Pillow Fights

Open, general discussion of silent films, personalities and history.
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Frederica
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Pillow Fights

Post by Frederica » Wed Feb 15, 2012 2:36 pm

I am desperately trying to find a reason that this is on topic, any reason, no matter how lame. Ummmm...there were many pillow fights in silent films! We need to list them for future film historians (a la the Murphy Bed thread)! Yeah, that's it. Ummm...we could do one at Cinecon! That works, too.

Whatever. San Francisco's Annual Valentine's Day Pillow Fight, here:
http://pacifica.patch.com/articles/hund ... eo-9117423" target="_blank" target="_blank
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boblipton
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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by boblipton » Wed Feb 15, 2012 3:04 pm

What, have a pillow fight?

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Frederica
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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Frederica » Wed Feb 15, 2012 3:17 pm

boblipton wrote:What, have a pillow fight?

Bob
At Cinecon? Yes. After the Golden Dawn Sing-a-Long.
Fred
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Jordan Peele, when asked what genre we should put his movies in.
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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Danny Burk » Wed Feb 15, 2012 3:43 pm

Well, to get off to a good start, you'll be seeing one next month in NAPOLEON...

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Richard Finegan » Thu Feb 16, 2012 5:10 am

Frederica wrote: There were many pillow fights in silent films! We need to list them for future film historians (a la the Murphy Bed thread)!
Okay, I'll start the list (but may it include sound films, too?):
There's one in A CHUMP AT OXFORD (1940).

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missdupont
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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by missdupont » Thu Feb 16, 2012 9:23 am

Isn't there one in PANDORA'S BOX?

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by silentfilm » Thu Feb 16, 2012 12:35 pm

Zéro de conduite/Zero for Conduct (1932) has a big pillow fight.

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by urbanora » Thu Feb 16, 2012 1:27 pm

Robert Paul's CHILDREN IN THE NURSERY (1896) is nothing but a pillow fight.
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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by topchap » Thu Feb 16, 2012 5:30 pm

Does the Little Prospector's pre New Years Eve anticipation romp in The Gold Rush count?

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Ian Elliot » Thu Feb 16, 2012 8:59 pm

The Axis commanders have a pillow fight with a chimpanzee in THAT NAZTY NUISANCE (1943).

It's reportage, but there's this bit 'o fun from 1929:

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/girls ... llow+fight" target="_blank" target="_blank

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Richard Finegan » Fri Feb 17, 2012 3:27 am

Ian Elliot wrote: It's reportage, but there's this bit 'o fun from 1929:

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/girls ... llow+fight" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank
That was the "Battle of the Century" of pillow fights!

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by silentmovies742 » Fri Feb 17, 2012 6:07 am

And there's one in Flashing Oars from the Collegians series

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by s.w.a.c. » Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:17 am

Is there a Lumiere Bros. film of a pillow fight? Or maybe I'm just thinking of their snowball fight film.
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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Richard Finegan » Tue Mar 06, 2012 8:47 am

Just saw Winnie Lightner beating the heck out of Matthew Betz with a pillow in SIDE SHOW (1931) playing on TCM right now. Feathers flyin' everywhere!

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by spadeneal » Tue Mar 06, 2012 9:51 am

1897 is the right date for this subject; it wasn't copyrighted until 1902.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsIJb_OH ... ure=colike

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by CoffeeDan » Fri Mar 09, 2012 12:45 am

If memory serves, there's also a pillow fight in the Marx Brothers picture AT THE CIRCUS (1939). In any event, there's a lot of feathers flying.

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Richard Finegan » Fri Mar 09, 2012 1:02 am

In a posed still from the 1931 Hal Roach short HIGH GEAR ("Boy Friends" series) Mary Kornman and Gertie Messinger are shown having a little pillow fight but it doesn't happen in the film.
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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Rodney » Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:13 am

missdupont wrote:Isn't there one in PANDORA'S BOX?
I think you're thinking of Diary of a Lost Girl, where there's a riot in the girls bunk room. And I can picture in my mind another pillow fight involving a spunky actress (Pickford maybe? Daddy Long Legs?) but can't for the life of me remember which film. IS there any pillow fighting in the girls' school in The Butcher Boy? Seems there ought to be...
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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by missdupont » Fri Mar 09, 2012 11:42 am

Thanks, Rodney, yes, that's it.

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Richard Finegan » Sun Apr 15, 2012 5:32 am

I haven't seen the movie in years (which has been okay with me) but I saw the trailer for SKI PARTY (1965) on TCM recently and it includes a clip of a pillow fight. So I guess there must be one in the movie.

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by T0m M » Mon Apr 16, 2012 9:53 am

The flurry of pillow feathers is so thick in Arbuckle's Good Night, Nurse that it is difficult to discern the action that's taking place in the midst of it.

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Richard Finegan » Thu Apr 19, 2012 6:19 pm

BEACH PARTY (1963) is on TCM right now, and right away in the first few minutes we have a pillow fight - Frankie, Annette, a few guys, and a lot of girls.

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Richard Finegan » Fri Jun 22, 2012 1:41 am

In the 1944 Columbia short HIS HOTEL SWEET Christine McIntyre and Isabel Withers engage in a brief pillow fight.

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Richard Finegan » Mon Aug 13, 2012 10:00 am

In the 1930 Paramount feature YOUNG EAGLES there's a pillow fight between Buddy Rogers and Stuart Erwin and some of their fellow flyers.

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by silentmovies742 » Tue Aug 14, 2012 7:12 am

Richard Finegan wrote:In the 1930 Paramount feature YOUNG EAGLES there's a pillow fight between Buddy Rogers and Stuart Erwin and some of their fellow flyers.
Does anyone who where this film can be seen? It would be of use to my PhD.

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Richard Finegan » Tue Aug 14, 2012 8:04 am

silentmovies742 wrote:
Richard Finegan wrote: In the 1930 Paramount feature YOUNG EAGLES there's a pillow fight between Buddy Rogers and Stuart Erwin and some of their fellow flyers.
Does anyone know where this film can be seen? It would be of use to my PhD.
I'm not sure where it will next be shown, but I'm sorry to say that you just missed seeing it three days ago at Capitolfest 10 in Rome, New York where a nice 35mm print was shown on the big screen.

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by silentmovies742 » Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:38 am

That would have been a long way to go from the UK for 1 film! At least it's in circulation, so it might turn up somewhere - not that Paramount have a great track record in that area!

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Richard Finegan » Tue Oct 02, 2012 4:24 am

They're more like seat cushions than pillows, but the big seat cushion fight in the 1929 Laurel & Hardy short MEN O' WAR seems like it should also be mentioned here.

Interesting trivia about that scene:
Originally as the big fight gets intense the offscreen band starts playing "The Stars and Stripes Forever". But unfortunately that music is not heard in any surviving print I've ever seen or heard of.

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Derwiddian » Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:44 pm

Bataille d'oreilleurs #1 & 2. 1897-98. Lumière. The ancient Kino DVD (out of print) The Lumière Brothers First Films has #2.

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Re: Pillow Fights

Post by Richard Finegan » Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:41 am

Watching the 1966 episode of "Combat!" called "The Furlough" in which Sgt. Saunders visits an orphanage, and there are the kids having a pillow fight.

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