The Secret Cinema and the Galleries at Moore
celebrate bike culture with Bicycle Shorts
Friday, May 29
8:00 pm
(Gallery reception 6:00-8:00 pm)
Admission: $7.00
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
On Friday, May 29, The Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art and Design will present Bicycle Shorts, a program of vintage short films all about the bicycle. The screening will happen in tandem with the opening kickoff of the Galleries at Moore's new exhibition series "Bicycle: people + ideas in motion," celebrating various facets of local bike culture.
The Bicycle Shorts film program will include rare retro educational films on bike safety, as well as bicycle-focused documentary, drama, and even a musical short.
There will be one complete screening at 8:00 pm. Admission is $7.00.
There will be also be a gallery reception from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, open to all.
Just a few highlights are:
The Day the Bicycles Disappeared (1967) - By way of intriguing special effects, a town's population of bicycles ride off by themselves and announce they are on strike, until they can be convinced that local kids will adopt safer riding practices.
We Decide: Trade-offs (1978) - In what will likely prove to be a prescient educational film, a class must analyze and then vote on how to solve a serious problem in their school: a severe shortage of bike rack spaces!
I'm No Fool with a Bicycle (1955) - A colorful, animated history of self-propelled locomotion precedes a comical safety lesson, hosted by beloved Disney character Jiminy Cricket (voiced by Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards).
The Bike (1969) - When two young boys steal a neighbor's fancy new banana-seated bike for a joyride, it's just the beginning of their problems. A suprisingly compelling mini-drama, with then-unusual handheld camerawork from future Oscar-winning cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, a Philadelphia native and father of actress/singer Zooey Deschanel.
Bicycle Built for Two (1941) - A "Soundies" musical clip originally shown on coin-operated film jukeboxes, this features the Eton Boys belting out the title song (a.k.a. "Daisy Bell") in a barbershop quartet style that was already quite retro in 1941.
...plus much more.
Pop culture critic Thomas Hine in person at
'70s screening/talk The Great Funk
Friday, April 24
8:00 pm
Admission: $7.00
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
On Friday, April 24, The Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art and Design will present a unique exploration into the style and meaning of 1970s design, called The Great Funk. The Seventies, though much-maligned, is the decade that will not go away, constantly referenced in movies (Boogie Nights, Almost Famous), television (That 70s Show), radio (oldies formats embracing disco), and advertising ("Survive the '70s?" Geico campaign). What forces have kept these loud, turbulent, and mismatched years in our consciousness?
The Great Funk will include the showing of Seventies short films and clips from the Secret Cinema archives, plus an illustrated talk and discussion with acclaimed pop culture critic Thomas Hine. Hine, whose first book Populuxe both defined a style and coined a new word, has recently written The Great Funk: Styles of the Shaggy, Sexy, Shameless 1970s, which just this month was released in paperback (yes, we borrowed the title).
There will be one complete show at 8:00 pm. Admission is $7.00.
The look of the Seventies will be revealed in rare films, including industrial propaganda, school films, television and feature clips, commercials, and trailers, all chosen for maximum visual impact.
Thomas Hine will present an introductory, illustrated talk, offer commentary between films, and answer questions from the audience.
We've dipped into the Seventies in many past Secret Cinema presentations, but this will surely be our most thorough, illuminating and entertaining look back at the double-knit decade -- a confused, confusing era that preached being "natural," yet often practiced a stylistic excess that seems more surreal with each passing year.
Thomas Hine writes on design, culture, and history. He is the author of five books, including Populuxe, the book which propelled his reputation as one of the world's most important and insightful analysts of pop culture. That title, coined by Hine to describe the style and enthusiasms of post-World War II America, has entered the American idiom and is now included in the American Heritage and Random House dictionaries. From 1973 until 1996, Hine was the architecture and design critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he wrote a weekly column called "Surroundings." He has worked as an adviser for museums across the country and contributes frequently to magazines, including The Atlantic, Martha Stewart Living, Architectural Record, and others. He lives in Philadelphia.
This month The Boston Globe commissioned Hine to write an article on current echoes of 1970s style, viewable here.
FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX WEBSITE
Secret Cinema co-presents Films from the Urban Archives:
Secrets from Philadelphia's Past
Thursday, April 16
4:00 pm & 6:00 pm (different programs)
Admission: FREE
Lecture Hall
Samuel L. Paley Library
1210 W. Berks Street, Philadelphia
215-204-2828
On Thursday, April 16, the Secret Cinema will team up with Temple University Libraries' Urban Archives to present Films from the Urban Archives: Secrets from Philadelphia's Past. This event will be the first ever public screening of films held in this unique collection, comprised of the former news and public affairs film libraries of two Philadelphia television stations.
The Secret Cinema long ago added to its mission the collecting, documenting and exposing of lesser-known and rarely seen films made in the Philadelphia region. Thus, we are thrilled to help explore treasures from what is surely the city's largest film archive. The Television Audiovisual Collections of the Urban Archives consists of approximately 14,000 cans of 16mm film from WPVI (formerly WFIL) and KYW. They include both aired and unused news footage, original documentaries and other special programming. The footage dates back to 1947 (when WFIL-TV first went on the air) and continues through the early 1980s.
Our screening will take place in the Lecture Hall of Paley Library, in the center of Temple University's main campus. We will show two different blocks of film, each lasting approximately 90 minutes. The start times for each block is 4:00 pm and 6:00 pm.
Admission is free (photo ID is required to enter the library building).
The films to be shown are still being selected. In a hectic but fun collaboration, the staffs of Secret Cinema and the Urban Archives are pulling and checking items of potential interest that span the eras and subjects of the collection. Here are a few highlights that will be included:
Assignment: 1747 Randolph Street (1966) - A hard-hitting documentary from an ongoing series produced by WFIL-TV, this episode focuses on North Philadelphia's Ludlow neighborhood -- then awash with gangs, graffiti, abandoned homes, and violent crime. While many of these problems may now seem eternal, this close-up view of urban decay not yet taken for granted remains powerful and shocking.
The Electric Factory, news footage (1968?) - This reel of silent, outtake footage from a news report provides an invaluable look inside Philadelphia's legendary psychedelic rock ballroom, then located in a former tire warehouse at 22nd & Arch Streets. On display are lightshows, see-saws and sliding boards, clothing and face paint vendors, and coffin-like "body racks" for patrons in need of relaxation -- the one detail of the old club that was faithfully recreated in the much larger concert venue of the same name that opened in the 1990s. The original Electric Factory, which hosted concerts by Jimi Hendrix, The Mothers of Invention, The Who, and many other legends, closed forever in 1970.
Connie Mack Stadium closing, news footage (1970) - Another reel of outtake footage, showing the final game, fans removing seats, the man who stole home plate, and the final fan-made wreckage of the once proud baseball stadium in the calm of the following day.
The Spirit of Philadelphia: The Unending Renaissance (1966) - "By the end of the second World War, Philadelphia was a sick city." This documentary takes a hopeful look towards a better future, with looks at the redevelopment of Society Hill, Market East and Penn's Landing, archival scenes of the building of the Ben Franklin Parkway, and interviews with visionary city planner Ed Bacon.
Broad Street Station closing news footage (1952) - A nostalgic and sad view of the last train to leave Frank Furness' grand railroad station, with music played on board by the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Plus much, much more.
The Secret Cinema presents early science films
in historic setting for Media, Pa.'s Second Saturday
Saturday, March 14
7:30 pm
Admission: FREE
Delaware County Institute of Science
11 Veterans Square, Media, Pa.
(610) 566-5126
The Secret Cinema will bring its roving film projectors to Media, Pennsylvania on Saturday, March 14, to present a program of early science films. The screening will take place in the historic 1867 lecture hall of the Delaware County Institute of Science, in downtown Media. The event coincides with Media's monthly "2nd Saturday" arts stroll -- as well as with Pi Day, an international celebration of math and science that happens annually on March 14 (or 3.14, an approximation of the mathematical constant that expresses the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter).
