Watched "Fragments" on TCM and learned that:

[sethb]

1. The 1915 Lon Chaney feature, "The Miracle Man," was remade in 1992 as "Leap of Faith," starring Steve Martin as the con man/preacher. When I watched the surviving portion of this feature, the plot was identical. Does anyone know if it was also remade prior to 1992?

2. A "trailer" was called a trailer because it originally ran AFTER the main feature and not before it, as is now customary. Of course, in the 1920's, films didn't have 10 minutes of credits, so the audience was probably a lot more likely to stay and watch the trailers!!

This was a great documentary showcasing many different bits and pieces of features that no longer exist. It also included the color fragment of Laurel & Hardy from "The Rogue Song" (1930). I understand this may well have been one of the most entertaining portions of the entire movie! SETH

[Jim Reid]

Miracle Man was remade in 1932 by Paramount starring Chester Morris & Sylvia Sidney. It played at Cinecon a couple of years ago.

[missdupont]

And Hobart Bosworth as the preacher.

[Scoundrel]

John Wray as the Frog and Boris Karloff as Nikko

[John Inglesant]

2. A "trailer" was called a trailer because it originally ran AFTER the main feature and not before it, as is now customary.

The derivation of this term had also been a mystery to me, because they were already being called "pre-views" when my movie life commenced. (When? I just remember we all liked Ike.)

[Mike Gebert]

What I remember is that "trailer" was an industry term into the 70s and 80s; to ordinary people they were "previews," and if I said trailer, people didn't know what I meant. Then, somehow, in the age of cable, trailer became normal usage (as in the TV show "Trailer Camp," which would show old trailers).

[Jim Roots]

Then, somehow, in the age of cable, trailer became normal usage (as in the TV show "Trailer Camp," which would show old trailers).

What an exciting show that sounds like: clips of 1960 Airstreams, 1980 U-Hauls, 1985 Streamliners....


Jim

[Harlett O'Dowd]

Miracle Man was remade in 1932 by Paramount starring Chester Morris & Sylvia Sidney. It played at Cinecon a couple of years ago.

and now Leap of Faith is a stage musical.

[drednm]

Wikipedia says:

The first trailer shown in a U.S. movie theater was in November 1913, when Nils Granlund, the advertising manager for the Marcus Loew theater chain, produced a short promotional film for the musical The Pleasure Seekers, opening at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. Loew adopted the practice, which was reported in a wire service story carried by the Lincoln, Nebraska Daily Star, describing it as "an entirely new and unique stunt", and that "moving pictures of the rehearsals and other incidents connected with the production will be sent out in advance of the show, to be presented to the Loew’s picture houses and will take the place of much of the bill board advertising".[3] Granlund was also first to introduce trailer material for an upcoming motion picture, using a slide technique to promote an upcoming film featuring Charlie Chaplin at Loew's Seventh Avenue Theatre in Harlem in 1914.[4] Up until the late 1950s, trailers were mostly created by National Screen Service and consisted of various key scenes from the film being advertised, often augmented with large, descriptive text describing the story, and an underscore generally pulled from studio music libraries. Most trailers had some form of narration and those that did featured stentorian voices.

[John Inglesant]

Never cease to be amazed by what appears in Wikipedia. (Just spent nearly an hr perusing entries related to Fair Use.)

Too bad the custom was changed from after to before the feature, as "true" trailers might encourage a more orderly dispersal of the audience--some would bolt, some linger, & some (like myself) stick to the bitter end.

[Gagman 66]

sethb,

THE MIRACLE MAN was from 1919, not 1915.But that is OK, because i used to frequently say that it was from 1920 or 1921.

[sethb]

Thanks for the date correction, I must have misread it during the TV program.

BTW, when I worked as a theater manager back in the 1970's, I discovered a closet full of used 35mm and 16mm trailers. When I asked about them, I was told, "Yep, we've been meaning to clean that closet out for some time now."

So I volunteered to clean it out -- and spliced all the 16mm material onto a couple of 2000-foot reels. I"m guessing that they were supposed to be used as TV spots or something. They were fun to watch, and now I wish I had saved them!! SETH

[Gagman 66]

sethb,

Rich Oliveri's own Silent Film Fragments DVD contains part of the Trailer for Colleen Moore's WE MODERNS. I have a friend who swears that the scene where the Zeppelin crashes through the roof was definitely used on Fractured Flickers, or one of those other degrading programs back in the 50's or 60's. If so, than that footage from WE MODERNS must be out there someplace? Thus I take it that this film survived at least into the 50's or 60's?

[sethb]

Along the same line, the TCM Fragments documentary also included a clip from a Charley Chase two-reeler that involved him getting his knickers full of water during a rainstorm.

I seem to recall the same gag being included in Robert Youngson's "Four Clowns" (1970). So either Chase reused the same gag in a different film, or the now-lost film survived until about 1970. If so, it wouldn't be the first time that Youngson saved a short from oblivion; he put an edited version of Laurel & Hardy's 1927 "Battle of the Century" short in his 1957 feature "The Golden Age of Comedy." When they later went back to preserve the entire short, the negative had decomposed completely. [A print of the first reel of this short was recently found, but not so for the second reel, which contains the complete pie fight sequence.]

Maybe someone else can shed some light on these points? SETH

[boblipton]

Chase used a variation of it in BROMO AND JULIET. In that one, he stuck some sponges into his stage costume to make his legs look better and they got wet....


Bob

[moviepas]

Apparently, Youngson used the Battle 'Pie" sequence in two of his compilations but they were edited differently. The state of the Hal Roach material is precarious to say the least. At one time Roach had it all shipped from Culver City/CA to New Jersey via Blackhawk Films in Davenport/IA where they are supposed to have selected what they wanted for their contract with Roach, copied and made negs of the selections and sent it one. I marketed some of these films from Blackhawk in my country at the time but not directly thru them because they only had the North American license. I still have some of them in 16mm form. Whilst the shorts came to Australian TV early on, I have no recollections of the countless cut-up series, I have read about recently in Scott MacGillivray's new edition on L&H's films after Hal Roach, ever been shown here, in Australia, but it is possible.

[sepiatone]

has anybody ever seen the trailer for BEAU SABREUR(1928 Paramount) starring Evelyn Brent(she was the bigger star at the time) and the great Gary Cooper? the footage of the trailer is exquisite, which makes one lament the loss of this adventure. The footage is on Youtube. It looked to be a great film.

[sepiatone]

sethb,

THE MIRACLE MAN was from 1919, not 1915.But that is OK, because i used to frequently say that it was from 1920 or 1921.

Gagman, I believe the Broadway play of The Miracle Man was still running in 1915