You can read the program essay for our 2019 screening of The Wedding March here Fay Wray spent the first three years of her life in Alberta, Canada, where her father ran a sawmill. The family came to America in 1911 and settled first in Arizona, then moved to Utah, following a reversal of family … [Read more...] about The Wedding March
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
It’s appropriate that the elaborate set piece of Steamboat Bill, Jr. is a cyclone. Legend has it that when Joseph Francis “Buster” Keaton was born in Piqua, Kansas, on October 4, 1895, there was a gigantic windstorm. And when he was just 20 months old, he was supposedly sucked out of an open … [Read more...] about Steamboat Bill, Jr.
The Peach Girl
Ruan Lingyu, the ill-fated star of The Peach Girl, lived a life that could have been lifted from one of her films. Born into an impoverished family from Guangdong province, she is a native of Shanghai, a city that promised jobs to China’s rural poor and later became known as the Hollywood of the … [Read more...] about The Peach Girl
Clash of the Wolves
Rin-Tin-Tin started his life in an unlikely and dangerous place: in the back of a bombed-out German bunker in September of 1918. His mother was a member of the German Dog Corps, which participated in the rescuing of injured soldiers. Rin-Tin-Tin would have starved along with his four litter mates if … [Read more...] about Clash of the Wolves