Born Today June 30: June Elvidge

1893-1965

Star of the silent silver screen June Elvidge was born on this day in Minneapolis, Minnesota. June's specialty in films was in "vamp" roles--though not nearly as well known as Theda Bara, or even Valeska Suratt, she was very good in the type.  She made her stage debut in 1914 in New York City. She made her film debut in 1915 in the role Mrs. Van Allen in The Lure Of Woman (most of the film survives in a print housed at the Library of Congress).  Her years active in the movie industry spanned between 1915-1924.  Not all of the films that she appeared in were genres requiring a vamp role; for example, she appeared a couple westerns, with The Law Of The Yukon probably being the most well known for it's time.  The last film that she appeared in was in 1924's Chalk Marks.  She retired from film acting but toured for an additional year on the vaudeville circuit, before retiring altogether from acting in late 1925.  She died in a nursing home in Eatontown, New Jersey on the 1st of May 1965 at the age of 71.  There is no information as to her burial or cremation.

For More:

IMDb

Wikipedia

Born Today October 13: Irene Rich

1891-1988

Born Irene Francis Luther in Buffalo, New York into a well off family, but when the father suffered of "reversal of fortune," this sent the family off looking for opportunities; first to a mining town Idaho, then settling on Spokane, Washington. [It is often reported that the family went to California, they never lived there.]  While living out west, she married a young traveling salesman in 1909, after reportedly hearing that her parents where talking about sending her to boarding school.  The marriage produced one daughter named Frances, and the young family moved to the Bay Area around San Francisco; they were divorced after two years of marriage.  She next married Charles Henry Rich, a lieutenant in the US Army; she had one daughter with him, Martha, and he adopted Frances, giving her and her daughter the last name--hence her stage name.  This marriage lasted 4 years.  Irene then entered studies for and went into real estate to support her two daughters; she eventually ended up in Hollywood in 1918.  She was 27 years of age.  Her first work, like so many untrained actors in the 1910's came as an extra.  Her first appearance on the "Silver Screen," came as in that capacity in 1918 in A Desert Wooing.   Her first credited role came that same year in The Girl In This House (yet another lost film).  She eventually went to work (at least part time) for Will Rogers starting in 1920.  This working relationship with Rogers lasted into the talkies.  She was often cast in roles as a society type-- in regards to the Roger's pairing it was the perfect foil for some of Roger's "simple Oakie" type characters.  In the 1930's she took to the radio and became a very popular character there; while continuing to act in what was by then full sound films.  Clearly, she had significant voice talent.  She also took to the stage a couple of times in the 1930's as well.  Her last appearance film came in 1948:  Joan Of Arc.  Her last appearance in any acting role came in 1949 with her only television appearance The Chevrolet Tele-Theater.  

Rich in very late Vamp look in the 1920's

Irene Rich died of heart failure in Hope Ranch, California on the 22nd of April 1988 though some sources cite that are ashes were interred in Calvary Cemetery, Los Angeles, the cemetery says that her ashes were scattered in an unmarked location within the property.  Her daughter Frances Rich followed her mother into film acting briefly in the 1930's, before quitting to become a sculptor.

My, My Theda!

The Next Studio Innovation: Glass Ceilings

Interior of a very early glass ceiling studio

When you need lighting--what better way to get it than from the sun?  While the very first studio, Edison's Black Maria, was covered completely in tar paper and had more in common with early photographic rooms in the 1830's than it did with what we would think of as a film production studio, it quickly became clear (literally) that as films got longer in length, a better source of lighting was required and artificial light was not really an option given the technology of the day (the Black Maria did actually have a roof that could be opened to the sun).  Glass ceilings were the solution.  As they evolved some studios were eventually made entirely of glass plates. And thus became known as "greenhouse studios."

Back lot of a studio in Fort Lee NJ after 1915.  Not the multiple large glass plated buildings.

As the studio systems and company began their permanent westward migration out to California, many of these massive structures left behind on the east coast were then converted into storage space for early films (note:  early Hollywood had some glass paneled studios of their own in the early days).  This proved to be disastrous for FOX, when in 1937 the nitrate film stored a New Jersey facility spontaneously caught fire and burned almost the entire FOX silent catalog (almost all of Theda Bara vamp films for them went up in flames), the fire also claimed the life of one person, and severely injured two more (anyone who has seen Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, is familiar with the extreme flammability of nitrate film!).

Kinda Spooky!  The very first Universal studio under construction on Main Street in Fort Lee, NJ.  It's easy to see where the glass paneling is meant to go.

Classic Silent Poster

A Fool There Was (1915)

A Fool There Was (1915)

I cannot say how utterly tickled I am to be able to post this very early feature in it's entirety!  This is an early example of the femme fatale "vampire," or "vamp" film, and one of the only surviving Theda Bara vamp films out there.  So many of her films were incinerated 1937 Fox Film Fire, including the legendary film The Vamp (1920).  So this is a treat for me!  Happy Halloween Season!!

