Tweet New CineMuseum Restoration

Several months ago we located vintage 16 & 35mm materials which contained the long missing footage from Roscoe Arbuckle's 1916 short subject THE WAITERS' BALL. There were major technical issues due to poor storage and nitrate decomposition but through great care and perseverance I have been able to resurrect the footage. We are currently reconstructing the film for CineMuseum's new Arbuckle Anthology DVD collection.

Of particular interest is a major extension of the "Anvil Chorus" broom gag which had been appropriated from the Keaton's vaudeville act.

Arbuckle's mighty swing:



The aftermath:



Thanks to Brittany Valente, Richard M. Roberts, Joe Rinaudo, The Silent Comedy Mafia, Rob Stone and the other usual suspects for their assistance with the restoration and preservation of this find.

Paul E. Gierucki

The recovery and restoration of Arbuckle material is always a welcome event. The "Forgottent Films of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle" DVD, which I believe is now out of print, sparked my interest in silent comedy when it came out. It set a very high standard for any future restorations and releases of similar material. Someone as important as Arbuckle deserves to have his work presented in the best form possible. Thanks!

oldies.com is selling what looks like new-old stock of the Arbuckle set for $7.98. http://www.oldies.com/product-view/1072ED.html

..and I've seen sealed copies selling at Half Price books for 15 bucks.

But about this NEW box set...
Is this just going to be a re-release of the Laughsmith set or is this going to be a whole new set featuring previously unreleased shorts and features?

I can't wait for this new set! I have The Forgotten Films Of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle set in my collection and this will rest right next to it.

The Arbuckle Anthology is a 10 DVD set of shorts and features mastered in HD from the best surviving 35mm nitrate, negatives, preservation materials or lone surviving prints selected from archives and private collections around the world. This is not in any way a reissue.

While I am very proud of previous releases, CineMuseum is redoubling efforts to make this the definitive collection of Roscoe Arbuckle's best works -- as will be The Mack Sennett Collection which is being produced concurrently.

Our most sincere thanks for all the kind enthusiasm and support!

Paul E. Gierucki
CineMuseum, LLC

[Christopher Jacobs]

The Arbuckle Anthology is a 10 DVD set of shorts and features mastered in HD from the best surviving 35mm nitrate, negatives, preservation materials or lone surviving prints selected from archives and private collections around the world. This is not in any way a reissue.

I don't know what the current economic investment for authoring and pressing is at this point (and I hope it's rapidly dropping) but with HD masters already done or in the works, what are the chances this might make it to Blu-ray in the near future?

The sets will be available in both DVD and BR formats next year, Christopher.

-- PG

[Christopher Jacobs]

The sets will be available in both DVD and BR formats next year, Christopher.

-- PG

Great news, Paul! I can hardly wait!! I do hope they manage to show up on local store shelves, which is where I was shocked to see the other Arbuckle collection and immediately bought it, rather than ordering on line, to encourage the store to stock more classic movies.

So Paul, does this mean that the new Arbuckle set will include all the films from the old set in more pristine condition plus more? Or will the old set still have some unique content?

Any idea going be show on TCM last weekend I enjoy Laurel and Hardy silents

BTW, the guy taking the big floparoo in the scans is Robert Maximillian, who plays the owner of the restaurant. He was later a regular in the early 1920s Toonerville Trolley comedies.

The Arbuckle Anthology is a 10 DVD set of shorts and features mastered in HD from the best surviving 35mm nitrate, negatives, preservation materials or lone surviving prints selected from archives and private collections around the world. This is not in any way a reissue.

Absolutely magnificent news, I can hardly wait. Thank you beforehand.

Sounds like a great set.

Looking forward to this.

This is great to hear. Any chance of the some of the other long unseen features, besides just LEAP YEAR? And I love LEAP YEAR! Is there better surviving print material?

Now, If someone would just put out a Colleen Moore Retrospective. Something that ties in with Jeff Codori's forthcoming biography. Which is just about to be released at long last.

Waver -- Overlap between the Anthology and TFFORFA will be due to upgrades in quality and / or content. There are some significantly improved / extended versions of familiar titles but there are far more which have not yet seen a proper release.

Gagman -- working on it!

Again, our most sincere thanks to everyone!

-- Paul E. Gierucki

Are there any plans to show the restored Waiter's Ball at the next Damfinos convention... along with an Arbuckle feature like, say, The Life of the Party?

Any chance The Cook will be included in the Arbuckle Anthology set?

Many thanks.

Any chance for Paul to drop everything he is doing and answer all of our questions on an up-coming release, thereby delaying said release, causing us to bombard him with even more questions about why the release didn't make its deadline?

Great News - I can't wait for the 'new' Arbuckle, Sennett, and especially Mabel Normand, sets..And in Hi-RES!

With Mr Gierucki at the helm I know we'll get nice theatrical running speeds instead of slow-mo which seriously marred [IMO] a recent Chaplin Keystone DVD set.

I'd very much like like to support the projects by pre-ordering. Can that be done at this point? Does CineMuseum have a website other than a Facebook page? For reasons I won't mention, I will never go on Facebook again.

That's too bad. You're missing a great Wine & Cheese party on FB at this very moment.

That's too bad. You're missing a great Wine & Cheese party on FB at this very moment.

What, people sitting at a computer by themselves having wine and cheese? Thats a vision of the 10's.


RICHARD M ROBERTS (another person proud to avoid Facebook, not that being here indicates any more of a life)

I'm right there with you, Richard. If it doesn't have covers or endpapers, it's the wrong wine ambiance. I'm in the wine business, so I'm prejudiced...

The September 2012 TCM schedule has just been revealed, including listings of all the Mack Sennett films we can be looking forward to:

http://www.tcm.com/schedule/monthly.htm ... =2012-9-01

....and the same day they're showing Thunderbirds are Go. All we need is Eisenstein's Dnevnik Glumova and a Clutch Cargo festival to creep out everyone.

Bob

What is CineMuseum? I never heard of it before reading these posts. Being new here please forgive me if I'm asking a silly question.

What is CineMuseum? I never heard of it before reading these posts. Being new here please forgive me if I'm asking a silly question.

It's Paul Gierucki's Production Company post-Laughsmith Entertainment.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Richard M Roberts:

It's Paul Gierucki's Production Company post-Laughsmith Entertainment.

Ah! Thank you very much. I have Paul's/Laughsmith's marvelous Forgotten Films Of Roscoe Arbuckle and Industrial Strength Keaton DVDs. Glad he's back with a new company and will look forward to upcoming releases.

Did do a search for CineMuseum but all I got was a facebook link and I don't bother with facebook or twitter.

Appreciate the information.