Silents On TCM: January 2019

All Times are in EST
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6 Jan. 12:45AM [Year: 1926] Trailer

13 Jan. 12PM [Year: 1927] Full Film

13 Jan. 6AM [Year: 1923] TCM Introduction

13 Jan. 9:15AM [Year: 1928] Opening Scene

Harold Lloyd shorts marathon starts at 12:30AM on the 20th!

20 Jan. 12:30AM [Year: 1919] Full Film...followed by

[Year: 1919] Full Film...followed by

[Year:  1919] Full Film...followed by

[Year: 1919] Full Film...followed by

[Year: 1917] Full Film...followed by

[Year: 1921] Full Film

24 Jan. 3:30AM [Year: 1920] Full Film (part of a whole night of Great African American performances that kicks off in primetime on the 23 @ 8PM)

24 Jan. 5AM [Year: 1921] Full Film

27 Jan. 12PM [Year: 1918] Full Film

29 Jan. 8PM [Year: 1928, partial silent] Foxtrot Clip (kicks off a primetime celebration of "The Roaring 20's")

29 Jan. 9:45PM [Years 1929, mono version] Warner Archive Preview Clip

30 Jan. 2AM [Year: 1927] Clip

30 Jan. 3:30AM [Year: 1929] Extended Clip

Born Today October 12: Alan V. Day

1911-????

One of just two actors credited in the early (largely animated) adventure horror film The Ghost Of Slumber Mountain  (1918), Alan V. Day was born on this date somewhere in the state of New Jersey (the other actor was another member of the Day family that I can only assume was his older brother Chauncey).  He, along with Chauncey, is credited as "Jack's Nephew" (writer of the piece Herbert M. Dawley is in the uncredited role "Uncle Jack"). There is no other credit for him in acting of any sort that I can find. Neither he or his brother have death dates in any records either. The full film can be found below. Happy Halloween Season to you all!  

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Born Today October 3: Maurice Desvallières

1857-1926

French playwright Maurice Lefebvre-Desvallières was born on this day in Paris. He was the brother of painter George Desvallières (his great-grandfather was writer Gabriel-Marie Legouvé and his grandfather was playwright Ernest Legouvé--his great, great grandfather was likewise also a prominent French writer of the same surname). He was schooled in Paris and later became the writing partner of Georges Feydeau for a time. His specialty was comedic farces.  Only two films (that are known for a certainty) were produced from his work in the silent era, the first of which was the 1913 short Le fils à papa--a Georges Monca film. The second was a much more lavish production of the same work; The Girl in the Taxi (Die keusche Susanne or Chaste Susanne) was German production dating from 1926 and was directed by Richard Eichberg--the work is based on a popular German operetta adapted from Desvallières play.  The first sound film produced from his work came in 1933 with Champignol malgré lui a French comedic farce is full mono.  The most recent use of his work in a film came in 1972 with the Danish production Hotel Paradiso based on a play that he co-authored with Feydeau.  Desvallières died on the 23rd of March at the age of 68. 

Silent Horror On TCM October 2019!

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All Times in EDT

For A Full Listing of all Horror on TCM during the month of October, please click here.

4 Oct. 4:30AM (Year: 1922) Trailer

14 Oct. 12 Midnight (Year: 1926) Opening Credits

18 Oct. 5:30AM & 21 Oct. 12 Midnight (Year: 1921) Trailer

24 Oct.  4:45AM (Year: 1922) Trailer

28 Oct. 12 Midnight (Year: 1907) Short Film

Born Today August 15: Gertrude Shipman

1880 (or 1878)-1960

Born in Pittsburgh on this day in 1878, Gertrude Shipman would become, if ever so briefly, an actress in early narrative films. Serveral sources cite that she actually started in films in 1909, the earliest film that I can find that she is credited with acting in dates from 1912: Camille. The three other film that she is known to have appeared in are: Arizona (1913), Checkers (1913) and The Price He Paid (1914), the last of these she had a starring role.  Prior to her work in films, she had been a stage actor. Shipman was married to silent era director Lawrence B. McGill; together they were parents of newspaper man and radio writer/producer Jerry McGill. After her husband's retirement from the film industry (he was eleven years her senior), the couple settled in Florida. They both died there, decades apart.  She is buried along side her husband, who preceded her in death by 32 years, in the Laurel Grove Cemetery, which is located in Waldo, Florida--a small town to the northeast of Gainesville in Alachua county.  