The short film program (running about 45 minutes) will feature an assortment of vintage "popular science" shorts, all shown from rare original 16mm prints. The films range from the silent era through the 1950s, and were made by early film companies such as Pathe, Urban-Kineto and Eastman Classroom films. Titles include The Mysteries of Science (1910s), Food and Growth (1930), and Our World in Review: Astronomy (1932), which provides an early look at the Mount Wilson Observatory.
The screening begins at 7:30 pm. Admission is free.
This event, and Media 2nd Saturdays, are sponsored by the Media Arts Council.
On the 2nd Saturday of every month, over 30 businesses on and around State Street in Media stay open late as part of a free arts event. From 6:00 to 9:00 pm, shops, galleries and cafes host local musicians or display the work of local artists. Visitors can stroll the friendly streets of Media and use M.A.C.'s map to find music, art and participating shops.
The Delaware County Institute of Science was formed on September 21, 1833 as an association of five individuals interested in sciences and natural history. Today, its historic 1867 headquarters in Media's Veterans Square houses a museum, library, monthly lectures and other special events.
Scopitone Party screening
and talk at Moore
Friday, February 27
8:00 pm
Admission: $7.00
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
On Friday, February 27, The Secret Cinema will present Scopitone Party, a unique collection of music films from the early and mid 1960s. They were originally made for a French film jukebox called Scopitone, which entertained patrons in bars, cafes and bus stations in both Europe and America. The film clips, which feature performers both famous and obscure -- and are considered to be among the more important of the many predecessors to the modern rock video -- are today quite scarce, and difficult to see in their original form.
Shown will be a large assortment of the precious prints (most of which were discovered by a film collector, in pristine, never-used condition, in the long-warehoused inventory of a retired Virginia jukebox dealer). Adding interest to the Scopitone Party program will be a special talk about the history of film jukeboxes (which date back to the 1940s), illustrated with color slides of rare photos and original advertising materials.
There will be one complete show, starting at 8:00 pm. Admission is $7.00.
The talk will be given by Secret Cinema director Jay Schwartz, who has now presented the Scopitone Party program at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Columbia University in New York, the Festival Internacional de Cine de Gijon (Spain), the Benicassim music festival (also Spain), and a rock film festival in Athens, Greece.
Scopitone Party will include performances by such well-known names as Dion, Nancy Sinatra, Paul Anka and Procul Harum. Also on view will be many French pop performers, including currently in retro-vogue names like Francoise Hardy, Sylvie Vartan, Michel Polnareff, Juliette Gréco, rockabilly-belting Johnny Hallyday, and doomed chanteuse Dalida. And then there are mystifying, bizarre clips by the British Elvis imitator Vince Taylor, a quartet of singing Jerry Lewis-types named Les Brutos, and even a few songs by performers whose names were lost to history.
EARLY EDUCATIONAL: Classroom Films of the Silent Era
(new 2009 edition) & live music at Moore
Friday, January 30
8:00 pm
Admission: $7.00
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
On Friday, January 30, The Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art and Design will revisit an unusual program concept not tapped since we last used it in 2001: Early Educational: Classroom Films of the Silent Era. These ultra-rare reels, most of which haven't been seen in seven or eight decades, are still potent in their powers to entertain, amuse, and yes, educate modern-day viewers about a variety of subjects. The various short films, most of which were made in the 1920s, include now ancient travels to distant lands, historical dramatizations, looks at industry and nature studies.
And, just to keep things interesting, our 2009 edition of Early Educational will include no duplication of titles from our 2001 show. Most of the films have never been shown by Secret Cinema -- or anyone else, since the 1920s.
The prints to be projected, many of which are believed to be exclusive to the Secret Cinema archive, are mostly original prints (rather than restored or duplicated prints) dating to the time of the production, from pioneering companies such as Kodascope Libraries, Eastman Teaching Films, and Urban-Kineto. They are mostly in excellent condition, and many were made on tinted stock. The films will be projected at the correct speeds, with a live musical accompaniment from Don Kinnier.
There will be one complete show, starting at 8:00 pm. Admission is $7.00.
Don Kinnier has played music for several previous Secret Cinema presentations of silent movies. Don is Pennsylvania's most prominent silent film accompanist, and has been plying his craft for over forty years. The Philadelphia native (now based in Lititz) has studied the techniques and repertoires of the original theater musicians of the silent era. Don recently played for our screening of Nanook of the North at the American Philosophical Society.
A few highlights of the program include:
Studies in Animal Motion (1922, British Instructional Films, Ltd.) - A seemingly random (though no less fascinating) assortment of animals are shown ambulating in normal and slow motion, including seagulls, flamingos, snakes, snails...and a boxing kangaroo, seen with his human sparring partner!
First Aid: Control of Bleeding (1932?, Eastman Classroom Films) - Made in cooperation with the Department of Biology and Public Health, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This film demonstrates the application of tourniquets to stop blood loss in various types of wounds, using simple animation as well as real models.
America's Little Lamb (1928, Fox Varieties, The World We Live In series) - Here's an example of how a Hollywood studio approach (i.e., lots of cute animals and corny subtitle copy) to an otherwise standard documentary about animals and industry can result in a releasable theatrical short. It was subsequently distributed to schools through the Kodascope rental library; their catalog entry promised that "in an unusually attractive portrayal, this film tells the story of a typical American range sheep...You'll like this picture."
Modern Basketball Fundamentals (1925, Eastman Classroom Films) - Basketball was a young sport when this instructional film was produced: metal hoops and backboards had replaced the game's original peach baskets just 19 years earlier, and the NBA was decades away from being formed. Vital passing and shooting skills are demonstrated in this film directed by legendary University of Kansas coach F.C. "Phog" Allen, who learned basketball while a freshman there directly from the sport's inventor, James Naismith.
Mendelsohn (1926, FitzPatrick Pictures, Famous Music Master series) - A fanciful dramatization of the famed composer's supposed inspiration for writing "The Wedding March," and a sweet love story as well. Producer James A. FitzPatrick became well-known as a leading producer of travelogues for MGM, but few have seen this earlier series, showcasing his flair for staging narrative scenes. We'll show a beautiful multi-tinted original print from the Universal Show-at-Home library.
PLUS In Rural Belgium, Monkeys of Asia, Ethyl Alcohol, and much, much more!
The Literary World of Frank and Eleanor Perry
at International House
Co-presented by Secret Cinema
Thursday, January 22 - Saturday, January 24
Co-presented by Secret Cinema
International House Philadelphia
3701 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 387-5125
Secret Cinema is co-presenting a three-day screening at International House, called The Literary World of Frank and Eleanor Perry. We'd like to take full credit for this great idea, but in fact our participation was really limited to making sure the series included the great David and Lisa, and finding a rare television drama made by the Perrys, The Thanksgiving Visitor.
However, I've been curious about these filmmakers for a long time (since seeing David and Lisa and the equally amazing Diary of a Mad Housewife), and this is a great opportunity to see some rarely shown films on the big screen.
From the plot description (and from the site of my original viewings of this film, in school auditoriums), David and Lisa sounds potentially less than exciting. Two lonely, mentally-disturbed teenagers meet in a residential home for their kind, and form a romantic bond. Sounds like a TV movie-of-the-week, something that gets shown because it's good for you, educational about an important cause, and probably full of cliches?
David and Lisa is the opposite of such a film. It's incredibly entertaining, fun, funny, offbeat, weird and psychotronic (and indeed, is viewed as politically incorrect by some modern mental health experts). It features a stunning pair of performances from its young leads, especially Keir (2001) Dullea, seen here in only his second feature film, in the full-on, intense, nervous mode he was so good at). It has striking black and white photography. It has surrealist nightmare sequences worthy of Dali. If all that weren't enough reason to see it, it's a low-budget, independent production shot in the Philadelphia area 46 years ago, with key scenes taking place in the art museum!
