Silent Movie History

The Founders of the Hollywood Film Colony Gather Together(Film Daily, 1939)

A notice from the pages of a 1939 Hollywood trade publication announced an organization for the silver-haired alumni of Hollywood’s silent film business:

Early this summer there came into existence a new organization known as Picture Pioneers, consisting of veterans who have been in the industry 25 years.


Click here to read about the movie moguls of 1919.

The Founders of the Hollywood Film Colony Gather Together(Film Daily, 1939) Read More »

The Founders of the Hollywood Film Colony Gather Together(Film Daily, 1939)

A notice from the pages of a 1939 Hollywood trade publication announced an organization for the silver-haired alumni of Hollywood’s silent film business:

Early this summer there came into existence a new organization known as Picture Pioneers, consisting of veterans who have been in the industry 25 years.


Click here to read about the movie moguls of 1919.

The Founders of the Hollywood Film Colony Gather Together(Film Daily, 1939) Read More »

A New Word for the Dictionary (NY Times, 1914)

In our era it doesn’t seem terribly odd that a fresh, exciting and highly popular industry would begin generating new words to fill our dictionaries, and 1914 was no different. The attached article introduced the readers of THE NEW YORK TIMES to a new verb contributed by the early film industry:

The verb ‘to film’ having gained currency, it must be graciously admitted to the language. It will soon be in the ‘advanced’ dictionaries and it must be recognized. The old idea of protecting the English language from invasion is extinct. To ‘film’ means to make a picture for a ‘movie’ show’.


During the past twenty years, Hollywood provided us with a whole slew of terms, such as dramedy (a combination between a comedy and a drama) and “romcom” (romantic comedy), sitcom (situation comedy) to name only a few.


Click here to read another article about the impact of film on the English language.

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Farina (Hollywood Vagabond, 1927)

Attached is a glowing review that praises the dramatic talents of a seven-year-old boy: Allen Clayton Hoskins (aka, Farina) – one of the few African-Americans to have been chosen to perform in the ensemble cast that made up the Our Gang comedies.

One of the most gifted thespians in the silent drama is Farina, the negro child actor whose facile expression has created no end of comment… Placed in the midst of a group of children, all of whom have been tutored over a period of several years in the intricacies of and politics of photoplay acting, Farina has created a high standard of achievement… this troupin’ Nubian has given the others of the gang plenty to aim at in the form of a thespic target.

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Robert Sherwood in the Dream Factory (Life Magazine, 1922)

In 1922 former Vanity Fair editor (1919 – 1920) and future Algonquin wit, Robert E. Sherwood (1896 – 1955), taking his job seriously as the film critic for LIFE MAGAZINE, journeyed West to visit the growing movie kingdom of Hollywood. The doors magically opened up for him and he was able to rub elbows with many of the crowned heads of the realm. He filed these eight paragraphs recounting his experiences and observations; you might be amused to read his thoughts concerning the unfinished Hollywood sign.

The article is adorned with cartoons by John Held Jr.. In the world of American 1920s satirical art, he was the gold standard.

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More Nasty Criticism About Silent Films (English Review, 1922)

This new form of illusion cannot be called an art. Without the magic of the human voice, without the reality of the human form, lacking in color sound and poetry the film is purely an ocular illusion, an effect of light.


Another anti-silent film article can be read here…


Click here to read a 1939 article about an alumni organization for the pioneers of silent films.

More Nasty Criticism About Silent Films (English Review, 1922) Read More »

1914 Hollywood (American Legion Monthly, 1934)

This is excerpt from a longer article about the goings-on in 1914 presented an interesting (if incomplete) list of Hollywood’s offerings for 1914:


• The most popular screen performers were Mary Pickford, John Bunny, Ethel Barrymore and May Irwin.

• The most popular films were The Peril’s of Pauline and an Italian film titled Cabiria (directed by Giovanni Pastrone, aka: Piero Fosco).

This reminiscence pays tribute to a stand-up comedian named Jack Gardner and his skit, Curse You Jack Dalton, in which he interacted with the performers on a movie screen, ordering them about, cracking wise and even having the audience believe that he had shot one of them.

1914 Hollywood (American Legion Monthly, 1934) Read More »

Harold Lloyd: The Man, The Cornball (The American Magazine, 1922)

An in-depth interview with the great silent film comedian Harold Lloyd (1893 – 1971) accompanied by a seldom seen picture of the man WITHOUT his glasses (he didn’t really need them).

One blogger read the attached article and wrote the following:

I’ve never read this before – it’s great. It’s always good to hear Harold’s own thoughts on his films; I enjoyed his description of the stunt he did in on top of the locomotive at the mouth of an approaching tunnel in the film Now or Never. It’s a spectacularly funny gag, but we sometimes forget the effort that went into these scenes; Harold was one comedy star who was prepared to suffer for his art!

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