By Joe Rinaudo

CHAPTER 1   CHAPTER 2   CHAPTER 3   CHAPTER 4    CHAPTER 5   CHAPTER 6   CHAPTER 7   CHAPTER 8   CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10   CHAPTER 11

Chapter 12

One day, I asked Dave why he liked old comedies so much and how he was first introduced to them. Dave said that when he was about seven years old, his family took a road trip to visit his uncle in Iowa. While roaming around in his uncle’s attic looking for a treasure, he found an old Kodak hand crank toy 16mm projector. There were several small reels of films with short clips from old silent movies. He remembers threading the projector, turning the crank, and witnessing little scenes of magical motion on the wall as people and images came to life before his eyes! This was the beginning of his fascination for motion pictures. When he was about twelve, he bought a motorized 16mm Excel projector and films for $5.00. The films were from Castle Films, and he remembers how he used to watch Hopalong Cassidy with this projector. When he was in high school, in around 1956, he bought a Keystone hand crank 35mm toy projector for fifty cents. The only film that came with the projector was a very badly scratched print of an ad for a Blondie & Dagwood film. Many years later, while he was working at Carty Piano, He noticed that Dick Carty had an old Ampro 16mm sound projector and some Laurel & Hardy sound films stored in the office. Dave asked Dick if he might be able to borrow them for a while to run them for his family. Dick said that his friend Milt Larson, who was the owner of the Variety Arts Theater and the Magic Castle had given them to him so Dick could run them for his family. Later Dave had to return the projector and films when Dick needed to run them for a party he was having. I was very surprised to hear about the hand crank Kodak toy projector as I also had one when I was about twelve years old and would show films on the wall. I was glad that Dave shared my passion for early film and that the same Kodak toy projector had influenced both of our lives. It is so funny how things come full circle in our travels. Now because of my passion for film, Dave is collecting and running his own films!  

Kodatoy

Dave asked me how I got bitten by the film bug. Like Dave, I always enjoyed old films that I had first seen on black and white television. My earliest memories of watching daytime television, in around 1954, is that there wasn’t much to watch. I remember my mother changing the channels and only finding Sumo wrestling, old films and cartoons. So, these were my daytime babysitters. Many of the channels were just static or some kind of a test pattern with an Native American in it. Later in life I found out this test pattern allowed you to tune and sharpen the image on your television screen. I remember my father adjusting and fine-tuning the television almost every day by turning various knobs and moving the rabbit ear antenna to get the best reception.

Farmer Al Falfa

So, my new friends were old black-and-white silent cartoons. Farmer Al Falfa and Felix the Cat are two that I can remember well. My other “silent” friends were Laurel & Hardy, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Snub Pollard, Charlie Chase, Fatty Arbuckle, and Ben Turpin. There were also many other comedies like the ones made by Mack Sennett. What young kid of my generation didn’t like the crazy cartoon   like antics of the Keystone Cops! 

My father was a shutterbug. He was always taking still photographs, and shooting 8mm film of our family outings and gatherings. Almost every Saturday night at our house was movie night. My father would set up the screen and thread the Kodak 8mm projector with his latest (Kodachrome color) family movie masterpiece. There were 8mm films of our family from the 1940s that he had shot. On one such occasion, my father said he had found a very rare old film of our family shot many years ago! When the projector flickered to life, up on the screen was not the usual color film but a black and white film with Charlie Chaplin! My father tried to lie and said something like we had famous people in our family and here is the proof! Of course, I knew right away that this was just one of my dad’s usual bad jokes. I asked him where he had found this film. He said that he bought it at Sears & Roebuck for $.99! This was a magical and pivotal moment in an eight-year old’s life! I realized that I could actually own a film of one of my friends that I grew up with that was on television! The next day I asked my mom to take me to Sears so I could see for myself if this was really true. When I got to the store, I was met with a whole rack of 8mm films of all my friends! Charlie Chaplin. Buster Keaton and so much more!  There were the small reels and longer ones by Castle Films that had all of these magical images that I could now own! My mind went blurry with all the possibilities of what I could now possess and watch anytime I pleased! I asked my mom to buy as many as she could afford. Seeing the kid in a candy store look in my eyes, knowing that I had to be put on a film diet, she wisely said that I could only buy one a week and this would have to come out of my allowance. Every Saturday was a magical day. When I would accompany my mom to Sears so she could buy necessities for our family and I could buy a small reel of magic. Of course, every Saturday movie night, I got to premier my latest slice of movie history. What a wonderful time! 

Johnny Coons

As I got a little older, about eight or nine years old, I started showing the 8mm films in my bedroom. I had a small screen permanently mounted on the wall. I had a vinyl record player set up with silent movie-type music and my dad’s trusty old Kodak 8mm projector by my side. I would charge the kids in my neighborhood ten cents a show. With the money I made, I could buy more films!                              