We've never seen the other two features (Ladybug Ladybug and The Swimmer) but they both enjoy strong reputations as original (and bizarre) works. I'm looking forward to seeing them both.
Below is International House's program notes for the series, with a few added notes from me.
Jay Schwartz
The Secret Cinema
Thursday, January 22 at 7pm
David and Lisa
dir. Frank Perry, US, 1962, 16mm, 95 mins, b/w
Both Frank and Eleanor Perry were nominated for Academy Awards in 1962, (he for Best Director and she for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium) for this screen adaptation of the Theodore Isaac Rubin novel. David suffers from a severe obsessive compulsive condition. At a treatment center he meets Lisa, who is dealing with a split personality disorder. The two forge a unique romance despite the disapproval from the adults around them. This low-budget feature is an excellent example of filmmaking which paved the way for independents in the decades to follow.
[Shot entirely (I think) in the Philadelphia area. According to Irv Slifkin's book Filmadelphia, the building that served as the school was the former Isaac Clothier estate in Wynnewood. Clothier was the famed department store partner of Justus Strawbridge. The Victorian mansion, near the intersection of Lancaster and Wynnewood Avenues close to the Wynnewood train station (which also appears in the film), was originally known as Ballytore. It was used by the Agnes Irwin School from 1933 to 1961, and was evidently conveniently vacant at the time of David And Lisa's filming. It was then remodeled for the Armenian Church of St. Sahag and St. Mesrob, which it remains today. Other scenes take place inside and outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and on a bustling nighttime Chestnut Street.]
preceded by
The Thanksgiving Visitor
dir. Frank Perry, US, 1967, 16mm, 51 mins, b/w
This made for television film is based on a short story by Truman Capote, who also narrates. It's the tale of Buddy, who seeks to humiliate his tormenter Odd at the family Thanksgiving dinner. Starring Geraldine Page as Buddy's cousin Sook, who teaches him that kindness is better than revenge. Page won the Best Actress Emmy for the role.
[We'll see the original version that was broadcast by ABC-TV in 1967. In late 1969 it was shortened and renamed "A Christmas Memory" as one part of the Perrys' Truman Capote's Trilogy, aka Trilogy. This limited-release theatrical feature also included filmed versions of the Capote short stories "Miriam" and "Along The Paths To Eden."]
Friday, January 23 at 7pm
Ladybug Ladybug
dir. Frank Perry, US, 1963, 16mm, 82 mins, b/w
Frank Perry's second feature, this odd and disturbing film goes far beyond the genre of cold-war drama. At a small rural school, the siren signifying a nuclear attack goes off. Unable to determine if it's a false alarm, the children are sent home accompanied by their teachers. Tension mounts as the feeling of impending doom weighs heavy on the young, impressionable minds. This overlooked early work by the Perry's is a truly haunting emotional roller-coaster ride.
Saturday, January 24 at 7pm
The Swimmer
dir. Frank Perry, US, 1968, 35mm, 95 mins, color
Shifting from the fragile emotional world of children and young adults, The Swimmer focuses on the seemingly banal yet deeply dysfunctional lives of middle-aged suburbanites. Burt Lancaster brilliantly plays Ned Merrill, who after a mysterious long absence returns to his affluent Connecticut town where he proceeds to slowly unravel in a psychological nightmare. John Cheever's short story is brought to life as a fascinating juxtaposition of the materially wealthy and the emotionally bereft.
Free admission members above Internationalist level; $5 Internationalist members, students + seniors; $7 general admission.
The Secret Cinema at Moore welcomes
A/V Geeks with S is for Sissy
Friday, December 12
8:00 pm
Admission: $7.00
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
On Friday, December 12, The Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art and Design will, for the first time ever, welcome a guest programmer: Skip Elsheimer, of A/V Geeks will come up from Raleigh, North Carolina just for us and present a unique program called S is for Sissy!
What could be worse than to have a little boy become a sissy? The program includes vintage and campy social guidance school films from the 1950s through the 1980s that examine the behavior of potential wimps and what can be done to correct it.
There will be one complete show at 8:00 pm. Admission is $7.00.
Skip will also project some nostalgic educational filmstrips as part of this presentation.
Skip Elsheimer founded and maintains the A/V Geeks Educational Film Archive, an archive of over 22,000 educational and industrial films which he screens for audiences across the country. He presents them at such venues at the American Museum of the Moving Image, Coolidge Corner Cinema, Anthology Film Archives, Aurora Picture Show and Chicago Filmmakers. He produced a popular series of DVD compilations called the "Educational Archives." Recently, Skip co-wrote an article with Marsha Orgeron entitled "Something Different In Science Films -- The Moody Institute of Science and the Canned Missionary Movement," published in The Moving Image: Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists.
Just a few highlights of S is for Sissy! are:
Soapy the Germ Fighter (1951)
Billy Martin is concerned that being clean is tantamount to being a sissy. Perhaps a giant cake of soap in pantaloons can convince him otherwise.
William's Doll (1985)
William is an athletic kid but his fascination with baby dolls has his father concerned and his friends picking on him. Can Grandpa fix things with William's birthday gift?
Fears of Children (1951)
Paul's being a little stinker by challenging his father and moping about the house. Is his mother babying him too much and his Dad being too strict?
Neurotic Behavior - a Psychodynamic View (1973)
College-aged Peter has problems talking to girls. Could stern toilet training be making him a sissy?
...plus much more!
Look at early South Street, talk featured at
From Philadelphia With Love 2008: More Industrial,
Educational and other Lost Local Films
Friday, November 14
8:00 pm
Admission: $7.00
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
On Friday, November 14, The Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art and Design will offer From Philadelphia With Love 2008: More Industrial, Educational and other Lost Local Films. This new entry in one of our most ambitious and best-loved series (first presented in 1999) will feature 100% new programming -- and a special look back at the South Street Renaissance of the 1970s. After a rare showing of the 1977 documentary South Street Philadelphia: Street of Contrasts, there will be a live conversation with Ezekiel Zagar, who grew up in the neighborhood (and appeared in the film when he was 10 years old!).
While most area residents are familiar with Philadelphia films such as Rocky, Trading Places, and the works of M. Night Shayamalan, there is a whole world of locally-made films that has been forgotten -- the "ephemeral" short films that were primarily made by small independent companies for the then-booming non-theatrical market. While most school districts, television stations and traveling salesman have long ago discarded their 16mm film projectors, we at Secret Cinema have not, and are proud to present a look back at these celluloid time capsules that would otherwise not be seen again.
There will be one complete show at 8:00 pm. Admission is $7.00.
Just a few highlights of From Philadelphia With Love 2008 are:
South Street Philadelphia: Street of Contrasts (1977, Dir: Paulette Jellinek) - This early examination of what was then called the South Street Renaissance captured the vibrancy of a vital new part of the city, at a time before chain stores invaded. Interviews with the older shopkeepers (mostly Jewish immigrant garment sellers) and a younger generation of artists and merchants reveal the two groups' shared excitement about the recent changes on South Street. Shown are such pioneers as Rick and Ruth Snyderman of the Works Gallery, the Group Motion dance group, and now-legendary mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar, along with his wife Julia and young son Ezekiel. Following this film will be a discussion about the early days of the South Street renaissance with Ezekiel Zagar.
Ezekiel Zagar literally grew up with the new South Street, from the its rebirth in the late 1960s through its full blossoming in the 1970s. As a teenager he played music with early-'80s Philly hardcore bands F.O.D. and McRad. Today he upholds the traditions of South Street merchants with his new store, Ezekiel's Music and Culture, around the corner from where his parents helped revive the venerable shopping district.
