educational pictures compamy

[metz]

does anyone have a collection of shorts made in the 1930s

[LouieD]

Yes.

[Gloria Rampage]

Me too.

[Marr&Colton]

The correct name of this organization is:

Educational Film Exchanges, Inc.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems there are a few incoherent postings on the forum, (and many well-written!) It would make
reading of postings much easier if they had basic grammar, punctuation and capital letters when required, etc.

I ALWAYS read through my posting first to make sure it makes sense before clicking "SUBMIT".

No offense intended, but it's a pet peeve. Thanks for understanding another side of the experience of online forums.

[Ray Faiola]

I have 16mm original prints of the following:

THE SMART WAY Willie Howard
PLAYBOY NUMBER ONE Willie Howard
JUST PLAIN FOLKS Tim and Irene Ryan
OFF THE HORSES Bert Lahr
HOTEL ANCHOVY The Ritz Brothers
ONE ON THE HOUSE Willie West and McGinty
THE TIMID GHOST Charles Kemper
ANY OLD PORT Buster West & Tom Patricola
THE SCREEN TEST Buster West & Tom Patricola
CACTUS CABALLEROS Harry Gribbon & Joey Faye
STRONGER SEX Bert Roach, George E. Stone
AMUSE YOURSELF Jefferson Machamer
KOO KOO KORRESPONDANCE SCHOOL J. Machamer
BASFUL BALLERINA Imogene Coca
AIR PARADE
SLACKS APPEAL

[entredeuxguerres]

Maybe it's just me, but it seems there are a few incoherent postings on the forum, (and many well-written!) It would make
reading of postings much easier if they had basic grammar, punctuation and capital letters when required, etc.

It's not just you.

[s.w.a.c.]

Weirdly, I am currently wearing the Educational Pictures T-shirt ("The Spice of the Program") I picked up at Cinefest a few years back.

Outside of Syracuse, I think I've only met one other person while wearing it (a fellow Buster Keaton fan) who knew what it signified.

[Ray Faiola]

[s.w.a.c.]

I'd love to see more of these, including the Bert Lahr and Imogene Coca shorts. Are they any good?

Maybe a compilation DVD is in order, at least there'd be a chance that some Lupino Lane could get released.

[sethb]

The last I heard, all of these shorts were mouldering in the Zouary estate, which does nothing to preserve them, and also does nothing to make them publicly available, either. Sound familiar? SETH

[Christopher Jacobs]

The last I heard, all of these shorts were mouldering in the Zouary estate, which does nothing to preserve them, and also does nothing to make them publicly available, either. Sound familiar? SETH

I don't know the details, but I recall hearing that they were assuming (and insisting) that the collection they held the original negatives on were worth a small (or large) fortune, and thus refused fairly reasonable offers for them by people who would have released them to DVD and probably made a modest profit if that.

[vitaphone]

Christopher, you are correct. About 12 years ago I was working with Maurice with the idea of getting his entire collection of 1929-38 two reel (only) Educationals sold. I recall there were something like 435 films, a number of duplicates. I had TCM very interested until he wouldn't budge from his asking price of ovefr a million dollars. He later cut it down to $450,000 but considering these were all PD that was still way too much. To my knowledge the collection still resides in Brooklyn. He tried to justify the steep asking price by claiming that the purchase brought with it all the music rights for any songs contained in the films (untrue).

[FilmGauge]

I've heard the same thing. The holders of the estate better realize that the longer they hold out, there is an increasing chance that the nitrate material may deteriorate to dust (which some of it might be doing right now). This collection's so-called value could be very little if they don't do something soon....

[Marr&Colton]

Greed is such a tragedy in any preservation endeavor!

In spite of the fact that MOST of the Educational sound two-reelers (I've seen lots of them) don't compare in entertainment value to Hal Roach, Columbia, MGM, Warner and RKO shorts, they DO deserve to be preserved and see the light of day in the present time.

