Making Silent converts

[rollot24]

One of my watering holes in Seattle, Naked City Taphouse (named for the film noir, NOT any other reason) constantly has their TVs tuned to TCM. One of the owners told me that during Silent Sundays, when it's "last call" several customers will refuse to leave because they want to find out how the movie ends.

There's more than one way to get people interested in silents, but usually does include alcohol.

[Christopher Jacobs]

And the nice thing about running silent movies in bars is that you don't need to hear the dialogue above all the crowd noise. Some bars keep some TVs set to news channels running with the close-captioning turned on, so maybe running silent films would be an ideal option to run on a few of the numerous TV sets around the room (just don't stretch them out or crop them to 16x9!). Maybe they should start with Chaplin's ONE A.M. and THE CURE.

--Christopher Jacobs
http://hpr1.com/film
http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs

[Rodney]

And the nice thing about running silent movies in bars is that you don't need to hear the dialogue above all the crowd noise. Some bars keep some TVs set to news channels running with the close-captioning turned on, so maybe running silent films would be an ideal option to run on a few of the numerous TV sets around the room (just don't stretch them out or crop them to 16x9!). Maybe they should start with Chaplin's ONE A.M. and THE CURE.

--Christopher Jacobs
http://hpr1.com/film
http://www.und.edu/instruct/cjacobs

I've always thought that airplane in-flight movies would be a very logical place for silent films. No audio required. Of course, WINGS would not be an ideal choice....

[Frederica]

I've always thought that airplane in-flight movies would be a very logical place for silent films. No audio required. Of course, WINGS would not be an ideal choice....

You'd want to stay away from Carole Lombard's silents, too.

[rollot24]

The owners of Naked City Taphouse are big film buffs and they do have the TVs set to standard ratio and not 16x9. (Good beer, too!)

[silentfilm]

A few years ago I was on an American Airlines flight to Japan, and after one of the main features was shown on the seat-back video screen, they showed Chaplin's The Adventurer (1917).

British Airways is much better about allowing you to watch older films in-flight, but I've never seen a silent film on their menu.

[Michael O'Regan]

What's the situation regarding rights with showing movies in a bar like that?
Any issues?

[rudyfan]

What's the situation regarding rights with showing movies in a bar like that?
Any issues?

It is my understanding they're tuned in to TCM, just like tuning in to CNN or NFL games. They pay for their cable/satellite, no issue.

[rollot24]

What's the situation regarding rights with showing movies in a bar like that?
Any issues?

It is my understanding they're tuned in to TCM, just like tuning in to CNN or NFL games. They pay for their cable/satellite, no issue.

That's what they're doing, but I think question is regarding what if the bar wanted to show a specific series of films either to rent of from the owner's collection, would there be rights issues? Am I correct Micheal?

What about all those pizza parlors in the 60s & 70's that ran a continuous loop of WB cartoons or 3 Stooges shorts. Did they have permission?

[Richard M Roberts]

What's the situation regarding rights with showing movies in a bar like that?
Any issues?

It is my understanding they're tuned in to TCM, just like tuning in to CNN or NFL games. They pay for their cable/satellite, no issue.

That's what they're doing, but I think question is regarding what if the bar wanted to show a specific series of films either to rent of from the owner's collection, would there be rights issues? Am I correct Micheal?

What about all those pizza parlors in the 60s & 70's that ran a continuous loop of WB cartoons or 3 Stooges shorts. Did they have permission?

The pizza parlors like Shakeys, Straw Hat and Village Inn that ran old movies were renting them from places like Modern Sound Pictires and elsewhere. There was a company that did nothing but put together those Technicolor loop cartridges of prints for those places, I bought a bunch of brand-new super 8mm Blackhawk prints from them in the mid-80's when they were going out of business. Can't remember their name.

In the late 60's-early 70's, I was fortunate to have one of each of the above-mentioned Pizza parlors within bike -riding distance from my house, and I knew what day they changed their films. I did my regular weekly route, and I saw more great two-reel Roach, Sennett and Columbia comedies there for the first time that I can remember. There was also a New Orleans-themed restaraunt called "The Copper Belle" that ran silent comedies. And the Shakeys ran features! Who needed art houses in those days.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

[Jim Reid]

I had a friend who bought out a distributor of those pizza parlor films. He had a pile of non-working cartridge projectors and a lot of great titles in super 8. The weird thing was they were all printed on color Eastman stock and had turned pink. There were many sound titles mixed in. Columbia Chases and Blackhawk Our Gang comedies.

[azjazzman]

The pizza parlors like Shakeys, Straw Hat and Village Inn that ran old movies were renting them from places like Modern Sound Pictires and elsewhere. There was a company that did nothing but put together those Technicolor loop cartridges of prints for those places, I bought a bunch of brand-new super 8mm Blackhawk prints from them in the mid-80's when they were going out of business. Can't remember their name.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Yeah, I remember that company. Northwest Custom Film Service or something like that, as I recall. Boy, it's amazing the trivia one can recall from 30 years ago. I bought some film from them, but you wanted to stay away from the used ones that had been in the cartridges. They were almost always scratched up beyond recognition.

[azjazzman]

I had a friend who bought out a distributor of those pizza parlor films. He had a pile of non-working cartridge projectors and a lot of great titles in super 8. The weird thing was they were all printed on color Eastman stock and had turned pink. There were many sound titles mixed in. Columbia Chases and Blackhawk Our Gang comedies.

I don't remember any being printed on color stock, but a lot of them were printed on Estar (polyester) film stock, because of the abuse the prints were subjected to.

