Goofy Fun

Everyone knows the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," right? But no way can he be linked to the silent era...or can he?

Yes. Yes, he can: http://oracleofbacon.org/.

Example: Kevin Bacon & D.W. Griffith?

D.W. Griffith has a Bacon number of 3.

D.W. Griffith
was in
San Francisco (1936)
with
Vince Barnett
was in
Crazy Mama (1975)
with
Cloris Leachman
was in
New York, I Love You (2008)
with
Kevin Bacon

I know, I know -- doesn't have a whole lot to do with the silent era. But it's a fun timesuck for a weekend afternoon!

Take the Tour!

So, imagine my horror when I realized that one of the features wasn't linked. How long had it been that way? Why did no one write me, and let me know? (Which led to the truly depressing thought, Does no one read my site? Answer: probably not.)

Anyways, I've fixed the broken link, and in the process, done more code cleanup, etc. It's a really fun feature; if you haven't taken the tour of silent film homes, you might want to visit the new and improved version.

So put on a comfy pair of shoes, grab a bottle of water, and get ready to tour the homes of the stars!

Snow Day

Well, once again we got walloped here in the midwest...I think we got another foot of snow, or if not a foot, damn near.

So, a snow day! Yay! I couldn't get out of my street, much less to work, so I got to stay at home and...work on WTSM, of course.

And work I did, adding a new feature as well as a couple of new facts pages (and cleaning up the appearance/code of the others).

The new feature:
A while ago (more like 10 years ago, when I started shopping on eBay, curse the day), I bought an interesting set of "paper dolls" featuring actors from the Christie Comedies. I never really knew much about Christie Studios, so while posting the figures I wrote up what I could on Al and Charlie Christie, which isn't much but as much as I could find in my (home) library. They're a fun set, and I hope you enjoy them!

I won't say much about the new facts, since...they're facts; if I told you all about what I posted I wouldn't need the new pages. So I'm linking to the main facts page; from there you can see what's new and take a look.

Enjoy! I'm off to enjoy the rest of my snow day, and dig my car out later (after the snowplows come through -- I learned my lesson the hard way last time).

Obsession, part II

So funny how things are serendipitous:

No sooner did I publish the link below than I found an article on nytimes.com on more photo resources, including the Library of Congress and the release of a large treasure trove of images from the German National Archives to Wikipedia.

A cursory search didn't show much by way of silent movie actors/actresses, but I really didn't spend a lot of time looking. You may have better luck; if so, please let me know!

My New Obsession

I know, I haven't posted in a while, but I have a good excuse: I have been spending a lot of time browsing through the Life photo archive, looking for pictures!

It's wonderful. So far I've found:

• Lillian & Dorothy Gish


• Mary Pickford


• Buster Keaton


• Charlie Chaplin


• Gloria Swanson

And general photos from the silent era.

There's really a lot to find; this is just the tip of the iceberg.

If you find some great photos, please -- let me know! I'll share them with everyone else.

San Gabriel Wurlitzer Organ

Attention, fans of Wurlitzer Organs in the San Gabriel, CA area:

Thanks to a $235,000 grant from theatre pipe organ expert Peter Crotty, the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse has had it's mighty Wurlitzer organ restored. It will make its debut (re-debut?) on January 18, with a rededication ceremony, concert, and showing of a silent "Laurel & Hardy" film. The press release has all the details.

(Edited to note: The release was copied/pasted verbatim.)

New Douglas Fairbanks Book

I almost forgot:

A few posts down, where I link to the NYTimes.com reivew of the new Douglas Fairbanks DVD collection, I also mentioned that a new pictorial biography of Fairbanks was being released, as well, and that I would add it to the Store.

Well, it has been, and I did!

New York Movie Theatre

Another article from NYTimes.com:

Evidently, the Metro movie theatre, long empty, is set to become an Urban Outfitters. While, on the surface, the good news is that the gorgeous Art Deco exterior will be preserved, the tragedy is that the fabulous interior was gutted about a year ago.

This makes me weep, not just for the glorious cinemas of the past, but as another indication of the contempt for historic architecture that seems so prevalent.

My opinion, of course.

New Feature

Just in time for the new year, a new calendar!

I just added to the Features section a calendar set I had purchased quite some time ago on eBay. Promoting the Hudson Super-Six, the calendar is a series of pages featuring a female silent film star -- and copy extolling the virtues of the Hudson, of course.

Featuring not only more well-known stars such as Kathlyn Williams and Mary Miles Minter, it also includes Ormi Hawley, Florence Dagmar and Ella Hall.

It's a lovely series, and a useful calendar -- in 2013.

And the Winner is...

...Todd M.!

Many thanks to Todd and everyone else who filled out the Welcome to Silent Movies survey.

The drawing was held on Wednesday, December 31. Many thanks to Lee, for helping me (and letting me use his digital camera).

I've taken everyone's suggestions into account, and I am going to try to work hard to make the WTSM Web site the best it can be, and a great resource for silent movie fans.

Thanks to everyone for their support this last year and years past, either by visiting the site or by purchasing something from Amazon.com or Cafe Press via WTSM. It's really appreciated, and helps me to keep the site up and running.

So once again, congratulations, Todd, and while I didn't get the certificate to you in time for Christmas shopping, I figured, hey, if you didn't get what you wanted...here's your chance!

Thanks everyone, and Happy 2009!