[photo: Find A Grave]

Find A Grave

Born Today August 10: Robert G. Fowler

1884-1966

Aviation pioneer Robert George Fowler was born on this day in San Francisco.  Fowler was the first person (west to east) to make a transcontinental flight, albeit in in stages. The journey was undertaken in a Wright biplane equipped with a Cole Motor manufactured for automobiles (Fowler had actually trained with the Wright's). The flight started in San Francisco and eventually ended in Jacksonville, Florida and took some considerable time to complete  (the effort began on the 11th of September in 1911 and ended on the 8th of February, 1912). It was during this time that he was the subject of a short "newsreel" type film entitled Robert G. Fowler, Trans-Continental Aviator; the film was produced by the Champion Film company and was released in February of 1912. Fowler would go on to break other flying records after this and even provide for the advancement of aerial photography. Fowler died at his home in San Jose, California on the 15th of June in 1966 at the age of 81. He is buried, along side his wife, at the Santa Clara Mission Cemetery.

Wikipedia

Find A Grave

Born Today August 4: Jay Hunt

1855-1932

Veteran silent director Jay Hunt, who is probably best remembered for his character acting in 1920's westerns, was born on this day in Philadelphia. Before Hunt became a recognizable older western star, he was a prolific film director (he also dabbled in scenario writing). It appears that his entrance into the world of film making came in 1911 as the director of the short melodrama The Life Boat produced at Vitagraph. He made just one film with another company (The Musician's Daughter--1911--for Eclair) before landing an in-house directors job at Champion (distribution by Universal). The first film that he directed there was Mrs. Alden's Awakening (1912); he stayed with the company for a year.  Hunt made his acting debut in 1913 in a Fred Balshofer directed melodrama--Her Legacy--made for Kay-Bee, a company that Hunt himself had directed for. Hunt also penned his first scenario in 1913; The War Correspondent, as script based on a story by William H. Clifford. Hunt also directed the film, which starred Gayne Whitman. Hunt became a fixture in directing "second string" melodramas--what we would call "B movies"--and by 1914 had close to twenty directing credits to his name. He was also, by this time, employed by Broncho Films, where he would remain for the next couple of years. At Broncho, though he mostly stuck to melodramas, he also began to direct adventure films that increasingly had a western theme to them. The Sheriff of Bisbee (1914) was an early example.  During his tenure as director (with something in the neighborhood of 80 films to his credit), he was involved in very few feature length productions, with The Promise, dating from 1917, being the most prominent amongst them (he was reportedly involved in some type of directing role in the Ince brothers 1915 large production Civilization--he is listed as an uncredited director, along with three other directors on IMDb--the film was known to been directed by a "team"--so it's possible he had some role--I have no idea how this would be confirmable over 100 years later).  It appears that Hunt didn't direct (or act) at all in the year 1918, and by the end of his directing career (1919-1920), he was directing nothing by westerns. His last direction credit is for a Texas Guinan  short western vehicle made for Bull's Eye (for whom had worked most of his later directing years) called The Night Raider in 1920 (not to be confused with The Night Rider--which he also directed).  He then retired from directing, but continued in motion pictures as an actor. Although he had done some work as an actor in the 1910's (including in a few films in which he directed himself), he had never been primarily anything other than a glorified extra. His second career as a character actor in westerners in the 1920's landed him roles that he would be remembered for. Many fans of these "b grade" western adventure films had no inkling of Hunt's career as a director; had no clue that the largest portion of his career was spent behind the camera, not in front of it. He was popular enough to have continued into talking pictures, in fact. He first showed up as a "grizzled" character in Sunset Productions Wanted By The Law in 1924 (he is listed as an extra in Universal's huge production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1923). In all, he racked up close to 20 acting credits during the 1920's; though, as stated, the vast majority of these were westerns, the last silent film in which he appeared was a comedy: The Harvester in 1927. Hunt appeared in four films in the 1930's; his last film appearance was in the 1931 western The Cheyenne Cyclone. He died the following year in Hollywood on the 18th of November at the age of 77. 