Modern Magazine Magic (1956) - This colorful promotional film looks at the many skilled workers who are needed to produce the magazines we read, from the paper plant to the writers, editors, photographers, layout designers, illustrators, cartoonists, advertising salesmen, pressmen, and even typists of Braille editions. Made in vivid Kodachrome, the short film resembles a stock-footage company's "Fifties Lifestyles" demo reel, as we also glimpse families reading at home and shopping for groceries, not to mention artist Norman Rockwell at work in his studio. The film was sponsored by and made in the facilities of the Curtis Publishing Company, perhaps the most important publisher of periodicals in the 20th century, with The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, and Jack & Jill among their roster. The company's eventual collapse is legendary and the subject of multiple books, though founder Cyrus Curtis' legacy endures today through his former real estate: the company's mammoth Independence Square headquarters building, and Curtis Arboretum in Wyncote, once the site of his palatial estate. His daughter founded the Curtis Institute of music.
Is a Career in Television or Radio For You? (1970s) - This educational film, part of a series of career guidance shorts for high school audiences, was shot locally at the City Line Avenue studios of WCAU and WPVI (shortly after the latter's call letter change from WFIL).While showing the work of different kinds of jobs available in the field, we see glimpses of past local broadcasters John Facenda, Gene London, Joe Pellegrino and Jim O'Brien.
The Philadelphia Story of 1963 (1963) - This rare sales film was made to promote a new televised bingo game/program called "RINGO," played with game cards distributed to shoppers at Acme Markets.
The Spirit of Success (1984) - A tourism and business promotional film touting the many benefits of life in Montgomery County, showing off numerous historical sites (Valley Forge, Pennypacker Mills, Hope Lodge), recreational and leisure facilities (Elmwood Park Zoo, Lily Langtry's nightclub), business headquarters, and bountiful shopping opportunities (including both King of Prussia Plaza and then-new Willow Grove Park Mall).
Friends in Philadelphia (1970) - A quick cinematic portrait of the Friends Select school on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
And much, much more, including a commercial for the Liberty Bell Park racetrack, a clip from an old Nova episode about Legionnaire's Disease, and home movies.
The Bela Lugosi Halloween Grab Bag
at Moore College of Art & Design
Friday, October 31
8:00 pm
Admission: $7.00
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
October is always a special time for the Secret Cinema, and we've used it to showcase many different cinematic observances of Halloween, including "Scream-O-Thons," all-night horror feature fests, and even a William Castle feature shown with an approximation of its off-screen "Emergo" process (a skeleton that traveled through the theater on a wire). Well, this year we offer another SC first by actually showing films on Halloween!
Yes, a careful review of our records shows that we've never actually had a Secret Cinema screening on October 31. This year, with Halloween falling on a Friday night, it was time to change that. On Friday, October 31, the Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art and Design presents The Bela Lugosi Halloween Grab Bag. The program will be comprised of a surprise selection of spooky short films, two rarely-shown B-movie features starring Bela Lugosi (including a rare archival print of Scared To Death, Lugosi's only color film), plus for the first time in years, a dusting off of the two scariest reels of film in the Secret Cinema archives.
As with most 1940s B-movies, the running time of each feature is just over an hour, keeping our whole program to a manageable length.
Wearing of costumes is definitely encouraged!
Admission to any or all of the screening is $7.00.
All Secret Cinema programs are projected in 16mm film (not video).
Below are complete descriptions of the features.
Scared To Death (Dir: Christy Cabanne, 1947. 65 min.)
This obscure wonder was the only horror film made in 1947, and Bela Lugosi's sole color feature. Told in a series of flashbacks narrated by a female corpse lying on a mortuary slab, the strained story brings together George Zucco as the victim's sinister physician father-in-law, Lugosi as a mysterious stranger with a murky past as a vaudeville hypnotist, prolific movie dwarf Angelo Rossitto (Freaks) as Bela's wordless and completely-unexplained sidekick, star-in-decline Joyce Compton, and comic character players Nat Pendleton and Douglas Fowley (father of weirdo record producer Kim Fowley). Scared To Death is a bewilderingly surreal, comic opera of overwrought dialogue and ripe performances, with a script that recalls the "best" of Ed Wood (though perhaps not quite as floridly written as the master's works). "Watch it closely and decide: Had the actors ever seen the script? Were some of them under the influence of a very disorienting drug? Fascinating." - The Psychotronic Encylopedia of Film.
Scared To Death was made in the now-obscure Cinecolor process, a would-be rival to Technicolor that used a similar imbibition dye-transfer process, but with less chromatic range. The result is a gaudy, dreamlike look that perfectly suits this bizarre little film. We will be projecting a very rare, 61-year-old original Cinecolor print from the year of the film's production.
Director Christy Cabanne (pronounced CA-ba-nay) entered motion pictures in 1910 as an actor in D.W. Griffith's Biograph films. He soon became Griffith's assistant, and started directing in 1913, working with many of the greatest stars of the silent era. Cabanne worked as second unit director on the 1926 classic Ben-Hur, before settling into a later career of making low-budget programmers. Cabanne directed well over 100 feature films, of which Scared To Death was one of his last.
The Ape Man (Dir: William Beaudine, 1943. 64 min.)
Bela Lugosi was forced to accept some embarrassing roles during his B-movie exile of the 1940s; perhaps none were more ludicrous than in The Ape Man. Bela plays a mad scientist who's experiment of injecting himself with the spinal fluid of apes goes awry. Thus, he appears throughout most of this film covered in hair, walking with a silly sway in poor imitation of a half-simian. Hidden away in his basement lab, he sleeps in a cage with a real ape ("I locked myself in there with him...fearing I might do something terrible!"), which he periodically takes out to kill unsuspecting victims whose spinal fluid may bring him back to normal. Wallace Ford (Freaks) and Louise Currie play a pair of reporters investigating the weird goings-on, and Minerva Urecal plays Bela's protective, spooky sister.
In The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, Michael Weldon raved: "An unbeatable combination: Beaudine and Lugsosi!...great stuff!" Beaudine was William "One Shot" Beaudine, a prolific director of mostly grade B and lower exploitation films of every genre, from The Cohens and Kellys in Paris to Mom and Dad to Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula. He earned his nickname by rarely shooting more than one take of any scene. Like Christy Cabanne, he started by assisting D.W. Griffith, and directed his first films in 1915. His early work included such prestigious, quality silent features like Mary Pickford's Sparrows; he later worked in television, directing episodes of The Mickey Mouse Club and Lassie. When he died in 1970 he was 78, and Hollywood's oldest active director.
Surprise Shorts
Assorted spooky cartoons, TV bits, and more, to Not be announced…it's a surprise!
...and the promised two scariest reels of film?
Options To Live (1978)
Earl J. Deems, a former accountant, started the Mansfield, Ohio based Highway Safety Films, Inc. in 1959 to release Signal 30. This notorious Drivers' Ed short, shocking even today, gave viewers a front-row seat to gore-filled, still-smoking car wreck scenes, in an effort to instill respect for careful driving practices. His company became the most successful purveyor of this nightmarish film genre, and sold many copies of titles like Mechanized Death, Wheels of Tragedy, and Highways of Agony. In 1978 Deems completed Options To Live, his swan song and a "greatest hits" (in every way) compilation of the bloodiest scenes from his footage library. "This is what pain looks like!"
Non-Syphilitic Venereal Disease (195?)
This short film made for the medical community -- in still-stunning Kodachrome color -- details a variety of exotic venereal diseases, in close-up after horrifying close-up. This repulsive reel of film (like Options To Live) is guaranteed to have audiences screaming in terror.
at Moore College of Art & Design
Friday, September 26
8:00 pm
Admission: $7.00
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
On Friday, September 26, The Secret Cinema start its eleventh season at Moore College of Art and Design, with Curator's Choice 2008: Unseen Corners of the Secret Cinema Archives. This hand-picked program of nearly-lost treasures from the deepest depths of the Secret Cinema film vaults will include just that -- with all films never shown before by us, and for that matter, probably 100% guaranteed to have never been seen before by any of the audience!
Some popular Secret Cinema programs get repeated over the years, to expose them to new audiences; other program ideas have been reused but with new/different films. Curator's Choice 2008 falls in the latter category. This is only the third outing for the Curator's Choice concept, which we last did exactly two years ago. We have never shown any of these actual short films ever before.
