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Rare, Restored Films of Vaudeville Performances to be Shown at The New York Public Library's Donnell Library Media Center in March
Both famous and forgotten entertainers of the vaudeville era are showcased in Featuring: Vaudeville on Film, a series of five programs of restored Vitaphone short films presented in March at The New York Public Library's Donnell Media Center. Fifty surviving short films have been reunited with their missing audio tracks and, for the first time in decades, can be seen and heard once more. Stars like Eddie Cantor, The Foy Family, and Burns and Allen regale audiences with comedy routines, dance, and music, while lesser-known performers like Trixie Friganza, Sol Violinsky, and Joe Frisco, representing the mainstay of comedians, singers, instrumentalists, dancers, and acrobats who filled out the vaudeville bills, also offer their inimitable routines. In many cases, these films are the only record of these performances. The films will become part of the permanent collection of the Donnell Media Center, where they will be available for public viewing by appointment. This series is offered in conjunction with the Vaudeville Nation exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Ten of the short films will be screened each Wednesday in March, beginning at 2:30 p.m. in the Donnell Library Center Auditorium. At the first event on March 1, the program will begin with a discussion by Ron Hutchinson of the history and technical aspects of the restoration process. The Donnell Library Center is located at 20 West 53rd Street. Admission is free. For further information, telephone 212.621.0609.
The Vitaphone Project
Between 1926 and 1937 Warner Brothers produced nearly 2,000 one- and two-reel short subject Vitaphone films running between six and twenty minutes each. Often drawing on the talents of established vaudeville performers, these films preserved some of the classic acts on the circuits. The audio was recorded on a separate sixteen-inch disc that was played at 33 1/3 revolutions per minute. The same motor drove both the turntable and the projector, with specific starting points for both film and disc. This produced perfectly synchronized talking pictures where earlier experiments had failed. Over the years, many of the soundtracks were lost or broken. In 1991 Ron Hutchinson co-founded The Vitaphone Project to locate the missing discs. Since then, over 3,500 shellac soundtrack discs have been found worldwide and over 75 short films and 10 feature films have been restored to their original state. The Donnell Media Center is the only source for public access to these films.
Schedule of Featuring: Vaudeville on Film Screenings
Wednesday, March 1, 2006, 2:30 p.m., 2 hours Talk by Ron Hutchinson and Vitaphone Film Screenings
Ron Hutchinson discusses the restoration process of the Vitaphone Short Films to be followed by screenings of:
Ben Bernie & His Orchestra (1930)
Georgie Price in Don't Get Nervous (1929)
Baby Rose Marie, The Child Wonder (1929)
The Foy Family in Chips Off The Old Block (1928)
Mayer & Evans in The Cowboy and The Lady (1928)
Shaw & Lee in The Beau Brummels (1928)
Eddie Peabody in Banjoland (1928)
Chaz Chase, The Unique Comedian (1928)
Hazel Green & Her Boys (1928)
Burns & Allen in Lambchops (1929)
Wednesday, March 8, 2006, 2:30 p.m., 90 minutes
Vitaphone Film Screenings Harry Wayman's Debutantes (1928)
Blossom Seeley & Benny Fields (1926)
Jack Osterman in Talking It Over (1929)
Jones & Hare, The Happiness Boys (1926)
Trixie Friganza in My Bag O' Trix (1929)
William Demarest in The Night Court (1927)
Joe Frisco in The Happy Hottentots (1930)
The Locust Sisters (1929)
Smith & Dale in Real Estators (1930)
Norman Thomas Quintette in Harlemania (1929)
Wednesday, March 15, 2006, 2:30 p.m., 90 minutes
Vitaphone Film Screenings
Horace Heidt's Californians (1929)
Van & Schenck (1928)
Josephine Harmon in Harmonizing (1930)
Sol Violinsky (1929)
Brennan & Butler (1929)
Bernardo DePace (1927)
Stoll, Flynn & Company (1928)
Willie & Eugene Howard in I'm Telling You (1930)
Harry Rose Metrotone Revue #1 (1929)
The Ingenues (1928)
Wednesday, March 22, 2006, 2:30 p.m., 90 minutes
Vitaphone Film Screenings
Green's Twentieth Century Faydettes (1928)
Police Quartette (1927)
Kraft & Lamont in Rarin' To Go (1929)
Grace Johnston & The Indiana Five (1929)
Tess Gardella in Vitaphone Troupers (1935)
The Nicholas Brothers in All Colored Vaudeville (1935)
Mayer & Evans in When East Meets West (1928)
Eddie Cantor in Getting a Ticket (1929)
Miss Frances White (1928)
Ming & Toy in Vitaphone Internationals (1936)
Wednesday, March 29, 2006, 2:30 p.m., 90 minutes
Vitaphone Film Screenings
Tal Henry's North Carolinians (1929)
Herman Timberg in I Came First (1929)
Jack White and His Montrealers (1929)
Molly Picon in Vitaphone Hippodrome (1936) Hawaiian Nights (1927)
Sinclair & Lamarr (1929)
Smith & Dale in Vitaphone Diversions (1937)
Frances Williams & the Yacht Club Boys (1929)
Eddie Cantor in Insurance (1930)
Jack Pepper Movietone Review (1929)
About The New York Public Library's Donnell Media Center
Donnell Media Center is the central film and video collection of The New York Public Library. It provides, free of charge, a variety of services that support the general public, students, and scholars, in the quest for increased awareness and understanding of film and video as art forms, as well as the many other arenas of art history and practice that are their subjects in the Center's film, video, and audio collections. The Center is staffed with professional librarians and specialists, actively involved in New York's film/video community, who provide expert information and reference services, supported by a range of electronic resources, as well as reference books, periodicals, newsletters, and study files.
The Media Center film and independent video collections are internationally renowned for the scope of their holdings, with particular strengths in documentary, animation, experimental work, independent features, and works for children. Its ready-access collection of video and DVD is exemplary, with wide-ranging holdings in television work, the performing arts, literature, and world cinema. The collections are thoroughly cataloged; the catalog is available worldwide through the Library's website, www.nypl.org. The onsite Film/Video Study Center ensures that materials in the Media Center collections are freely accessible to patrons. The Media Center supports community programming by circulating works with public performance rights to individuals and organizations around New York.
The Center provides access to its collections by presenting twice-weekly film/video programs, highlighting the impressive range of its collections. The highly regarded "Meet the Maker" series, now in its 29th year, provides the public with an opportunity to engage with film/video artists as they present and discuss their work. Every two years, the Center commissions or adapts video installation work to be exhibited in the street-level display windows of Donnell Library Center.
