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| Volume 12 Number 1 |
Fall/Winter 2012
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Warner Archive has just released two more DVD sets that every Vitaphone fan will want. VITAPHONE VARIETIES, VOLUME TWO, includes 35 more restored 1927-31 Vitaphone short subjects. With this set, virtually all of the early Vitaphone shorts have now been released on DVD. The two DVD set includes performances by Joe E. Brown, the Yacht Club Boys, Waring's Pennsylvanians, Chaz Chase and Helen Morgan. The Vitaphone Project has worked with George Feltenstein at Warner Archive and has written program notes for each short. Read the notes for this set here: http://warnerarchive.tumblr.com/post/34731029742/vitaphone-varieties-volume-2
THE VITAPHONE COMEDY COLLECTION VOLUME 1, 1932-34, offers all six of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's 'comeback' Vitaphone shorts. These marked the comedian's first appearances in front of the camera since his 1921 scandal removed him from the screen. Also in this set are over a dozen Vitaphone shorts in which Shemp Howard appears, several with Arbuckle. Shemp was a comedy staple at the Brooklyn studio, sometimes starring and other times providing support. He had elected to remain east when his brother Moe and Larry Fine followed Ted Healy to Hollywood. He remained at Vitaphone through 1936 before finally heading west. Warner Archive plans to continue this series with more of the Vitaphone "Big V" comedies in future sets.
Here are the links to order each of these sets:
VITAPHONE VARIETIES VOLUME TWO http://www.wbshop.com/product/vitaphone+varieties+volume+two+1000354750.do?sortby=ourPicks&from=Search
VITAPHONE COMEDY COLLECTION VOLUME ONE http://www.wbshop.com/product/the+vitaphone+comedy+collection+volume+one++roscoe+fatty+arbuckleshemp+howard+19321934+1000207456.do?sortby=ourPicks&from=Search
VITAPHONE VARIETIES VOLUME TWO Contents
VITAPHONE COMEDY COLLECTION VOLUME ONE Contents
The first six shorts represent Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's entire Vitaphone output. Several titles are remastered and all look great. Sadly, just after signing a contract with Jack Warner to make features, he died in his sleep. His 1933 Vitaphone contract gave him $3000 per week, right up there with top feature comics like Stan Laurel and Buster Keaton.
In this set, many of Shemp Howard's appearances are in support of such other comedians as Gus Shy, George Givot, Block and Sully and Jack Haley. The studio soon let him star or co-star, sometimes with Daphne Pollard. He closed out his Vitaphone career as Knobby Walsh in the studio's "Joe Palooka series in 1936.
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- The Project is working with Bonnie Comley, who is part-owner of the Palace Theatre in NYC in hopes of recognizing the legendary goal of every vaudevillian for its 100th anniversary in March, 2013. Visit their website here.
- Eccentric dancing documentarian (and performer) Betsy Baytos will be traveling to England soon to meet with the family of Lupino Lane and also select film clips of eccentric dancers from the British Pathe and British Film Institute collections
- Hats off to Mike Schlesinger, who has just directed the first two reel comedy in decades. The title is IT'S A FRAME-UP" and is reminiscent of the mid-thirties comedies produced by Columbia, Educational and Vitaphone. The film stars Project friends Nick Santa Maria and Will Ryan, with Rusty Frank in support.
- Marty Cummins was finally able to get a (mute) copy of his uncle's 1929 Vitaphone. It is BERNIE CUMMINS AND HIS BILTMORE ORCHESTRA, and features his uncle Bernie leading the band and his father Walter singing. While there's no sound, Marty was able to arrange for Vince Giordano and the Nighthawlks to accompany it at one of Vince's Monday evening gigs at Sofia's in NYC
- Art and Kylie Pierce have added a long unseen early talkie to the August schedule of their Capitolfest in Rome, NY this August. It's a 1931 Fox feature, MR. LEMON OF ORANGE starring El Brendel in a unique dual role. The Project knew El Brendel expert Louie Despres had long wanted to see this film, so we worked with Todd Weiner at UCLA and Fox to secure the lone 35mm print for Capitolfest
- Eric Grayson is putting the finishing touches on his restoration of a Chapter of KING OF THE KONGO ('29), the first sound serial. Eric is using some disks loaned by the Project
- Patrick Picking and Ron Hutchinson also assisted Peter Williamson at MOMA in their quest for lost disks for their restoration of ABRAHAM LINCOLN (UA/'30) and THE IRON MASK (UA/'29). The effort including locating the needed disks in private collectors hands (thanks to John Johnson, Ken Stokes, and Mike Khanchalian), getting shipping boxes to the collectors, then getting them to MOMA for a professional transfer.