Still from The Promise

IMDb

Wikipedia

Silents On TCM: August 2019 (Summer Under the Stars)

August: Summer Under The Stars--31 Days, 31 Stars!

ALL TIMES EDT

TCM Homepage

For a compleat listing of the stars of Summer Under the Stars, please see the bottom of this post. 

August 19 Features Buster Keaton (part of TCM's Summer Under the Stars). Starts @ 6AM

19 Aug. 6AM Film Info. (Year: 1926)

19 Aug. 7:30AM Film Info. (Year: 1928)

19 Aug. 9AM Film Info. (Year: 1929)

19 Aug. 8PM & 20 Aug. 12:30AM Trailer (Year: 2018)

19 Aug. 10PM Film Info. (Year: 1927)

19 Aug. 11:30PM Film Info. (Year: 1924)

20 Aug. 2:30AM Film Info. (Year: 1925)

20 Aug. 3:45AM Film Info. (Year: 1928)

20 Aug. 5AM Film Info. (Year: 1924)

22 Aug. 6AM Film Info. (Year: 1929--Talkie) 

[Kicks off Summer Under the Stars: Leila Hyams]

22 Aug. 9:15PM Film Info. (Year: 1929-Talkie)

26 Aug. 6AM Film Info. (Year: 1924) [Kicks off Summer Under the Stars: Mary Astor]

The Stars of Summer Under the Stars

1:   Henry Fonda

2:   Ruth Hussey

3:   Marlon Brando

4:   Shirley Temple

5:   Melvyn Douglas

6:   Lena Horne

7:   James Stewart

8:   Ava Gardner

9:   Red Skelton

10: Rita Moreno

11: Humphrey Bogart

12: Ann Sothern

13: Brian Donlevy

14: Liv Ullmann

15: Rod Steiger

16: Irene Dunne

17: Errol Flynn

18: Audrey Hepburn

19: Buster Keaton!

20: Dorothy McGuire

21: Joel McCrea

22: Leila Hyams

23: Fred Astair

24: Shirley MacLaine

25: Dustin Hoffman

26: Mary Astor!

27: Walter Brennan

28: June Allyson

29: Paul Lukas 

30: Susan Hayward

31: Kirk Douglas

Born Today July 3: Alberto Lazzoli

1906-1987

Brazilian musician, composer and conductor Alberto Rossi Lazzoli was born on this day in São Paulo.  He is principally remembered for being an important Latin American conductor of and composer for radio orchestras in the mid 20th century; but he was also a composer of film scores as well--including direct film scoring--with the oboe being his instrument of choice.  To date, just four films have featured his music--all of them pre-1950 and all of them featuring scores that he wrote directly for each production.  The first of these was a late Brazilian silent film Human Clay (Barro Humano) from 1929, a melodrama directed by the then up and coming Brazilian director Adhemar Gonzaga.  Lazzoli was hired to write the score for the film directly (the film is now profoundly lost, with only a poster and a a few stills left for viewing). The other three films that he scored date from 1939, 1945 and 1947; the last of which was a romantic comedy entitled Querida Susana (1947).  In his lifetime he had also been a performer, a symphonic soloist, a pioneer of Brazilian radio and, most importantly, a teacher (professor) of music for others. Lazzoli died in Rio de Janeiro on the 4th of December; he was 81 years of age. 

Production still from Barro Humano

Silents On TCM For The Month Of July

July 1 12AM--Midnight (year: 1924) Trailer

The next three titles comprise the primetime Out Of This World focus. July 2 starting @ 8PM

July 2 8PM (year: 1902) Film

2 July 8:30PM (year: 1927) Trailer

2 July 11:30PM (year: 1929) Trailer

3 July 11:30AM (Year: 1927) Film

8 July 12:15AM (Year: 1926) Preview Clip

8 July 7:15AM (Year: 1922) Trailer

22 July 12:15AM (Year: 1932) Clip

29 July 12AM-Midnight (Silent Sundays) Trailer