consensus of the fraternity of cameraman. 

    March - Projection Speeds in the Silent Film Era

      I greatly appreciate the assistance of Kelly Brown, Kevin Brownlow, Chris Jacobs, Richard Koszarski, Madeline Matz and Paolo Cherchi Usai for their help in identifying and locating articles for this issue. 

    February - Nickelodeons in New York City 

    January, 1998 - What the Picture Did For Me 

      Small town exhibitors often had to rent films sight unseen, and they relied on trade publications like Exhibitors Herald-World (and its predecessor The Moving Picture World and successor Motion Picture Herald) for advice on which films would be successful for their audiences. "What the Picture Did For Me" was a weekly column of reports submitted by those independent exhibitors, and give insight into their concerns and the viewing experience of many audiences. This particular selection covers the 1928-29 season. 

      The results include rebellion against art films - they hated Docks of New York, Napoleon, The Man Who Laughs, Spies, The Wedding March  and The Wind- and pictures with too much sex (Drums of Love), and too many crime pictures (Captain Swagger), though they still ran the salacious The Road to Ruin. They objected to screen portrayals of drinking (Chicken a La King), tobacco (Submarine). They loved William Haines (Excess Baggage, Telling the World), thought that Buster Keaton's The Cameraman was fine, and commented on Marion Davies (The Cardboard Lover) and Clara Bow (Red Hair). 

      The theatre owners were very aware of the coming of sound- some thought it would be their salvation, others their ruin (Excess Baggage, The Home Towners and The Singing Fool). The exhibitors loved westerns and dog pictures, and resented big budget pictures (Wings) because of their high rentals. 
       

        Part One 25 features: Adoration - The Crash
        Part Two 21 features: Dawn - French Dressing
        Part Three 23 features: Gang War - Loves of an Actress
        Part Four 30 features: Mademoiselle From Armentieres - Prep and Pep 
        Part Five 35 features: The Racket - Synthetic Sin
        Part Six 27 features:  Take Me Home - The Wright Idea

    December - Sunrise: Artistic Success, Commercial Flop?

      F.W. Murnau's Sunrise was a critical success for Fox Film Corp. upon its original release in 1927. Sunrise ran for 28 weeks in its Manhattan showcase engagement, and it was important to Murnau's sponsor, William Fox, that the film be seen as a success. The studios would sometimes run their biggest pictures at a loss in their own big-city theatres to underscore a film's prestige and to support sales to exhibitors in other cities. The success of Sunrise was challenged by New York-based P.S. Harrison, the editor of "Harrison's Reports," a weekly four page newsletter whose subscribers were independent exhibitors, often in small towns. The battle over Sunrise was fought by Harrison and the General Sales Manager for Fox in the pages of "Harrison's Reports." 

    November - Wall Street Discovers the Movies

      The film business grew from nickelodeons to movie palaces largely without the help of New York financiers. While film producers were viewed largely as charlatans, Wall Street took notice when Adolph Zukor's Famous Players-Lasky Corp. quickly moved from a start-up to a near monopoly in a fast-growing industry. 

      The Wall Street Journal tried to document this transition in a starry-eyed series of articles in 1924. Largely based on an examination of Famous Players-Lasky and First National (both better managed and financed than their competitors), this series clearly presents the view of an uninformed outsider. The predictions in the fourth article that production was shifting from California to the East Coast could not have been less prescient. (There might have been a fifth article in the series, but the subsequent issue was missing from the microfilm.) 
       

    October - Roxy - Showman of the Silent Era 

      S.L. Rothapfel was the premiere theatre manager of the 1920s. He began in 1908 with a small theatre in Forest City, PA, in the back of his father-in-law's saloon. Affectionately known as "Roxy," he became a consultant advising independent theatres to emulate his brand of showmanship based on carefully planned presentation of motion pictures and attention to music (including placing the orchestra on the stage). Roxy moved to New York in 1914, and quickly moved upward through management of a succession of increasingly larger theatres. The Roxy Theatre opened in 1927, and was his masterpiece. 