[Mike Gebert]

I remember those too. First place I saw Charley Chase was a showing of The Heckler on the wall of Straw Hat Pizza in Wichita. A lot of L&H, and also Flash Gordon, I think I saw the whole thing by making my family go there every Friday night for four months.

I'm not sure if it was the same system or a slightly different one, but there was a cartridge film system that in advertising we just called "Fairchilds," I think they were made by what was otherwise a defense contractor, probably originally for Army training use. I had a lawn mower client in the early 80s at my first agency, and when we did their instructional video, we had to make VHS's, 3/4" tapes, and exactly ONE Fairchild cartridge for a big dealer somewhere who refused to switch to video.

I'm not surprised they were scratched up, basically it was an 8 track for film which rubbed the film against itself in order to stay constantly rewound. Audiotape I suppose could take more of that than film.

[Richard M Roberts]

I remember those too. First place I saw Charley Chase was a showing of The Heckler on the wall of Straw Hat Pizza in Wichita. A lot of L&H, and also Flash Gordon, I think I saw the whole thing by making my family go there every Friday night for four months.

I'm not sure if it was the same system or a slightly different one, but there was a cartridge film system that in advertising we just called "Fairchilds," I think they were made by what was otherwise a defense contractor, probably originally for Army training use. I had a lawn mower client in the early 80s at my first agency, and when we did their instructional video, we had to make VHS's, 3/4" tapes, and exactly ONE Fairchild cartridge for a big dealer somewhere who refused to switch to video.

I'm not surprised they were scratched up, basically it was an 8 track for film which rubbed the film against itself in order to stay constantly rewound. Audiotape I suppose could take more of that than film.

My High School had that system, and cartridges with a lot of educational films, and weird footage of the human body moving in x-ray and such. Those cartridges were actually 8-track size. Technicolor actually made the larger size that ran the 400 foot cartridges.

Straw Hat Pizza actually ran 16mm (I actually bought a load of Bell and Howell Autoload 16mm machines at auction from them when they went out of business. I had never cleaned that much pizza grease out a projector before), and got their prints form Modern Sound Pictures. So down the street, for the price of a small pizza and a coke, I could weekly so and see a two-hour new program of shorts that ranged from Roach to Columbia, to even Warner brothers Vitaphone shorts. I actually saw CLOSE RELATIONS with Roscoe Arbuckle for the first time in one of those. And one of my fondest family film memories was going with my whole family for pizza one Friday night and discovering they were just coming to the end of SONS OF THE DESERT when we got there, and we all stayed and watched the whole thing when they ran it again. First time I saw it.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

[azjazzman]

I'm not sure if it was the same system or a slightly different one, but there was a cartridge film system that in advertising we just called "Fairchilds," I think they were made by what was otherwise a defense contractor, probably originally for Army training use. I had a lawn mower client in the early 80s at my first agency, and when we did their instructional video, we had to make VHS's, 3/4" tapes, and exactly ONE Fairchild cartridge for a big dealer somewhere who refused to switch to video.

Yes, Fairchild had a Super 8 cartridge system (the projector was actually made by Eumig), Bell and Howell had one, as did Bolex, and even Kodak had the Ektagraphic system. That one used a Super 8 cartridge that you dropped into your Kodak Super 8 movie camera, then after shooting the film you sent the film into Kodak for processing and they returned it to you in the cartridge which you then loaded onto their projector. You never touched film...it even rewound itself.

The industry thought that eliminating threading, rewinding etc was the key to making movie film the mass market product that video eventually became.

All of it seems oddly quaint in today's digital age.

[Mike Gebert]

The industry thought that eliminating threading, rewinding etc was the key to making movie film the mass market product that video eventually became.

Well, eliminating threading certainly turned out to be, it just turned out not to require film.

[Michael O'Regan]

Is this one of them there mo-sheens?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FAIRCHILD-CART-RE ... 19bc7c1096

[Mike Gebert]

Yes, that's one style, where you watched it like a TV (it was actually rear projection of film, as you probably guessed).

[Michael O'Regan]

.... as you probably guessed).

Yep

[moviepas]

In the 1970s labs I used in Australia started using 16mm color reversal stock for b&w orders as b&w stocks ran out & Kodak was not making anymore although occasionally Kodak did a batch of S8 b&w stock, mainly for camera us for the amateur photographer and only available for a limited time. Kodak have now ceased processing here and the factory closed and abandoned. It had a fire and was to be converted to apartments. Kodak's first known lab in Melbourne(inner area to downtown) was later used as a TV film studio which later moved t another site in an outer suburb which, in turn, is now an apartment site.

Kodak had a form of censorship and naughty photos were withdrawn from return(often thru drugstores in those days) with a note back to the owner as to why. I believe they did spot checks on 8mm films also & did the same.

[rollot24]

Kodak had a form of censorship and naughty photos were withdrawn from return(often thru drugstores in those days) with a note back to the owner as to why. I believe they did spot checks on 8mm films also & did the same.

The question, of course, is who kept the photos?

[Mr. Grimes]

I had a Village Inn Pizza Parlor close to my childhood home that showed those films too. It became a Tuesday night ritual. Wow, that brings back some fond memories....and the pizza wasn't bad either!

[Silents Please]

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[boblipton]

In New York, the small chain 'Cinema Cafe' still does. Longer silents also.

Bob

[gjohnson]

In my home town of Mpls a lot of bars and disco's in the 70's and 80's would play film clip compilations on a loop over the blasting music and flashing strobe lights. They were always a mixture of silent and classic sound films.

Gary J.