Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:15 pm
I have only just come across this thread, so, pardon moi for my lateness in scribbling this introduction.
I am an old git hurtling towards the cemetery gates with a passion for old pictures, old gramophone records, cinema organs and old movie palaces. Well at my age everything that I grew up with is old in any case.
I can just remember the heyday of cinema presentation before television started here in Australia in 1956 and took away a lot of the wonderful picture theatres in its wake. Luckily in Melbourne we still have the three main picture palaces with us. Those were the days when there was the resemblance of an orchestra (down to a 5 or 7 piece combo with a vocalist) on the rising orchestra platform - but the mighty Wurlitzer was still on the programme together with the newsreels, shorts, a "B" feature and the main attraction.
Because my father still worked on a Saturday morning - he would take me into town and dump me at one of the palaces to see a morning performance. If I had been particularly good I would have a milkshake and a caramel waffle at "Hillier's", the chocolatiers next door to the Regent - my favourite picture palace.
Mostly though I attended one of my local cinemas for the "Saturday arvo matinee". It cost 1/6 to sit in the back stalls and 3d for a bag of sherbet with a licorice straw or 6d for a "dixie" ice-cream. (Ice-cream in a cardboard cup eaten with a wooden spoon).
It was at these Saturday matinees in between the sporadic new releases, I came to appreciate the likes of George Formby, Will Hay, Roy Rogers, Laurel & Hardy, The Marx Bros., Hopalong Cassidy and other delights of films made long before I was born.
Also still existing in those days were the Newsreel cinemas - given over to featuring a continuous "Hour Show". This is where I first encountered silent pictures - those of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
When television started - it became a showcase for old pictures and still was up to the late 1990's. Silent pictures were never played and there was only one exception when "Son of the Shiek" turned up on a commercial network in 1968. However there were some excellent documentaries over the years and I remember "Silents Please" back in the '60's together with the travesty that was "Fracktured Flickers".
Also in the 1960's I bought a Super 8 cine camera and immediately was of the opinion that I was of the ilk of Cecil B. deMille. I mean, how hard can it be to make a picture? A room full of unwound film all over the walls and floor soon had me come to the realisation that putting a film together was not that easy a proposition. In 1970, after slowly becoming more proficient with some of the techniques of making pictures (but not all, I hasten to add), I ventured into my first and only silent feature film. This epic featured a number of my friends who came along for a lark and in whom I had to instil some of the basics of "acting". It was all good fun making it, but putting it all together took a lot of time, worry and effort. Still, with the titles, editing and music I thought I hadn't done too bad a job. I sometimes look at it again once every five years or so and it brings a smile to my face.
Not getting a call from MGM, I pursued my day job and with some of my hard-earned wages I started buying home 8mm versions of classic films from "Blackhawk" and other distributors. These were all silent of course and I spent a great deal of time, effort and more money buying gramophone records in order to add a musical accompaniment. Sometimes I played the films with myself providing a live piano accompaniment. Luckily that is now so long ago it will be out of most of the audience's minds.
In the 1970's I joined a Theatre Organ Society and with an audience of 1,500 in a packed cinema I saw Gaylord Carter accompany "The Mark of Zorro" with Douglas Fairbanks. This was the first time I had seen a silent picture in a big cinema with live accompaniment. It was from that moment on that I wanted to know all there was to know about silent pictures and their presentation. I spent many weeks at the public library going through old newspapers and learning about the pictures and their exhibition in Australia. I also joined a film society which widened my ability to see more silents and classics of the early talking screen.
Of course back in my salad days, old pictures were not the flavour of the month and my liking of silent pictures was just laughed at. These opinions started to change slightly when in 1982 "Napoleon" screened in Australia accompanied by a fifty piece orchestra. This was followed up in the next few years with a season of silent pictures accompanied by a large orchestra conducted by Carl Davis using his own scores. These pictures included "The Crowd" and "Ben Hur".
(Making the jump to today - who would ever have thought that we would be able to possess our own copy of a film? First we had them on tape, now they are on DVD's and Blue Rays and we can watch them whenever we like without having to leg it across town on a cold winter's night to some decrepit flea house in order to see a special screening. More and more we are seeing silent pictures come out of their closets to be shown in beautiful old picture theatres either to be played to by piano, organ or orchestra. And who on earth would ever have imagined that a silent picture would be made in the 21st Century and win the Academy Award.)
But I digress. Over the years I have gained knowledge of not only the pictures and their accompaniment - but the intricate and elaborate showmanship that also accompanied their screening - which I sometimes wish could also be part and parcel of today's revivals.
I have given up going to picture theatres these days. I am deafened by the noise, can't stand the smell of that awful popcorn, don't like people chattering all the time and can't stand the sloppiness in presentation. These days I watch pictures in my own cinema which I had constructed a few years back. I have over 2,000 films now and they will probably see me out. Apart from trying to wade through these, I have a project whereby I might get around to re-recording my collection of 78's on to CD's. I have a software programme that will "fix up" the sound - but not being a sound engineer or very intellectual it is taking me some time to understand all the ins and outs of it.
I have friends in Europe and the United States with whom I correspond on a regular basis about our similar interest and I have so far enjoyed adding my "two bob's worth" in threads on Nitrate Ville.
I am sorry to have waffled on with all my usual outflow - but I look forward to learning more as I keep perusing this board and I hope to make some more friends.
Silents Please!
Regards from
Donald Binks
According to my rejection notice, my ISP was the same as some trouble maker that was banned. Given how rural the place I live at is, I would be surprised if there were another silent film fan around here - at least I've never encountered another one (and I'm not shy in talking about my silent film interests either). Anyway, if I ever do meet this other fan (even though I'm inclined to view such a person like the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot), I'll be sure to ask him what he was doing on that other forum! 
Welcome to Nitrateville.
. Our primary area is film posters, but we have branched out to try to include as many associated areas as possible. We’ve been dubbed as ‘track-a-holics’. 