      For more information on Roxy, see "The Best Remaining Seats: The Story of the Golden Age of the Movie Palace" by Ben M. Hall, originally published in 1961.

    September - D.W. Griffith - Father of Film

      D.W. Griffith was one of the most important (and most influential) filmmakers of the silent period. We have tried to cover his career from a variety of perspectives. 

      Gene Gauntier recalls the atmosphere at Biograph when Griffith made his first film. Griffith's wife Linda Arvidson recalls working for her husband at Biograph in her 1925 memoir. Griffith announced his departure from Biograph with a full page advertisement in The New York Dramatic Mirror. An article and two interviews conducted shortly after Griffith left Biograph give a good sense of his position in the industry. Mae Marsh recalls working for Griffith at Biograph, and during The Birth of a Nation. An authorized biography of Lillian Gish describes the early years of their collaboration. Photoplay visited the set of The Birth of a Nation for a view of Griffith's style of direction. 

      An essay from 1922 gives a critical overview of how the mainstream industry viewed Griffith; he speaks from the position of a senior industry sage in 1927. Legend overtakes truth as Griffith fictionalizes his commercial success in a press release swallowed whole by Variety. Finally, Homer Croy's biography of Griffith mixes fact, fiction, innuendo and reconstructed dialogue for a wholly unsatisfying look at Griffith's declining years as a director. 
       

    August - Unusual Locations and Production Experiences

    July - Cecil B. DeMille Filmmaker

      Cecil B. DeMille was the most consistently successful filmmaker of the silent era. We have a 1922 visit to DeMille's set and two items in DeMille's own voice.  In an article for Theatre, a New York based magazine that focused on theatre and film, DeMille stated his goals with his production of The King of Kings.  At the time of the release of The King of Kings, DeMille gave a talk to Harvard University students on the role of the director.  This article reads like a transcript of a spontaneous lecture, and DeMille offers many surprises, including whether a good story would be more likely to be filmed with stars or no-name players, and what distinguishes a good director and a great director. 

      Two more recent views of DeMille give a more balanced perspective. Robert S. Birchard puts DeMille in context with his contemporaries and trends of the period. David Pierce (also the editor of this site) examines the financial success of DeMille's productions from the silent period and how his films compared to other productions of the time. 
       

    June - Federal Trade Commission Suit Against Famous Players-Lasky

      By 1921, Famous Players-Lasky and its Paramount subsidiary had a near monopoly on film production, distribution and exhibition. In 1916, Adolph Zukor had rolled up some of the best managed producers into Famous Players-Lasky. He established Artcraft Pictures for Paramount's highest profile producers. Since many independent theatres did not want to buy films from Paramount, he set up Realart Pictures, an affiliated firm with no public ties to Paramount. Zukor's organization block booked a flood of films to independent theatres, forcing out competitive producers; bought out competing distributors with tactics that included threatening to build competing theatres nearby if the owners didn't sell. The pleas of victims reached the Federal Trade Commission, who launched an investigation. 

      By the time the Commission reached a verdict in 1927, Famous Players-Lasky's position in the industry was challenged by Loew's Inc. and its MGM producing subsidiary. Still, the abuses of monopoly power were picked up by subsequent suits and led to the consent decree of 1948 that forced the major studios to divest their theatres. My thanks to Bruce Long of Taylorology for providing the article from the Los Angeles Examiner. Taylorology, at http://www.angelfire.com/az/Taylorology/, also reprints newspaper and magazine articles from the silent era. 
       

    May - Geraldine Farrar

      One of the most unlikely silent film stars of the teens was Metropolitan Opera star Geraldine Farrar (1882-1967). She was eagerly recruited for the movies by producer Jesse L. Lasky, and her acting ability, under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, quickly made her a star. Her first release, Carmen, was a smash hit, and her later Joan the Woman, while not a commercial success, provided tremendous prestige. While the silent screen robbed audiences of her voice, she proved to be an instinctive actress with a commanding screen presence. Her memoirs, published in 1938, included a lengthy, affectionate recounting of her diversion into the movies from 1915 to 1920. 
       