The Secret Cinema's private archive contains literally thousands of reels of 16mm (and 35mm, and 8mm) features, theatrical shorts, cartoons, newsreels, television shows, educational films, travel films, industrial films, and home movies. Together, they add up to well over one million feet of often rare celluloid, with several prints thought to be the only extant copies in the world.
Since 1992, the Secret Cinema has sought to create programming that exposes every type of these films, by showing these fascinating, historical, and often hilarious short films before features or in themed groupings. Yet, despite exposing hundreds of rare works this way, there are still many choice reels that we've never got around to screening publicly, often unclassifiable films that had inconvenient running times or could fit into no common theme.
Some of the best of these amazing films will again see the light of a projector bulb in Curator's Choice 2008. This previously ungroupable group of short films will include films that were made to entertain, to teach, to encourage commerce and to alter opinion. Spanning many decades, many show wondrous places, styles and things that have long-since vanished. Some of them now seem campy, others still have valid lessons to teach, but all are fascinating, and extremely unlikely to be seen anywhere else, including on video.
There will be one complete program, starting at 8:00 pm. Admission is $7.00.
The program is still being assembled, but just a few highlights are:
You in Great Britain (1954) - This Armed Forces Information Film was never meant to be seen by a general audience, but a uniformed one -- specifically, members of our military who were stationed in a recovering England in the post-war era. The short begins with a short historical segment showing why the U.K., despite a very different temperament in its citizens, was much closer to the American ideal than other nations being harmed by "aggressive communism." We then take a more intimate peek at the lives of typical Britons. As England was still struggling to put its economy back together, the American soldiers were cautioned not to throw their money around in a boastful way that might offend our less-fortunate allies. A fascinating document, with Larry Hagman yet.
Coca Cola: Operation Tiger (1975?) - Yet another private film made for privileged eyes: This corporate motivational film was made to instill pride and passion in the hearts of Coca Cola bottlers and their delivery men, in hope that they would take extra care when setting up store displays of the "beautiful red and white labels" on countless cases of Coca Cola. It was part of a 1970s campaign secretly titled "Operation Tiger," and attempted to inspire these men to become fierce kings of the soft drink jungle. A rare view from inside the belly of the carbonated corporate beast!
The Making of the President 1960 (1961) - This timely classroom short, made entirely from period newsreel footage, looks at the presidential campaigns and political conventions that launched our most tumultuous decade. Includes close-up looks at the winners (Kennedy and Nixon) and also-rans (Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Nelson Rockefeller, Adlai Stevenson and others). This was the first presidential election to collect votes from our two newest states, which coincidentally were the childhood homes of Barack Obama (Hawaii) and Sarah Palin (Alaska). Neither were yet born, but they were no doubt later inspired by the presence of local voting booths.
Red Light, Green Light: Meeting Strangers (1969) - This potentially scary educational film uses a simple color-coded visual effect to allow its primary school audience to quickly divide people into two possible categories -- strangers, all of whom seem to be predatory perverts, and known, trustworthy authority figures (such as teachers, police, clergy and friends' parents!). Perhaps a more reliable litmus test would be to beware of anyone with an undue interest in the 1924 silent film Wild and Wooly.
Wild and Wooly (1924, silent) - The opening credits inform us that Wild and Wooly is "one of the Novelty Comedy Ribticklers," but little else is known about the origin of this truly bizarre short from the golden age of silent comedy. The brief story of a genteel mother who grooms her young boy to look like a sissy when he would rather play rough with the neighborhood tough kids is creepy enough...but it is rendered that much more disturbing by the filming of a gratuitous and shocking nude scene of the curly-haired child, as his mother dries him off after a shower! Not to be confused with the better-known Douglas Fairbanks film of the same title.
...plus much, much more!
Bon Voyage II: More Vintage Travel Films
at Moore
Friday, May 16
8:00 pm
Admission: $7.00
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
On Friday, May 16, The Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art & Design will present Bon Voyage II: More Vintage Travel Films. Another collection of rare original prints from the Secret Cinema archives, this program will focus on one of the earliest yet most enduring uses of motion pictures -- bringing views of far-off lands to audiences unlikely to experience them in person. This will be a sequel to the original Bon Voyage show, first presented at Moore in 2005 (and recently reprised at the Hiway Theatre). Bon Voyage II will feature 100% new programming with no repeats from the previous edition.
The assortment of short subjects collected for Bon Voyage II: More Vintage Travel Films illustrates the range of styles and approaches used by travel filmmakers through the years. There will be examples of shorts made by Burton Holmes, who originally gave live lectures illustrated by silent film footage, and also by his latter-day rival, James A. FitzPatrick, who produced dozens of one-reel "Traveltalks" for MGM. There will be some color and some silent tinted prints, some films made as promotion for travel and others meant to be more educational. Yet all are fascinating (and sometimes amusing) just by virtue of their vintage. The styles of filmmaking and narration are definitely from another time, and often politically incorrect by present standards. On the other hand, most of the films still have a lot to teach in the context of their original intent, too.
There will be one complete show at 8:00 pm. Admission is $7.00.
Just a few highlights of Bon Voyage II: More Vintage Travel Films are:
In Old New Orleans (1930s, Talking Picture Epics) - Made decades before Hurricane Katrina, with vintage views of Canal Street, a pre-Girls Gone Wild Mardi Gras, and dancing street kids -- all filmed an narrated in a style very much like the travel films of James FitzPatrick.
Sights of Suva (1918, Paramount-Burton Holmes Travel Pictures) - Burton Holmes, dubbed "the World's Greatest Traveler" in a recent Taschen book showcasing his hand-colored photography, was famous throughout the early 20th Century as a prolific travel lecturer, writer, photographer and filmmaker. His films are now the hardest of his works to find and experience. This rare early short takes us to the primitive capital of Fiji, where we see a general store, "coolie" laborers, a "good Indian" porter, and locals referred to as "sons of Fiji cannibals."
Bonus Land (1954, Universal-International Color Parade) - A trip through Venezuela, from bustling downtown Caracas streets to dizzying Angel Falls, all in blazing Kodachrome.
The Mystic East (1935, Ideal Pictures Corporation) - From the series "Quaint People in Queer Places," a look at then-unified Korea, which was under Japanese rule from 1910 through the end of World War II.
Hawaiian Islands (1926, Eastman Classroom Films) - Lovely multi-tinted print from long ago, showing Waikiki Beach complete with surfers, early animated graphics, an active volcano, and a fascinating look at the Dole Pineapple cannery.
Song of Siam (1948, Paul White Productions) - This independent production used vivid color photography to highlight the differences, and similarities, of Siamese culture to our own: "Witness these teenagers -- they could be any high school students from Main Street -- and their favorite dance music is American swing!"
Across the World in Three Seconds (1962, Pan-Am) - Color promotional short from Pan-Am Airlines, showing off a new ease of booking international travel reservations, thanks to their new "Panamac" IBM computer system.
...and much, much more
The Secret Cinema celebrates Women's History Month
with Girl Films
Friday, March 21
8:00 pm
Admission: $7.00
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
In the past the Secret Cinema has presented programs of films about cars, films about war, and even a program called He-Man Films. In recognition of National Women's History Month (March), it's time for a kinder and gentler program, as the Secret Cinema presents special selections from the better half of our archive: Girl Films.
No, not "girlie films" (although we've been known to show those too) -- Girl Films is a program of rare short films made for, about, or by women. OK, only one of the shorts was (partially) produced by females, but that was kind of unusual in the time that these films were made (the 1930s through the 1970s).
Some of the shorts selected for Girl Films were originally intended for an all-girl audience, in segregated hygiene or home economics classrooms. Others were made for all to see, and celebrate women's contributions to sports, arts, the military, and industry. The one quality they all share is that they were the products of very different eras than the present one.
