Scott Lord

Paul Leni directed the expressionistic film "Wax Works" before coming to America to direct the films "The Cat and the Canary" and "The Last Warning". Silent Film

In her autobiography, Lillian Gish discusses D.W. Griffith's cutting between camera distances in "The Lonedale Operator" (one reel). The photoplay was written by Mack Sennett and photographed by G.W. Bitzer for the Biograph Film Company durin 1912. Linda Arvidson, writing as Mrs. D. W. Griffith, in her autobiography entitled "When the Movies Were Young" recounts the importance of "The Lonedale Operator" to the career of actress Blanche Sweet, "Mr. Griffith, as of yet unwilling to grant that she had any soul or feeling in her work, was using her for 'girl' parts. But he changed his opinion with 'The Lonedale Operator'. That was the picture in which he first recognized ability in Miss Sweet." Arvidson later phrases it as "screen acting that could be recognized as a portrayal of human conduct". In another account contained in the volume, Arvidson chronicles D.W. Griffith having met with Blanche Sweet "on the road" with an offer to film two reelers in Calfornia neccesitated by the departure of Mary Pickford to the IMP Studios.
The account Lillian Gish gives of the "Lonedale Operator" in her autobiography The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me includes D.W. Griffith being preemptive of his film's editor, "he refined the devices for building suspense...To increase suspense and build up to the climax, Mr. Griffith again employed crosscutting, switching from the girl to the sweetheart in evershortening intervals."
Arthur Knight, in his volume The Liveliest Art, describes Griffith's use of the insert shot in "The Lonedale Operator" when Blanche Sweet uses a wrench that is thought to be a pistol. "It was the close up that let us in on the secret, when the director was ready to reveal it. Griffith discovered that one basic function of the close up was to emphasize the inanimate, to make tings a dynamic part of the world through which the actors move. But the close up does more than emphasize what is in a scene, it elimantes everything else."
Magazine advertisements paid for by the Biograph Film Company described "The Londale Operator", reading: "With this Biograph subject is presented without a doubt the most thrilling melodramatic story ever produced." Silent Film
D.W. Griffith
Biograph Film Company

The stockmarket had apparently already crashed by the time "The Last Performance", starring Conrad Veidt and Mary Philbin, was screened first run at the Park Theatre in Boston. Universal Weekly, primarily an advertising journal, after having remarked the film was "conspicuous for its camera effects and discriminating direction" tied in the New England premiere to its reception by excerpting three "leading newspapers", The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald and the Daily Record. The Daily Record mentioned the film as having been one of the two "first rate pictures" then on the marquee of the Park Theatre, the other also produced by Universal. It may be important to the history of film appreciation that the paper had written, "The Philbin-Veidt is part talkie. But in some cases, the less talk, the better the picture. This is one of those cases, for Veidt is a high rating character actor and needs no dialogue to score his points."
An earlier issue of Universal Weekly, while noting that Conrad Veidt and Mary Philbin had previously costarred together in the film "The Man Who Laughs", showed the trick photography in the film "The Last Performance" by providing a still from the film where the magician Veidt is holding Philbin in his hand. The Universal Weekly, owned by Universal Pictures Corporation, clarified itself with its captioned subtitle, "A Magazine for Motion Picture Exhibitors" and listed its editor as Paul Gulick. Letters to the editor to be published were addressed to Carl Laemmle, President.
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"The Last Performance" (The Death Knell under the Circus Dome", directed by George af Klercker in 1912 was thought to be a lost film, with no surviving copies untill researcher Gosta Werner discovered a copy in the archive at Rochester, New York. The film was scripted by Svenska Bio production head Charles Magnusson. Like the first film directed by Victor Sjostrom, "The Gardner", the first film directed by George af Klercker, "Two Brothers" (Tva Broder) starring Tollie Zellman and Ingeborg Nilsson, was banned for public exhibition by the Swedish Censorship Board. "The Last Scream" (Sista Skriket, 1995) depicts a fictional assignation between silent film director George af Klercker and Charles Magnusson, who appointed Klercker studio manager- Klercker during 1915 had left for the Hasselblad studio in Gotenburg only to face Magnusson again after several company mergers. Directed by Ingmar Bergman from his own play, the film stars Ingvar Kjellison, Bjorn Granath and Anna von Rosen, the cinematographer to the film Per Noren. The play was published by New Press in the volume The Fifth Act. Actor Bjorn Granath portrays George af Klercker in the film "Jag ar nyfiken, film" (Stig Bjorkman, 1995), narrated by, of course, Lena Nyman, who appears in the film with Stefan Jarl, Erland Jospehsen, Sven Nykvist, Eva Isaksen and Liv Ullmann. George af Klercker also appears as an actor in the film "The Last Performance" with his wife, Selma Wiklund by Klercker. It was filmed in Lindingo, where George af Klercker had costarred with Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller under the direction of Paul Garbagni in the film "In the Spring of Life". George af Klercker that year also directed the films "Musiken makt" (The Power of Music), in which Klercker appeared on screen with Lilly Jacobsson, "Jupiter pa Jorden", which he also wrote, and "Tva Broder" with Birger Lundstedt and Eugen Nilsson. The following year, in 1913, George af Klercker directed "The Scandal" (Skandalen) for Svenska Biographtearterns, in which the director also appeared with his wife, Selma Wickland by Klercker. Silent Film Silent Film Silent Circus Movie