We hope you'll "friend" The Vitaphone Project on it's Facebook page. Above are some of the photos people have posted there. Always interesting stuff and a nice way to bridge the time between issues of VITAPHONE NEWS. Go to this link to join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/113444792025031/
A number of important soundtrack disks have been located since our last issue.
- Contained in an original wooden disk shipping box were six disks: the audience entrance and exit music plus intermission music for THE HOLLYWOOD REVUE OF 1929 (MGM, 1929); soundtrack disks for two Vitaphone shorts: MAL HALETT AND HIS ENTERTAINING ORCHESTRA (1929) and a second FRED WARING AND HIS PENNSYVANIANS (1927), both of which now can be restored and have been added to the current restoration pipeline; and a badly chipped but still fully playable "Overture" disk for Paramount's first feature with sound, WARMING UP (1928). This disk features both music as well as a wonderful baseball skit and song by legendary recording artist Billy Murray.
- Joe Lauro, President of Historic Films, recently acquired a large batch of very late soundtrack disks. While direct disk recoding of films ended, even by Warner Brothers, in early 1930, disks continued to be made (from optical tracks) and shipped to the more than 3000 US theatres that could only show talkies in the disk format. By 1930, the size of the disk had been reduced from 16 inches in diameter to 12 inches, due to finer grooving. This reduced costs as well as made shipping easier. Most disks were also then pressed in "Vitrolac" a kind of heavy vinyl material developed by Victor and thereby reducing breakage. Joe's acquisitions cover the 1932-34 period, and include disks for CENTRAL AIRPORT (WB/'32), HOOP-LA (Fox, '33), GEORGE WHITE'S SCANDALS (Fox, '34), ELMER THE GREAT (WB/'33), LILY TURNER (WB, '33), and DOCTOR BULL (Fox, '33), and Vitaphone shorts PENROD'S BULL PEN ('32), and HER WEDDING NIGHT-MARE ('32)
Work continues on the next batch of over 50 1927-30 Vitaphone short subjects restorations. You'll recall that this massive effort is a joint partnership between Ned Price at Warner Brothers, The Library of Congress, UCLA, and The Vitaphone Project. It is expected that work will continue all through 2013 and hopefully some of the finished product can be shown publically early in 2014. Most of the mute prints come from The Library of Congress. Concurrently, The Project arranged for sound engineer Seth Winner to professionally transfer 25 disks held by Ron Hutchinson for use in the restorations. Other disks, along with technical expertise, come from UCLA under the direction of Eddie Richmond. Most of the sound transfers have now been completed. So the next phase will be securing the picture elements and beginning the process to synchronize picture and sound to produce new 35 mm prints. Previous issues of VITAPHONE NEWS have listed most of the titles in the restoration pipeline. They cover a wide variety of shorts, including bands, operatic, vaudeville, playlets, and comedy.
Sound engineer Seth Winner was selected by The Vitaphone Project and Warner Brothers to perform the professional transfers of twenty-five soundtrack disks to be used as part of the upcoming 50+ early Vitaphone shorts restorations. You can now see what the transfer process entails. Here are two YouTube videos which show both the cleaning and transfer process:
DUBBING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_GyYapvkcw
CLEANING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_4ar2ffgTI
Seth's studio is on Long Island. He has been involved with many transfers of 78's and other early recordings over the years. He has state of the art audio equipment to bring out the best sound hidden in the grooves of vintage records. and he can be contacted at sethbwinner@optonline.net
Bruce Goldstein, Repertory Director for Film Forum' in NYC, will be presenting another Vitaphone short subjects program on Monday, February 25th. The Project's Ron Hutchinson will introduce the two screenings (2:40 PM & 6:10 PM), and this time the shows will be rare 35mm presentations of 1933 shorts. There will not be any new Vitaphone restorations available for screening until late in 2013, so this is an excellent way to fill the gap.
