This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of The Lady at SFSFF 2024 In an era when the movie industry churned through stars, Norma Talmadge had remarkable staying power. Beginning at the time of nickelodeons, she later rose to stardom in the late 1910s and then superstardom in … [Read more...] about Becoming Norma
The Lady
The 1920s was a time of great upheaval with people shaken and shattered by the Great War trying to forget and move on. Excess was the byword of the day, and women especially were experimenting with free love, free-flowing booze, and more economic freedom as the workforce absorbed them in large … [Read more...] about The Lady
Oh! What a Nurse!
Recently, the mystery surrounding the biological father of Sydney Chaplin, Charlie’s older half-brother, has been solved. Researcher Barry Anthony has finally identified the apocryphal Sidney John Hawke, wealthy London businessman, as just this individual, lending credence to Sydney’s perpetual … [Read more...] about Oh! What a Nurse!
Charlie Murray: “The Famous Irish Comedian”
This feature was published in conjunction with the screenings of Dancing Mothers (with The Pill Pounder) and The Gorilla at SFSFF 2024 Although overlooked today, Charlie Murray appeared in a touch fewer than three hundred films from 1912 to 1940, making one- and two-reel comedies at Biograph, … [Read more...] about Charlie Murray: “The Famous Irish Comedian”
Joyce Unconfined
This feature was presented in conjunction with the screening of Dancing Mothers at SFSFF 2024 “I haven’t enjoyed myself so much in years as I have recently, grandly rejecting parts,” Alice Joyce declared in 1924. After marrying the affluent James Regan Jr., Joyce could choose her roles carefully. … [Read more...] about Joyce Unconfined
Dancing Mothers
Preceded by THE PILL POUNDER (1923, d. Gregory La Cava, 14 mins) starring Charlie Murray and Clara Bow) No matter what they may say, there is such a thing as an overnight star—or close to it—but that wasn’t Clara Bow. When the legendary B.P. Schulberg made a deal that included an associate … [Read more...] about Dancing Mothers
Amazing Tales from the Archives 2024
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CICERO SIMP? While making The Garden of Allah in France, the company’s stills photographer, Henry Lachman, determined to gain a foothold in the industry, gathered some of those working on the Rex Ingram production, then shooting on the Riviera, to make a series of comedy … [Read more...] about Amazing Tales from the Archives 2024
The Public’s Pleasure
Reprinted in conjunction with the screening of The Black Pirate at SFSFF 2024 Now one thing never to be lost sight of in considering the cinema is that it exists for the purpose of pleasing women. Three out of every four of all cinema audiences are women. I suppose all successful novels and plays … [Read more...] about The Public’s Pleasure