The film "The Death Jump/Fatal Decision" was directed in 1912 by Eduard Schnedler-Sorensen and starred actress Jenny Roelsgaard. The photoplay was scripted by Alfred Kjerulf. Jenny Roelsgaard had starred in the 1910 film "The Face Thief" (Gunnar Helsengren,1910) for the Fotorama studiowith actresses Martha Helsengren and Marie Niedermann. Eduard Schnedler-Sorensen during 1912 also directed the film "Ablaze at Sea" (Et drama pa Havet) in which Valdemar Psilander starredwith Ellen Ageeholm and Otto Langoni. Sorensen also that year directed a comedy, "The Bewitched Rubber Shoes" (De Forhexede Galoscher), starring Maja Bjerre-Lind. Silent Film Silent Film Silent Circus Movie Danish Silent Film

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The poetry of August.

I am in the library where Donna works and I noticed that the first three ministers who served here between 1811-1832 attended Yale College. (I have a photo of Donna in this blog with our first minister, one of the three out of five that attended Harvard University/Gordon-Conwell). This works out because Harvard Divinity School was founded in 1816, which seems incongruent to its history of burying ministers. I also have been skimming the novel "Johnny Tremain", by Ester Forbes. The major characters that appear with Johnny Tremain in the novel, Sam Adams, Paul Revere, James Otis, the orator, who gives speeches in the novel, and John Hancock, are all buried in our churchyard. The cemetary is in fact on Tremont Street, Boston. The fictitional Tremain would have been born around 1765. (Every week I try to avoid the story that the minister that preached here in 1969 founded the seminary adjacent to where I spent my childhood, Gordon Conwell, which before then was a Carmelite. His books are in fact in the library- it is being sold this year and I now live on the bus route to Harvard, on the thirteenth floor looking in the opposite direction toward Boston, the top of this steeple, the tallest structure in America when built, just visible.) So this is rightly the "Johnny Tremain Church" with all the patriots present and seen from the library's window. Donna is at her desk checking out books, having finished her reshelving. While in Boston, you'll note that the church does happen to be on The Freedom Trail and open to the public for the study of the American Revolution with other church within walking distance and is in fact on Historical Walking Tour of Boston with other museums, as is the graveyard, although the service is Congregational Trinitarian with a Catholic service offered by the Paulist Center of Boston, the church adjacent, next door. Once seperated by the offices of Little and Brown publishing, the churches are now connected. The Paulist Center dates from 1956. Our charter, from 1809, and its theology, is well worth looking at for history and divinity studens both alike. When we got to church, Donna very nicely said, "I'm not a mother." She introduced herself to Dr. Elaine Phillips from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, who, also without children, echoed the same sentinment. I'm in the church library now which overlooks Boston Common on one side and is adjacent to the church burial ground on the other. I have noted in this blog that the church was built in 1809, before that it being a warehouse for brimstone during the revolution. The word brimstone comes from explosive ministers that make themselves audible in the thick of the fray. I have mentioned that Ben Franklin's mother is buried at the church as well as Sam Adams, Paul Revere, James Otis, John Hancock. The Old North church has crypt in the basement I believe.and the church across the street is a Puritan graveyard. My brimstonetone message for day was that Mother Goose is also buried in the church graveyard. After lunch, I'll be in the library with my wife Donna for the afternoon. THE REAL Mother Goose was named Mary Goose (Vertigoose) born around 1645. Photo:wickpedia

I wasn't looking for these. They are from a college from where I went to nursery school up to highschool in South Hamilton, Mass. The church is historic and there is a cabinet of books written by minsters who have preached here at Park Street. When I looked for digitalized out of print I suprisingly didn't find anything. We are adjacent to the former offices of Little and Brown and I collect first edition Little and Brown hardcovers and often find them digitalized. What I did find were the student Theological journals from Gordon Conwell Seminary and are reading through them today, particularly an essay on the Futurity of the Resurrection in the writing of Paul.

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In her autobiography entitled "Screen Acting", it is invigorating that actress Mae Marsh remains steadfast to her subject- just that, the silent film actress in front of the camera acting, perhaps more so than Lillian Gish in her autobiography. As part of the integrated instances autobiographical reminiscence sprinkled sparingingly within, Marse briefly casts a fond, but brief cursory glance at some of her films, "Yet no pictures I will ever make will be dearer to me than say...... The Escape, Hoo Doo Ann, The Wharf Rat, ect...". The films "Hoo Doo Ann" (five reels) and "The Wharf Rat" (five reels) were both filmed during 1916 for Triangle Films, the former with a photoplay by producer D. W. Griffith, the later with a photoplay by Anita Loos. Mae Marsh that year also starred in "Wild Girl of the Sierras" (five reels) scripted by Anita Loos and co-starred with Robert Harron in "The Marriage of Molly-O" [D.W. Griffith) and "Child of the Paris Streets" (Lloyd Ingraham). Mae Marsh appears prominently with Robert Harron in the 1916 film "Intolerance" directed by D. W. Griffith, the titles of which were written by Anita Loos.
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