There will be one complete show, starting at 8:00 pm. Admission is $7.00.
Highlights of Girl Films include:
Mother Melodies (1930s) - Forgotten crooner Jack Arthur, with help from Philadelphia-born organist Lew White, sings a trio of sentimental songs about mothers, in what is surely the most maudlin film in the Secret Cinema archive.
The March of Time: Careers for Girls (1949) - This topical newsreel from Louis DeRochemont's legendary series (produced under the auspices of Time, Life and Fortune magazines) takes a look at the likely jobs women could aspire to in the post-war years. These included expected jobs in offices and retail stores, but also shows more glamorous possibilities, as we see glimpses of singing great Marian Anderson performing in the NBC radio studios.
The Ancient Art of Belly Dancing (1977) - An intimate look at an art form 5000 years old, featuring interviews with several of its practitioners. Produced by the Belly Dancing Co-op.
Arranging the Buffet Supper (1946) - Kodachrome educational film that instructs the precise rules of etiquette for the title subject.
She Serves Abroad (1943) - Produced by Britain's Ministry of Information, this fast-moving newsreel shows the female role in World War II, ranging from teletypists in the RAF's Middle East Command, to ambulance drivers in South Africa.
Women's Wrestling Matches (1950s) - Two pairs of tough gals go at each other in no-holds-barred style -- and heaven help the poor referee who winds up between them!
Love Carefully (1970s) - "This movie is about having babies...and about NOT having babies." Most hygiene classes were still single-sex at the time of this film, aimed at a presumably female audien/ce, but that didn't stop the male hippie announcer's gentle narration style from using "street" slang and terminology as he explains various birth control options.
...and much more!
Famous Films II at Moore
Saturday, February 23 (new date because of Friday's snow)
8:00 pm
Admission: $7.00
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
The Secret Cinema is known for presenting rarest-of-the-rare, otherwise impossible to see celluloid treasures. That changes on Saturday, February 23, as we present our second program of Famous Films.
Once again, we've scoured our archive shelves for the most famous short film titles we could find...and realized there was still more great, non-obscure viewing that we'd not shown before. The program will include legendary documentaries, silent films and theatrical subjects. Some were landmark achievements for their unusual style, use of music, or other innovative techniques. Others endure simply as great entertainment.
Of course, "famous" is a relative term, and fame is a fleeting thing. One reason we wish to air these great works is the growing realization that even classic films are becoming hard to see in their original form (projected celluloid on a large screen). Not so long ago, all of these films would have been mandatory viewing (via 16mm or 35mm prints) in university courses and repertory cinemas, but that is sadly no longer true. Indeed, several of these reels will be unknown to today's casual viewer -- all the more reason to celebrate them again.
There will be one complete show, starting at 8:00 pm. Admission is $7.00.
Highlights of Famous Films II include:
Kid's Auto Races (1914, Dir: Henry "Pathe" Lehrman) - Charlie Chaplin's second film -- and the first in which he adopts the "Little Tramp" costume and persona he was to use for more than 30 years. Improvised at a real-life children's soapbox derby in Venice, California, Charlie plays a mischievous troublemaker who comically interferes with the shooting of a newsreel.
The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936, Dir: Pare Lorentz) - This unique film documents not only its subject (soil erosion and the resulting dust bowl of the depression years), but a fascinating, long-gone time when the federal government funded politically progressive and artistically avant-garde art. FDR's Resettlement Administration assigned this project to Pare Lorentz, a political columnist freshly-fired by William Randolph Hearst. Lorentz assembled a crew of notable photographers, including Leo Hurwitz, Ralph Steiner and Paul Strand, all from the leftist Film and Photo league. He set their dramatic footage to haunting music from prominent modernist composer Virgil Thomson, and poetic narration read by Metropolitan Opera baritone Thomas Chalmers. The troubled and controversial production ultimately became one of the most famous documentaries of all time. It was hugely popular with theater audiences, and its influence on later Hollywood productions like The Grapes of Wrath is clear.
A Trip to the Moon (1902, Dir: Georges Méliès) - One of the very first science-fiction films, and one of the longest and most elaborately produced motion pictures of its time. Former stage magician Méliès employed his trademark whimsical two-dimensional sets and innovative special effects to their best and grandest use yet, showing the planning and execution of a manned flight to the moon and back (even predicting the "splashdown" landing method still used by NASA). Much of the story ideas were based on books by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, but Méliès' unique vision infuses every frame. The shot of the rocket ship landing in the eye of the "man in the moon" is one of the most iconic (and charming) images in film history.
Toys (1966, Dir: Grant Munro) - This notable anti-war short was seen by millions, both in international film festivals and by schoolchildren (it was a staple of school film libraries). A group of schoolchildren stare into the window of a toy shop, where the toys come to life via stop-motion animation, to horrifying effect.
The Stolen Jools, aka The Slippery Pearls (1931, Dir: William C. McGann) - Over half a century before Band Aid's "Do They Know it's Christmas," this curio was made as an all-star and all-studio effort to raise funds for a Tuberculosis sanitarium (later to become the Will Rogers Hospital), under the aegis of the National Variety Artists. Every movie studio contributed its production facilities and contract players to make a star-studded spoof of a detective yarn, about the search for Norma Shearer's missing jewelry. Paramount handled distribution; the film stock was paid for by sponsor Chesterfield Cigarettes. The gigantic cast includes such 1930s superstars as Laurel & Hardy, Our Gang, Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper, Maurice Chevalier, and Barbara Stanwyck, plus many beloved character players such as Eugene Pallette, Charles Butterworth, Mitzi Green, and Gabby Hayes.
Plus: Men in Black (1934), The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912, Dir: D.W. Griffith), Porky's Hare Hunt (1938), and more.
Bon Voyage: Vintage Travel Films
at Hiway Theatre film series
Friday, February 15, 2008
10:00 pm
Admission:
Adults, $8.50; Seniors/Students: $6.50;
Children: $5.50; Hiway members: $5.00
Hiway Theatre
212 Old York Road, Jenkintown, Pa.
(215) 886-9800
On Friday, February 15, 2008, The Secret Cinema will present its first-ever screening at the historic Hiway Theatre, in Jenkintown. As part of the Hiway's Road Trips and Amazing Journeys, a week-long series of special programming, the Secret Cinema will show Bon Voyage: Vintage Travel Films. A collection of rare original prints from the Secret Cinema archives, this program will focus on one of the earliest yet most enduring uses of motion pictures -- bringing views of far-off lands to audiences unlikely to experience them in person.
(This is the same program that was shown at Moore College of Art & Design in 2005. An all-new Bon Voyage program is in the works for Moore in the coming months).
The assortment of short subjects collected for Bon Voyage: Vintage Travel Films illustrates the range of styles and approaches used by travel filmmakers through the years. There will be examples of shorts made by Burton Holmes, who originally gave live lectures illustrated by silent film footage, and also by his latter-day rival, James A. FitzPatrick, who produced dozens of one-reel "Traveltalks" for MGM. There will be some color and some silent tinted prints, some films made as promotion for travel and others meant to be more educational. Yet, all are fascinating (and sometimes amusing) just by virtue of their vintage. The styles of filmmaking and narration are definitely from another time, and often politically incorrect by present standards. On the other hand, most of the films still have a lot to teach in the context of their original intent, too.
There will be one complete show at 10:00 pm.
Just a few highlights of Bon Voyage: Vintage Travel Films are:
The Story of Our National Parks (U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1920s silent) - Early government film promoting use of National Park system. Begins with the framing device of a well-to-do housewife showing off a photo album of her recent trip to Yellowstone; soon, the photos come to life for a detailed look at the park and its attractions.
6-1/2 Magic Hours (Pan Am, 1954) - This delightful color film takes a promotional look at 1950s transatlantic air travel, complete with onboard powder rooms, lounges and gourmet food.