Titles to be show in glorious 35mm include:
- ABE LYMAN AND HIS BAND
- AFRICA SPEAKS -- ENGLISH (Bergen & McCarthy)
- ALONG CAME RUTH (Ruth Etting, Eddie Lang)
- BARBER SHOP BLUES (Claude Hopkins Band)
- RUFUS JONES FOR PRESIDENT (Sammy Davis, Jr. at age 7)
- SMASH YOUR BAGGAGE (Small's Paradise Entertainers)
- Plus 3-4 other 1933 Vitaphone shorts.
We were recently contacted by Cass Warner Sperling. She is the grand daughter of WB Studios founder Harry Warner. In addition to producing a documentary, "The Brothers Warner" , Cass is working with the studio to develop an exhibit that will be part of the studio tour. She wants it to reflect the vision and daring that the Brothers had, and which led to the studio's success. She recognizes the huge role that talking pictures had in that success. We're proud to be working with Cass and sharing ideas on what the exhibit could include. It's our thought that a theme of "The Warner Brothers: Vision --- With Sound", makes sense. Cass is also working with Leith Adams, who has run the Warner Museum on the lot for many years, and who has access to much material that could be incorporated into the exhibit. For more information on Cass and The Warner Sisters, go to: http://www.warnersisters.com/
Watching Vitaphone shorts, you frequently see the title card credit of "Photographed by Ed. DuPar". He was at Vitaphone from the beginning, as cameraman on most of the earliest sound shorts shot at the New York Opera House in the summer of 1926. It was Ed who was behind the camera filming Will Hays' congratulations of the Warner Brothers. He subsequently photographed early features like THE BETTER 'OLE ('26) which had Vitaphone accompaniment. He finished the twenties out as cameraman on many one reel shorts and the first all talking feature film, THE LIGHTS OF NEW YORK ('28). Moving back east to the newly soundproofed and wired Brooklyn Vitaphone studios, DuPar photographed several hundred(!) shorts before the studio closed in 1939.
 Vince Giordano and Ron Hutchinson enjoy lunch with the DuPar’s, September 2012. |
The Project's Vince Giordano and Ron Hutchinson had the pleasure of having lunch with Ed's daughter, Judy DuPar Haven and her husband this September. Judy regaled us with stories of living in Hollywood, frequently seeing stars at her home, living next door to early Vitaphone star Jack Haley ("We played cowboys and tied Jack, Jr. to a tree!" she recalled), and Jack Warner's loyalty to her father over five decades. |
Criterion has issued two long sought early Universal talkies on DVD. Both LONESOME and BROADWAY were directed by Paul Fejos. LONESOME was completed in 1928 as a silent, but when the sound revolution began, additional talkie sequences were shot and inserted into the film. While that effect can be jarring, it takes nothing away from the beauty of one of the best silent ever made.
The DVD set features:
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DVD on the left, Blu-Ray on the right |
One of the biggest, most enjoyable and most widely attended vintage film events each year is Cinefest in Syracuse, NY. Rare silent and sound shorts and features are shown almost around the clock, both in the hotel's transformed ballroom in 16mm and digitally, as well as at the Saturday morning excursion to the local historic Palace Theater for 35mm screenings, with silents receiving accompaniment by some of the top photo-players in the world, including Dr. Jon Mirsalis, Dr. Andrew Simpson and Jeff Rapsis. This year's Cinefest will be held March 14th through 17th, and promises to be the best yet!
The program is still being assembled at press time.
To register, and to keep up with Cinefest's schedule of screenings, go to www.syracusecinefest.com or www.picking.com/cinefest.html. Also, visit their Facebook site at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cinefest-Annual-Convention-Hosted-By-The-Syracuse-Cinephile-Society/362213446516
Your generous donations help to keep our Project going. Escalating printing and mailing costs make your support even more important than ever. While not tax-deductible, your donation allows us to continue spreading the word and seeking out disks and film elements for future restorations. Large donations for actual restorations go directly to UCLA Film and Television Archive (where support is tax deductible).
NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW!