Les Vampires (1915-1916) Part 10

Finally episode 10 of the ground breaking French serial Les Vampires.  My edition is the two disc edition put out in 2005 (which sadly is out of print and expensive).  This edition contains a lengthy liner notes essay by Fabrice Zagury.  It is a lengthy read, but worth the time, starting with Louis Feuillade's beginnings through to the film's posterity.  I think he stresses some key points as the the film making of Feuillade's place as a true pioneer in early cinema over all, and I believe, in early horror films in particular.  

He says of Fueillede in the important year of 1913, when Gaumont started producing true feature length films; "In the  eyes of posterity and from this moment on he would remain the glorious pioneer of the serial film.  Les Vampires, which describes the achievements of a secret society of criminals and their muse, is regarded as Feuillade's masterpiece in this genre.  It was shot during the war in the empty and grey streets of Paris."

Passerby inspecting a Vampires poster

He later concluded:  "Feuillade, the father of the Vampire, enriched the collective imaginary of the French by exploiting the latent fascination and magical powers coming from the serial film."  Here is the final installment of his ground breaking Vampires.

Les Vampires (1915-1916) Part 9

Les Vampires (1915-1916) Part 8

Les Vampires (1915-1916) Part 7

This is Part Seven of Les Vampires--entitled Satanas.  For the Wikipedia entry on the series, click here

Les Vampires (1915-1916) Part 6

Les Vampires (1915-1916) Part 5

Here is part 5 of the 10 episodes of Les Vampires:

Les Vampires (1915-1916) Part 4

Les Vampires (1915-1916) Part 3

Just a bit about director Louis Feuillade

Born in 1873, during his lifetime, Feuillade would go on to direct a whopping 700 films!  He actually wrote 800 screenplays in his lifetime as well.  His film career started Le Maison Gaumont in 1905.  He starting directing films for them in 1906, starting with Un coup de vent under artistic production director Alice Guy (who was the first woman in world ever to direct a film).  He directed or produced 9 short films that year. In 1907, after Mll. Guy left the company,  he was promoted to artistic director in charge of production, her old job.  It was from this position that he film making career really took off.

Though all early filmmakers started out making shorts, even long after solid narrative scripts of stories entered the picture, there are a few that quickly progressed on to something more.  In the United States, D. W. Griffith was constantly trying to find was to lengthen his films in one sitting.  He had experimented with movies in parts, but it was a format that didn't suit him.  So his work pioneering lenght of film is well documented and well regarded, he is the the father of the feature.  Louis Feuillade also deserves credit for the advancement of the length of a filmed story; but his approach was in pioneering and promoting serials.  By 1910 his serials were well established, by 1913 Gaumont began to produce feature length films and along came his Fantomas series.  It remains his most successful series after Les Vampires to this day.  

Still from Fantomas

Fueillade was above all a director who loved to tell a story, and resisted later efforts, especially in France, and especially after World War I, in intellectualized film to a point that most of the narrative was pushed back out.  Famed director in his own right, René Clair, who started out as Fueillade's assistant said of his days working on serials with him "very often we started a film in 12 episodes without knowing how we would finish it."  Feuillade himself later commented 1920, "A film is not a sermon or a conference, even less a rebus, but a means to entertain the eyes and spirit."  He was known to be quite a humble man, the son of wine makers, he appreciate the wider audience, and didn't at all cotton to the new notions that intellectualizing cinema to draw a more cultivated audience was anything laudable.  He continued his statement, "The quality of the entertainment is measured by the interest of the crowd form whom it was created."  Well merely 5 years before his Les Vampires did just that.  Here's part 3.

Note:  quotes taken from liner notes,  in essay written by Fabrice Zagury.

Les Vampires (1915-1916) Part 2

Les Vampires (1915-1916) Part 1

Dating from 1915 this actually a serial that ran into 1916.  It's what people used to do LONG  before there was television.  By the mid 1910's these really were a dime a dozen; so much so that many were simply discarded.  This French production was actually rescued from complete destruction from a trash heap by the side of the road.  

The most famous still from the film:  The Vamp Irma  Vep

It was original broken into 10 films and now the restored to disc addition by Image Entertainment runs a w'/hopping 7 hours!  I've only ever screened it through all the way once--in fact, it was a couple of Halloween seasons ago, during a crime theme as part the countdown to Halloween.  It was one epic viewing!!  

It was part of a day of crime, and not vampires, because it is a crime serial.  Yes it is laced with supernatural elements in some places, but they are subtle.  It is also a kind of vaguely super-human sort of vision of occulted crime syndicates--organized crime.  For the longest time, secret crime organizations were denied not just in Italy and the US, but in other countries as well, and France was no exception.  And this was no ordinary crime syndicate--as it is run by a woman who is called Irma Vep, whose very name is a reworking of the word "vampire."  When the serial first debuted, it was, in fact banned by the Paris police.  But the "damage" had been done.  The serial had created the character of "The Vamp"--evil women with dark hair that were always out for something that was most definitely not theirs!

Here is a Halloween special, part 1 of Les Vampires, entitled "The Severed Head."