A Dutch Treat (1920s) - Four very short films (in yellow and amber tints) made for direct sale to owners of home 16mm projectors, with picturesque looks at Amsterdam, Volendam, and "The Cheese Market of Alkmaar."
An Egyptian Adventure (1928) An early sound adaptation of an even earlier silent film, "produced in Egypt" by Louis de Rochemont, who later created the acclaimed March of Time documentary series. This short previews the March of Time modus operandi of using staged scenes in reality films, by mixing in an amusing story of U.S. sailors on shore leave being hoodwinked by crafty Egyptian antique traders.
Hong Kong: Gateway to the Orient (Castle Films, 1957) - Color short showing, by day and night, an already-crowded city that has changed greatly since this film.
European History Atlas: Ethiopia (1930s, Burton Holmes) - Rather disparaging narration sets the tone for this short, which shows then-ruler Haile Selassie, and the Coptic Church, "a strange mixture of the supernatural and barbarism."
Fairest Eden (1931, William M. Pizor Port O' Call series) - Early sound ("recorded on the Cinephone System") travel film of Pago Pago in American Samoa. See tattoos, ukuleles, a nude boy in a canoe made from discarded gasoline cans, and much more. "Unlike the women, the men are rarely corpulent."
Native Africa (1940s, Castle Films) - Sensational if exploitive narrated short made for the non-theatrical market, with looks at tamed elephants, rickshaws, Victoria Falls, ritual scarification, and much more.
Panama - The Peculiar Prodigy (1933, Kodascope Libraries) - A look at the Canal Zone and operations at the Panama Canal. Old tinted print has added bonus of a spliced-on title from its sub-distributor, Cunard-White Star Ltd.'s Sunshine Cruises.
With roots going back to 1913, the Hiway Theatre has had many names and owners over its nearly century-long history. After a period of being closed, the Hiway was bought by local residents and set up as a non-profit organization. The comfortable single-screen cinema has since undergone a major renovation. The Road Trips and Amazing Journeys series celebrates one year of operations in its present incarnation, and in addition to special programming, the Hiway shows first-run foreign and independent features throughout the year.
Remember Pearl Harbor!
Films of Vengeance and Fear
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
Remember Pearl Harbor! Films of Vengeance and Fear
Friday, December 7
8:00 pm - Behind the Rising Sun + short subjects
10:00 pm - Samurai + short subjects
On December 7, 2007 -- the 66th anniversary of the "Day that will live in infamy," the Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art & Design presents a very special program, reflecting on both world history and film history. Remember Pearl Harbor! Films of Vengeance and Fear is a look back on Hollywood's response to the Japanese sneak attack on the American naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The pre-emptive military strike by the Empire of Japan's Imperial Japanese Navy (which killed 2,333 men) not only immediately drew the United States into World War II, it just as quickly ignited flames of anti-Japanese hatred that would smolder for many years. And, as usual, Hollywood films both reflected and exploited their times, for better and worse.
Much popular culture of that era became xenophobic, racist, and jingoistic, though it is important to view them through the context of their place in history: the threat to the U.S. and the free world was certainly not imaginary, and there were clearly identifiable bad guys. That said, the Japanese probably fared even worse in Hollywood product than Hitler did.
Remember Pearl Harbor! will include two feature films, one made on a big budget by a major studio (R.K.O.'s Behind the Rising Sun) and one extremely independent "Poverty Row" production (Samurai). Filling out the program will be short films of the era, including rare propaganda reels and cartoons.
There will be a single admission charge of $7.00 for one or both parts.
Descriptions of the two features follow:
Behind the Rising Sun (1943, Dir: Edward Dmytryk)
"SEE captive women treated with unspeakable barbarity! SEE girls forced into gilded Geisha palaces! SEE cruel acts of war committed against even babes in arms!" The ad campaign for this look at the face of America's new enemy pulled no punches, nor did the film itself, created by the same writer/director team that one year before made the similarly themed Hitler's Children. When a Japanese minister of propaganda forces his American-educated son (played in heavy makeup by Tom Neal, of Detour fame) to join the Nipponese army, the son becomes more of a nationalistic warmonger than he wished for. Though filmed as a sensationalistic call to arms, the atrocities depicted -- including Japanese soldiers tossing Chinese babies onto bayonets -- were based on fact. Scenes like American boxer Robert Ryan's fight with a Japanese jiu-jitsu expert (played, like many of the Japanese villains, by a white American), however, were more likely the concoction of the script department.
Samurai (1944, Dir: Raymond Cannon)
American evangelists adopt a boy orphaned by a Japanese earthquake, and raise him in their home in San Francisco. He becomes Americanized and a talented artist, but is visited by a Japanese priest, who recruits him into the doctrine of Bushido. When the boy travels to Europe for his education, he comes back a changed man, believing the Japanese are destined to conquer the world. He hides code messages in his paintings, murders a reporter and his parents, and in preparation for the military invasion of California, becomes governor of that state with the help of fellow double agents.
This incredible tale is told in documentary style, with narration about the Samurai, "a creed of hate, lust and death." The film was made by the otherwise unknown Cavalcade Pictures on an incredibly low budget, making use of unknown Chinese actors, stock footage, and even backgrounds of stock still photos! Marketed with an exploitation-style ad campaign, the film was released in the final days of the war in the Pacific, and is virtually lost to history. "Has to be one of the most outrageous (and cheapest looking) American WWII propaganda movies" - Michael Weldon, Psychotronic Video magazine.
A Birthday Salute to Larry Fine
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
Friday, September 14, 2007
8:00 pm
Admission: $7.00
Just a year and a half after a memorable tribute to underappreciated "third Stooge" Shemp Howard, the Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art & Design is excited to now turn the spotlight onto another member of the Three Stooges: one of Philadelphia's greatest movie stars, Larry Fine.
On October 5, 1902, Larry entered the world as Louis Feinberg, at the Southwest corner of Third and South Streets (today the site of Jon's Bar & Grille, which now features a giant mural of Larry). A childhood mishap with a bottle of acid in his father's jewelry shop burned his arm badly, and doctors suggested violin lessons as a form of therapy. His musical skill soon became so impressive that he became a professional entertainer, leading him, after graduation from Central High School, to a vaudeville career that took him across America. At a fateful Chicago booking in 1925, he was asked to join a rising comedy act called Ted Healy and his Stooges. Larry clicked with the group, and after they left Healy some years later, the Three Stooges began a movie career unparalleled in film history, starring in 190 two-reel shorts for Columbia that have been replayed on television around the world ever since. Today they are more popular than ever.
On Friday, October 5, 2007 -- Larry's 105th birthday! -- we will begin a two-day, two-location celebration that includes a screening of some of his greatest Stooge appearances, rare footage, guest speakers, and a special Secret Cinema visit to a nearly unbelievable, private Three Stooges museum containing the world's largest and greatest collection of Stoogeiana.
A Birthday Salute to Larry Fine, Part 1: The presentation at Moore
Friday, October 5 - 8:00 pm
Admission: $7.00
At the auditorium of Moore College of Art and Design, to celebrate Larry Fine's 105th birthday, we will present several of the best Three Stooges shorts from throughout their career, focusing on films that show Larry to especially good (or unusual!) effect. Additionally, we will show some extra-rare Stooges footage, including TV commercials and other little-seen clips.
Our presentation at Moore will also include two very special guest speakers, both of whom are travelling to Philadelphia just to be a part of this weekend celebration:
Scott Reboul is a lifelong Stooges fan, who in the early 1970s began a cross-country correspondence with Larry Fine. Larry invited his young pen pal to visit him if he was ever in Los Angeles, and thanks to a very understanding father, Scott got to do just that! In fact, he not only met Larry Fine, but also Moe Howard, Joe Besser and Curly Joe DeRita too. Scott will share his memories with a multi-media presentation, employing unique photos, audio recordings and home movie clips. This fascinating, funny, and touching talk will provide a revealing look at the real personalities of some of the world's best-loved screen comics.