    April - The Top Grossing Silent Films

      The success of the most popular silent films reached legendary proportions. It is difficult to determine how much of this is true, and how much was press agent puffery. Photoplay examined the profitability of the average program picture and the most successful pictures. After sound films were established, Variety compared the most successful sound films to the most successful silents. Thanks to Scott Eyman for bringing this article to my attention. The press was dependent on industry insiders for their numbers, and the risk involved was shown in two views of the success of D.W. Griffith. We have a press release which wildly misstates the financial returns from Griffith's productions, overstating the costs and the grosses, followed by a Variety article which unquestioningly parrots all of Griffith's numbers. 
       

    March - Music in Motion Picture Theaters

      These three articles follow the progress of musical accompaniment to motion pictures. The first discusses how music was selected in relatively unsophisticated fashion for three theaters in Cleveland. By the mid-1920s Hugo Riesenfeld (also see below) was the dean of the east coast composer-conductors, and had a special interest in the ability of the motion picture theater to introduce audiences to classical music. With the coming of sound, most theater orchestras were laid off, with the musical accompaniment provided by recorded Vitaphone or Movietone music scores. MGM hired David Mendoza from the Capitol Theatre in New York to compile and record scores for their late silent films. In this article he discusses the process of music selection and recording. 
       

    February - On the set in 1915

      In the mid-teens the industry dominated by the Motion Picture Patents Company had given way to a more vibrant film industry. This business was built around stars, though some directors and producers had names that were meaningful at the box office. In 1915, Photoplay Magazine profiled director D.W. Griffith as he filmed The Birth of a Nation (still known under the title of the novel The Clansman), comedy producer Mack Sennett, and the Philadelphia movie factory of Siegmund Lubin. Griffith was on the brink of unimaginable success and would soon join with Mack Sennett and Thomas H. Ince at Triangle. Lubin was unable to adapt and was soon out of the industry. 
       

    January, 1997 - "Blazing the Trail" - The Autobiography of Gene Gauntier

      "The most popular figure in the early days of moving pictures tells the story of her thrilling adventures as actress, scenario writer and producer."

      Gene Gauntier (1885-1966) was an actress and screenwriter remembered for her association with the Kalem company, and her scenarios for Ben-Hur (1907) and From the Manger to the Cross (1912). Her autobiography, "Blazing the Trail," was serialized during 1928 and 1929 in the popular magazine "Woman's Home Companion." 
       

    December - An Atypical 1920s Theatre 

      The operations of the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, N.Y. are among the best documented from the silent era. The theatre was not a typical one, as it was associated with the University of Rochester and with the Eastman School of Music. It was oversized for the Rochester market, with a seating capacity for one-eighth of Rochester's population each week. The management of the theatre took their responsibilities very seriously, as indicated by these articles from 1926. These provide a unique view of theatre operations from the perspective of the manager, music director and chief projectionist. Rounding out the overview is a portion of the directions sent to theaters hosting the roadshow presentations of the 1921 film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which emphasize the need for communication during performances between the projectionist and music director. 
       

    November - Salaries of Silent Film Actors

      The salaries paid to the top film stars amazed the public during the silent film era. Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin alternated announcements of their record salaries from their film contracts. These articles tell how high salaries were used to attract top stage stars to the films, and then were extended to popular cinema players. While the box office appeal of some actors justified their high salaries, many equally popular performers were relatively underpaid due to long-term contracts. 
       

    October, 1996 - Orchestral Accompaniment in the 1920s

      When silent films were first released, the music was as important to the experience as the film itself. These articles provide a first hand account by two of the most prominent composer-conductors of the time. Hugo Riesenfeld was the musical director of the Rialto, Rivoli and Critierion Theaters in Manhattan. Erno Rapee was the conductor at the Capitol Theater, and became musical director at the Roxy Theater (both in Manhattan). Each of them supervised the assembly of music scores for the New York run of new features. Riesenfeld wrote the scores that are on the soundtracks of The King of Kings, Sunrise and Tabu. Rapee also wrote several popular theme songs, including "Diane" from 7th Heaven. 
       

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