I eventually graduated to 16mm silent films. When I was in the fifth grade, around 1963, I used to watch a show on channel 9 called the Uncle Johnny Coons Show. Uncle Johnny was supposed to be an old film collector with a projector in his garage and would show old silent films with a projector that had a funnel attached to the back of it which resembled a meat grinder funnel. He would stuff a wad of film, not on a reel, into this funnel and start the projector. On one of his programs, he showed one of the craziest films I had ever seen. It was called School Days starring Larry Semon. I remember howling with laughter as there were very wild antics with a lot of great unbelievable stunts with people flying through walls, massive things flying through the air, bowls of goo flying on people, and a tower falling on a house totally destroyed it in full scale and real-time! This was a living cartoon! I had to see more of this Larry Semon guy! After checking with the usual places where I bought my 8mm films, Sears, camera shops,  etc., I couldn’t seem to find any Larry Semon films. So, in desperation, I called Channel 9 to find out where they rented the film. I got a call back from Johnny Coons himself! He told me that School Days was rented from a company by the name of Film Classic Exchange in Los Angeles. Johnny asked me if I would like to be a guest on his show. I agreed and found it to be a very interesting experience to be on live television but that is a story for another day. My mother drove me down to 1926 South Vermont and there I met Mr. Charley Tarbox, the owner of Film Classic Exchange. When I walked into the little storefront, I was met with films stacked all around on desks, shelves, and the floor. There was an odd smell of old film and lingering cigar smoke. There was a little old man seated at a desk dressed in a black suit with a very thin black tie. He had a shock of white hair, a red nose, and a cigar in his mouth. He was typing, single finger, on an old Underwood typewriter.  When he said hello his voice reminded me of a cross between Don Addams and W.C. Fields. Every time the phone would ring, he would answer it, with that great voice, “Film Classics!” When I asked about School Days Mr. Tarbox said he only had it in 16mm. He had a used print that I could buy for $15.00. This was my introduction to 16mm!  I already had an old 16mm silent projector that I had never used. I cleaned it up and ran my very first 16mm print! What an improvement over 8mm! So now I collected 16mm prints from Film Classic Exchange. I purchased some very rare and interesting films from Mr. Tarbox. During summer break Mr. Tarbox hired me to sort and repair some of his films that had been damaged. There was this dark and dimly lit basement, that I worked in, that was full of his nitrate prints and negatives. I remember him (with cigar in his mouth) showing me how to handle nitrate 35mm film. He taught me how to wet splice film and repair torn sprocket holes with special tape.  In return for my labor, I built up a credit account in which I received 16mm and some 35mm film. Mr. Tarbox said that he knew Mack Sennett! He also told me that when Sennett was having financial troubles he let Mr. Tarbox buy some of his original 35mm silent material. The Film Classic Exchange had some very rare and interesting films for sale that no one else seemed to have.  Owning 35mm silent film at this time in my life was a magical experience. To own the king of film was something that I could only dream about. I had no 35mm projector. I thought that, in the future, these might be quite valuable to me. Little did I know that I would make the transition from 16mm to 35mm and these 35mm film elements would come in very handy. I remember my first 16mm sound film that I purchased from Blackhawk Films. It was Laurel & Hardy’s The Music Box. This was the only film that won them an Academy Award. It was an all-talking sound film! When it arrived, I opened the box and was transfixed by this reel of a magical “TALKING” picture! My first sound film! What a wonderful feeling of joy and excitement came over me. I could really own a sound film of my comedy heroes that I grew up with on television! In 1963 there was no video available to the average person. The only way you could see a film was to go to a theater, see it on television, or own a film print. Since I didn’t own a 16mm sound projector I asked my mom to drive me down to a local camera shop to rent one. What a great Saturday night show my family had when I premiered my first talking film. My dad was amazed that I could buy a great-looking print you could only see on television. My dad said: “You have to get more of these!” 

Since Dave and I shared the same passion for film it was only natural to find more for our collections. This brought us into the very crazy world of film collectors.   

Back in the 1970’s you were something special if you were a film collector. A film collector would be very popular because they had a stock of films and a projector to be used as a source of unique entertainment at private parties and special events at churches and schools. In fact, I made money showing films that I purchased from Blackhawk Films and Film Classics Exchange at these special events. The money I made would go toward the purchase of more Laurel & Hardy films to be used for future screenings and to increase my film collection.  As I mentioned before, films were not available to the average person. Videotape, computers, and DVDs were not around. The only way to see an old film was in a theater or on television. New or ”first run” films were printed in 16mm for use on airplanes and for military. This, brings us to the above-ground and the underground worlds of film collecting. The above ground sources were places like Film Classics Exchange, Blackhawk Films, and Castle Films. These types of film dealers sold films in the public domain or in the case of Blackhawk Films, licensed copyrighted films for home and non-theatrical use. These would be films like Laurel & Hardy and Our Gang. 