With this issue, we’re adding the following thank-you CD:
2012 VITAPHONE ACQUISITIONS – has the newly found audience entrance, exit and intermission music for HOLLYWOOD REVUE OF 1929, MAL HALLETT AND HIS ENTERTAINING ORCHESTRA (Vitaphone, 1929), Vitaphone #427 FRED WARING AND HIS PENNSYLVANIANS (1927) and the Overture disk for WARMING UP (Par/’28) (with Billy Murray).
We've also added a new thank-you gift for a donation of $50. It's a set of twelve 3x5 note cards and envelopes, each with a terrific vintage Vitaphone short still. Twelve different cards include pictures of bands, vaudevillians, the Vitaphone camera booth guys, and more. A unique way to send your friends a note the old fashioned way. Just specify you'd like the note cards when contributing. If you've sent in a donation lately, thanks! If you are receiving Vitaphone News and have not made contribution lately --- or ever -- please consider doing so now. In addition to thank-you audio CDs listed below, we are adding a few new items:
Selected from the 70+ Vitaphone disks acquired earlier last year are two new CDs:
2011 DISK-OVERIES VOL. 1 -includes soundtracks for 1929 shorts by Molly Picon and Dave Apollon, Ruth Etting with Arden & Ohman, Phil Baker and more.
2011 DISK-OVERIES VOL. 2 includes tracks from REDSKIN, a Vitaphone 1929 theatre holiday promo, Charles King in the lost 1929 MGM Colortone CLIMBING THE GOLDEN STAIRS and Al Trahan, plus more.
The above 2 CDs are individually for a $50 contribution, both for $75.
Also new...
For a $50 donation receive our DVD of twenty band, singing and vaudeville excerpts from 1930-39 British Pathetone shorts. Includes the bands of Billy Cotton, Harry Roy and Jack Hylton (recording at HMV in 1932!), plus Sophie Tucker, two clips with Al Bowlly, and many fun music hall and vaude acts. Just request our PATHETONE DVD when contributing!
For donations of $50, you can choose from one of the listed CDs, or you can receive a great Shaw and Lee caricature T-shirt.
And the following audio CDs are still available as thank-you gifts. These are unique, non-professional (but highly listenable) recordings of rare early talkie material. No fancy notes or packaging, but we are sure you'll enjoy them. Just let us know your choice (number of CDs is in parentheses)
- $50 - Pick any 1 CD
- $75 - Choose any 2 CDs
- $100 - Pick any 3 CDs
- $150 - Pick any 6 CDs
- $200 or more - Pick any 8 CDs
If you wish to send a check (not tax deductible) please make it payable to RON HUTCHINSON (NOT The Vitaphone Project) and send it to:
5 Meade Court
Piscataway, NJ 08854
THANK YOU!!
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OVERSEAS PROJECT EMMISSARIES
UK: Malcolm Billingsley
AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND: Paul Brennan
SCANDANAVIA: Jonas Nordin
Search for Vitaphone items to buy on E-Bay here!
Movies and books related to Vitaphone can be purchased through Amazon.com by clicking on the items here!
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| VITAPHONE NEWS | ISSN 1066-5951 | |
| Corresponding Secretary & Editor | Ron Hutchinson | 5 Meade Court Piscataway, NJ 08854 (732) 463-8521 FAX: (732) 463-8521 medusashaircut@erols.com ron@vitaphoneproject.com |
| Database: | Patrick Picking | patrick@picking.com |
| Co-Founders: | John Newton | newtonjj2@aol.com |
| Sherwin Dunner | jazzgypsy@verizon.net | |
| Vince Giordano | vincegiordano@optonline.net | |
| Vitaphone Project Web Page Designer | Patrick Picking | patrick@picking.com |
| Vitaphone Project Web Page | http://www.vitaphoneproject.com | medusashaircut@erols.com ron@vitaphoneproject.com |
| Jeff Cohen's "Vitaphone Varieties" Site | http://vitaphone.blogspot.com | |
| Leonard Maltin's Site | http://www.leonardmaltin.com | |
| Talkie King | http://talkieking.blogspot.com | |
| Nitrateville | http://www.nitrateville.com | |
| "The Vitaphone Project" | ||
| OVERSEAS PROJECT EMMISSARIES UK: Malcolm Billingsley AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND: Paul Brennan SCANDANAVIA: Jonas Nordin |
This web site is maintained by Patrick Picking: patrick@picking.com
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