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The survival rate for Betty Bronson's films seems to be pretty abysmal(unsurprising for a Paramount star of that period) ... I've put together a rough list. Anyone have any info on the Unknowns?

Existing

Peter Pan (1924)
Are Parents People? (1924)
Ben-Hur (1925)
A Kiss for Cinderella (1925)
Brass Knuckles (1927) - possible partial (was in `Unknown')
The Singing Fool (1928)
Sonny Boy (1929)
The Locked Door (1929)
The Medicine Man (1930)
Lover Come Back (1931) (was in `Unknown')
Yodelin’ Kid from Pine Ridge (1937)

Presumed Lost

Not So Long Ago (1925)
The Golden Princess (1925)
Everybody’s Acting (1926)
The Cat’s Pyjamas (1926)
Ritzy (1927)
Open Range (1927)
Paradise for Two (1927)
The Bellamy Trial (1929)
One Stolen Night (1929)

Unknown

Paradise (1926)
A Companionate Marriage (1928)
A Modern Sappho (1929) – I can find very little on this; even IMDB only has the name and the fact that Betty Bronson was in it.
The Midnight Patrol (1932)

I know UCLA have her papers, but I've also heard that they have one of her costumes from `Peter Pan'. I'd be interested to know whether that's more than a hopeful rumour.

Until recently, TCM's website listed a Sept. 16 screening of the 1931 Bronson film LOVER COME BACK, but another film is in that time slot now.

Betty Bronson, Florence Vidor and Adolphe Menjou

I'm pretty sure that all is left of Are Parents People? (1925) is the Kodascope home-movie version.



Caption: "EVERYBODY'S ACTING" That is the title of the new Marshall Neilan picture for Paramount. "Everybody's Acting" is a story about the theatre and stars Betty Bronson, shown here with Stuart Holmes and Ford Sterling.

Brooksie wrote: I know UCLA have her papers, but I've also heard that they have one of her costumes from `Peter Pan'. I'd be interested to know whether that's more than a hopeful rumour.

They have her papers, they don't have her costume. You can read more about Betty here:
http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dkoks/BettyBronson/

According to the FIAF database, the Cineteca Nazionale in Rome has some 35 mm nitrate material on BRASS KNUCKLES (1927).

None of the other questionable or believed-lost titles returned a hit.

Edit: Note that the database only covers pre-1930 films.

LOVER COME BACK exists; Cinecon showed it last fall. It's a really good pre-code, starring Bronson and Jack Mulhall as a married couple who experience marital problems with she becomes a little too friendly with his boss. She's a little hotsy totsy in this, a little vixen. Her son was there to see it as well.

I hope "A Kiss For Cinderella" comes out in a decent transfer someday, somewhere. I wonder if the dream sequence (in the original play) was an inspiration for the dream sequence in Chaplin's "The Kid."

Frederica wrote:

Brooksie wrote: I know UCLA have her papers, but I've also heard that they have one of her costumes from `Peter Pan'. I'd be interested to know whether that's more than a hopeful rumour.

They have her papers, they don't have her costume. You can read more about Betty here:
http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dkoks/BettyBronson/

Tee hee - I think it might have been Don (whose site this is) who told me the rumour about the costume in the first place! There are a couple of items from my collection on the site - the `Betty Bronson Cinema Album at http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dkoks/B ... elude.html (shown roughly at actual size) is one of my all-time favourites.

Thanks all for the info on the other films - I didn't expect to be switching very many into the `Existing' category ...

rogerskarsten wrote:According to the FIAF database, the Cineteca Nazionale in Rome has some 35 mm nitrate material on BRASS KNUCKLES (1927).

None of the other questionable or believed-lost titles returned a hit.

Edit: Note that the database only covers pre-1930 films.

I've heard that the trailer survives on this. Maybe that's what the Cineteca has?

If PETER PAN is not owned by Paramount, why is A KISS FOR CINDERELLA owned by them? Or is it? Anyone know Great movie. ARE PARENTS PEOPLE? is just wonderful too. Betty was a Dolly, and a terrific actress. The stills from PARADISE look so delightful.

Gagman 66 wrote: If PETER PAN is not owned by Paramount, why is A KISS FOR CINDERELLA owned by them?

Maybe it's because it wasn't remade by another studio. That's usually the reason a different studio ends up owning a film.

Gagman 66 wrote: If PETER PAN is not owned by Paramount, why is A KISS FOR CINDERELLA owned by them? Or is it?

Here are my notes from a review of documents on file with the United States Copyright Office:

- In 1919 and 1921, Paramount's predecessor companies acquired screen rights to "Peter Pan," and a silent motion picture was released in 1924.

- In 1938, Paramount Pictures Inc., assigned to Walt Disney Enterprises, all right, title and interest to the film rights to the play "Peter Pan" and some other works, the copyright in the 1924 motion picture PETER PAN, and the motion picture negative and prints.

The motion picture copyright on A KISS FOR CINDERELLA was renewed by Paramount, and is presumably still owned by the studio.

David Pierce

Yes, I recalled it having some connection to the later Disney movie. The cynic in me wonders if, for all those years it was only `lost' and not lost ... the Mouse House keeps pretty strong control over its properties.

Does anyone have any further information on the survival status of `Sonny Boy'? I have now read a number of conflicting views - that it's 100% lost, that it's partially lost, that it's still around but not readily accessible, that some of the sound discs survived, that all of them did ...

I'm also still curious about `Paradise'. It was not a Paramount Picture but was a `Ray Rockett Production', distributed by First National - no doubt this both does and doesn't improve its chances of survival.

From the stills, it looks like so much fun. Perhaps some Milton Sills fans out there have further info?

Well, ... you can see her as Constance Towers's nice landlady in Sam Fuller's 1964 "The Naked Kiss". But I wouldn't recomend it.

George O'Brien wrote:Well, ... you can see her as Constance Towers's nice landlady in Sam Fuller's 1964 "The Naked Kiss". But I wouldn't recomend it.

I would. THE NAKED KISS is a great little film.

Hehe ... I haven't even factored in her later-career movies (yes, I have seen as much of the Evel Kneivel movie as I'll ever need to see ...)

bradleyem wrote:Until recently, TCM's website listed a Sept. 16 screening of the 1931 Bronson film LOVER COME BACK, but another film is in that time slot now.

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DRAT !!!
That was going to be absolutely the highlight of the entire TCM month for me. I looked forward to it for over three months, since the Sept. schedule was posted.
Let's hope they can re-schedule it.