As for the underground sources, most older films from the big studios that were still under copyright were not available to own legally but there were 16mm prints of these older film classics made for television broadcast and 16mm prints of the latest new films made for the travel industry (trains, planes, and cruise ships) as well as for the military. Yes, they had 16mm film projectors on airplanes! Once a print was worn or not wanted by the television station, usually the studios did not want the films back due to storage concerns, it was sent into a recycle house to be destroyed. The same goes for the prints of new films made for the military and travel industry.  These recycle houses were under strict orders that a film must not get out of their control and must be destroyed. Of course, many prints of the old classics as well as many brand new films made their “saved” journey from destruction and into the hands of film collectors. This was due to bribes paid to the recycle houses and sometimes theft of prints, during transport, prior to the arrival for destruction. 

The studios feared that the new films could be copied and the bootleg copies sold to collectors. The type of individuals involved in this type of illegal activity would come to be known as film pirates. There were stories of 35mm film prints being stolen from first-run theaters as well as from film depots before their return to the studios. By bribing the projectionist, some prints were “borrowed” from the theater as the film was being projected. The already projected reels were sent to a pirate film lab to be copied before the next screening occurred! This meant these pirate film labs could be bribed to make an illegal “dupe” negative, from the stolen print, and subsequent illegal copies for sale. Some unscrupulous labs were making prints for the studios off of the original printing negatives and selling prints out the back door. So, there was a market for these illegal prints (of new films) that wealthy collectors would purchase for their private screenings of the latest “first run” films. There were many stories of collectors running first-run films in their private theaters while the film was still being shown in theaters!

There were many cheap labs set up to make illegal copies from these “liberated” films. One, in particular, comes to mind where two brothers in L.A. set up an illegal lab and were selling “dirty dupe” 16mm prints of the 1933 classic King Kong. The film was developed in several bathtubs in a garage and looked horrible. As I recall, it was very dark and blurry, but If that’s all a film collector could find to own this title, then it was $50.00 well spent!

The 1970s was a very scary time for film collectors as the F.B.I. was on the prowl to find these illegal labs and shut them down. Many collectors were questioned and (in some cases) had their homes raided and films confiscated (by the F.B.I.). The studios hoped to find the sources for the loss of their newer films. In an effort to curb the illegal film pirate trade, the F.B.I. decided to make an example of a high-profile film collector. Roddy McDowall, a child star who played Cornelius Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film franchise, was the target, and in 1975 the F.B.I. raided his home and confiscated all of his film collection. He had a very vast collection and was found to be reproducing them on large format videotape, used by the industry of that time, which he said was only for his use and to protect the film by not running the prints. Roddy claimed that the studios were not doing a very good job with film preservation and he was keeping his prints in pristine condition for the reason of future preservation. The I.R.S. still confiscated his entire collection of film and video. To avoid serious legal action, Roddy agreed to give up sources of his film library and names of fellow film collectors with similar collections. This high-profile case sent huge shock waves throughout the film-collecting community. Because of this many collectors went underground and hid their collections in “safe” places. In some cases, collectors were allowed to keep their older used television films as ownership, and making them available for illegal copying are two different things. Most collectors of old classics just wanted to have these films to show privately at film parties and for their own amazement and never wanted to have anything to do with copyright infringement. Roddy never got his collection back.

There was a dealer who lived in the Hollywood Hills who will remain nameless. He was known as the king of the dupers! A dupe print is a film made from a 16mm duplicate negative which is made from an original 16mm print. The sound was not re-recorded so it was a bit muffled and the picture was a little light and flat in contrast. He could get any black and white Paramount title from the 1930s for about $175.00. So, for the collector on a budget, this could work fine. An original used television print (if it was top drawer} meaning a few splices (for commercial breaks), no scratches, and in general, like new condition could cost as much as $275.00 to $375.00. He had two 16mm J.A.N. military projectors mounted behind a wall in his living room and would spot-screen the film that you ordered upon request.

There were many underground dealers. Most of the first contact with these dealers had to be by referral only. So, you couldn’t just call them cold without a name to drop or the dealer getting a pre-call from a trusted collector that could give the dealer the all okay for you not being an F.B.I. informant.    

So, this was the wonderful world of film collecting that Dave and I had to deal with. Fortunately, we pretty much stayed on the above-ground side but we had some interesting experiences nonetheless! 

To be continued…

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Do You Have
— EXPERTISE in NON-PROFITS? —

Joe Rinaudo, founder of Silent Cinema Society, is currently forming a non-profit which he calls SCAT —Silent Cinema Art and Technology — to fund the restoration and preservation of the actual machines and media of the silent era.

Advice and suggestions in the area of non-profits are most welcome. Contact Joe Rinaudo here.

Through Silent Cinema Society, which is comprised of you, the fans and supporters of silent cinema, Joe will continue to enlighten and entertain with The Newsreel newsletter; this Silent Cinema Society website; and hopefully soon, live shows where audiences are once again able to wear big hats that block the screen. SCAT, the non-profit, will also support Silent Cinema Society so that information and entertainment will continue to be presented to you, silent cinema fans. Lady, will you please take off that big hat!