[Harlett O'Dowd]

In the 1990s, Rohauer had several of the one-reel Educational musical shorts, yet none of them appear in the Cohen Media's list of their Rohauer holdings:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14342&p=105294&hili ... er#p105294

Might there be another stash of Educationals out there somewhere?

[FrankFay]

When they were good they were very very good, but when they were bad they were chintzy - heck even the GOOD ones are chintzy. The Danny Kaye shorts are funny, but must have been a $14.99 budget.

[sethb]

Interesting comment that all of the Educational shorts are now PD. Is that because they were not copyrighted in the first place, or because the copyrights were not timely renewed, or that they expired, or what?

I was of the impression that most materials copyrighted after about 1925 have now had their copyrights extended for something like 95 years.

Finally, you would think that even if the estate couldn't or didn't want to sell the stuff, they would donate it to the Library of Congress, take a tax write-off, and ensure that the material would be properly stored and preserved. I don't think I'd be comfortable with thousands of feet of nitrate film sitting in my house or garage! SETH

[Richard Finegan]

Interesting comment that all of the Educational shorts are now PD. Is that because they were not copyrighted in the first place, or because the copyrights were not timely renewed, or that they expired, or what?

Since Educational went out of business in early 1939 there was nobody to renew the copyrights when renewal time came. I don't know if 20th Century-Fox could have tried, since they distributed the shorts originally. But they'd probably have had no interest in those cheap old shorts all those years later.

[boblipton]

I'd love to see more of these, including the Bert Lahr and Imogene Coca shorts. Are they any good?

Maybe a compilation DVD is in order, at least there'd be a chance that some Lupino Lane could get released.

I've seen a couple of Lahr's shorts, Faint Heart and Henry the Ache and they are not very good. Lahr was simply too big for the movie screen. He's not simply on, he'sON!!!

Bob

[Marr&Colton]

[quote="sethb"]I was of the impression that most materials copyrighted after about 1925 have now had their copyrights extended for something like 95 years."]



It is my understanding that in order for the extension of copyright to be valid, the work should have had, at the time of the
copyright law change, an active copyright. The Educational shorts in question would have their original copyrights expiring during the 1950s and early 1960s extant copyright statutes.

The extension of copyright wasn't enacted until many decades after these shorts lapsed into public domain.

Thankfully we have the best series of the bunch (Buster Keaton comedies) released on DVD from excellent pre-prints.
The 16mm releasing company Official Films reissued a number of the Educational shorts back in the late 40s and early 50s.

[Marjorian]

Educational Pictures produced excellent Press Sheets typically extending to four pages of detailed info which is pretty impressive for a twenty minute two reel short. These Sheets would include firstly a synopsis of the film, and then pieces about the principal actors, the director, and the backstage crew.

Then rather interestingly there would be suggestions of how the short could be marketed- sound bites for cinema programmers and newspaper reviewers. Each cinema seems to have been given an information pack consisting of a full-sized poster, a set of lobby display cards and a further set of action stills from the production. Though I have some Press Sheets I've never seen any of the cards or stills. I don't know whether any are still in existence.

The sheets even suggest who the cinema might get a tie-in with for the marketing- tourist agencies for example for those that were shot in more exotic locations, or riding schools if there were Western elements in the script. All in all it's rather impressive marketing.

In the early 30s Mack Sennett Talking Pictures productions were using Educational Pictures as distributor, and it was Educational who seem to have taken care of the copyright in these. I've always wanted a definitive answer to whether these productions were Public Domain, given that both Sennett and Educational came unstuck. Incidentally The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Mack Sennett Collection, has a series of photos for many of Mack's shorts of that period. These I think were supplied along with the scripts by Sennett himself. They may have comprised the same sets that Educational used in the promotion.

I've had contact with the Zouarys. Maurice is no longer with us and it was clear that his widow had no intention of letting the collection (307 films I think) see the light of day in her lifetime- a great shame. I don't know what rights the Zouarys claim they have in this material- for a start there are other copies circulating of several of the films.