Also appearing at Moore will be Larry Fine's niece, Phyllis Goldbloom. Phyllis' mother was Larry's younger sister Lyla Budnick, and her father Nate Budnick served as the Stooges' road manager for their personal appearance tours in the 1950s and '60s. Like Scott, as a child Phyllis was able to meet not only her famous uncle Larry, but the other Stooges as well (including Shemp!). Phyllis has many funny anecdotes to share.
All who attend the Moore event will receive a free voucher and directions to...
A Birthday Salute to Larry Fine, Part 2: The museum visit!
Saturday, October 6, 10:00 am through 5:00 pm
Admission: Included free with voucher from Friday night Moore screening
Screening of newly discovered color footage of the Three Stooges, and more.
In recent years, the Secret Cinema has partnered with some of the Philadelphia area's greatest museums to create some unique film events: The Franklin Institute, The Academy of Natural Sciences, and Eastern State Penitentiary, to name three. However, we've never been prouder than we'll be on this day, when we offer the second Secret Cinema visit to The Stoogeum.
What's a Stoogeum? Opened in 2004, it's a fantastic private museum devoted exclusively to the Three Stooges! This is not simply an array of collected objects mounted in somebody's rec room -- it's a bonafide, purpose-constructed, multi-floored museum, with exhibits created by a museum design firm in collaboration with owner Gary Lassin, president of the Three Stooges Fan Club and possessor of the world's largest and best collection of Stoogeiana. Housed there are thousands of rare posters, photos, clippings, fan merchandise, and jaw-dropping personal objects (The Three Stooges' pay checks! Jules White's driver's license! Shemp's custom-made watch chain! Shemp's honorable discharge papers from the army -- documenting his bedwetting!!) More than a collection of memorabilia, the informative displays and groupings provide a context explaining the Three Stooges long journey through stage, movies and television to become pop culture icons. There are also exhibits devoted to the many other performers and creative personnel they worked with. Even if you don't like the Three Stooges, the Stoogeum would provide a fascinating walk through the history of 20th century American show business.
Of course the designers of The Stoogeum thought to include a screening room, and our visit will take advantage of it! Throughout the day there will be various presentations (our Saturday trip coincides with a meeting of the Three Stooges Fan Club), including a viewing of newly discovered color footage of the Three Stooges at work filming a comedy short.
The Stoogeum would be on the maps of every regional tourism group, except that it is not open to the public. This private museum is usually open only to fan club members by special invitation, and very occasionally has special event open houses like this one. There is no extra charge to visit the Stoogeum, but to attend you must pick up the voucher (with directions) at the Friday night Moore screening. The Stoogeum is located in the nearby Northwestern suburbs of Philadelphia, easily accessible by car. Do not miss this rare opportunity!
The Stoogeum was recently covered in a nationally-distributed story by Associated Press, viewable here.
The Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art & Design
celebrates 10-Year Anniversary!
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
Friday, September 14, 2007
8:00 pm
Admission: $7.00
Earlier in 2007, the Secret Cinema marked 15 years of showing weird and wonderful film fare in Philadelphia and beyond. This fall, we have another milestone to note. On Friday, September 14, The Secret Cinema will celebrate our tenth anniversary of showing films at our flagship venue, Moore College of Art & Design.
In September of 1997 we inaugurated the series with the Philadelphia premiere of So Wrong Theyt're Right, a feature-length documentary about people who collect 8-track tapes. Since then we've presented 87 unique programs on the big screen at Moore, including hard-to-see features, themed groupings of rare shorts and cartoons, silent films with live accompaniment, special guest filmmakers and speakers, and more.
We're very happy to be partners with Moore in this endeavor. Their auditorium is by far the best, most cinema-like setting we've been able to call home in all of our years of showing films, with a screen larger than that in many multiplexes, comfortable seating and great sight lines.
Friday, September 14 will be an opportunity to look back on our years at Moore, with another of our always-popular best-of programs, Secret Cinema Shorts: The Best of a Decade.
There will be one complete show, starting at 8:00 pm. Admission is $7.00.
Since we began in early 1992, all Secret Cinema screenings of feature films have included bonus short subjects, and some of our best presentations have been comprised entirely of short films. While we have shown several rare old theatrical shorts (including classic cartoons and musicals), often the most popular shorts have been such oddities as campy educational reels, industrial films, TV commercials, and home movies. Most of these films have only been shown once, despite frequent requests to repeat them. Just four times before, we presented all--encompassing "Best of" shorts programs. Secret Cinema Shorts: The Best of a Decade will highlight strange, funny and fascinating short subjects chosen from the 486 titles we've run at Moore in the last ten years.
The program is still being compiled, but a few highlights will likely be...a surprise! You'll just have to come and see!
To further mark this momentous occasion, we've prepared a mini-history of our years at Moore.
Click here to read it!
Riot on Sunset Strip: super screening and author event,
rare photos and films, plus after-party! Exciting new venue!
Philadelphia Society of Free Letts (Latvian Society)
531 N. 7th Street, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
Friday, August 10
8:00 pm
Admission: $8.00 (for talk, film, & after-party)
Earlier this year, the Secret Cinema presented a sold-out evening of music and rock history, when Lenny Kaye co-hosted a garage-rock themed event called Nuggets. We're happy to continue that tradition on Friday, August 10, when the Secret Cinema presents another very special program called Riot on Sunset Strip, celebrating an old movie and a brand new book of the same name.
The subject of each is Hollywood's famed Sunset Strip itself, the winding road that for a brief but memorable time became the epicenter of a whole new world of youth based excitement, especially including a new wave of home-grown rock music. From the moment the Byrds debuted at Ciro's on March 26th 1965 -- with Bob Dylan joining them on stage -- through the demonstrations of November 1966, Sunset Strip nightclubs introduced Love, Buffalo Springfield, the Mothers of Invention, the Doors, and so many more.
Our special guest will be rock historian Domenic Priore. His just published book, Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock 'n' Roll's Last Stand in Hollywood (published by Jawbone Press, with foreword by the late Arthur Lee), shows how this legendary scene came together, burned briefly but brilliantly, and then fell apart after the Summer of Love.
Our August 10 event takes place in an exciting new venue for the Secret Cinema: The roomy upstairs ballroom of the venerable Philadelphia Society of Free Letts (Latvian Society), at 7th and Spring Garden. The night starts with an illustrated talk by Domenic about this fascinating moment in pop culture, accompanied by rare slides from original scene photographers like Henry Diltz, Yoram Kahana and Marc Wanamaker, as well as some relevant film clips from the Secret Cinema archives.
After some Q&A with our guest author, there will be a screening of the classic, garage rock-filled exploitation feature film Riot on Sunset Strip, which obviously provided the inspiration for the book's title (as well as the scorching Standells' theme song). The film will be presented, as usual, in glorious 16mm film on a giant screen.
Then, we provide a built-in after-party, in the funky (and reasonably priced!) downstairs bar of the Latvian hall with music provided by Domenic Priore and D.J. Silvia. Domenic will bring a choice selection of Sunset Strip sounds, including records by L.A. locals (Byrds, Standells, Bobby Fuller Four) and touring bands that made the Strip scene (Them, Velvet Underground), plus some valuable vinyl rarities. D.J. Silvia will add some international flavor, to show how the new sixties teen scene reverberated around the globe.
The approximate schedule is as follows:
8:00 pm - Illustrated talk by Domenic Priore: "Rock 'n' Roll's Last Stand in Hollywood"
9:00 pm - Film screening: Riot on Sunset Strip
10:30 pm until ? - After party with Domenic Priore and D.J. Silvia, book signing, etc.
Admission to all of the above is $8.00
More info follows about both the guest speaker and feature film...
Domenic Priore is a writer and television producer specializing in pop culture and music. He is the author of Beatsville (with Martin McIntosh) and Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece (with forewords by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks), and was the main writer on the AMC documentaries Hollywood Rocks The Movies. His great and long running, if infrequently published (four issues spanning three decades!) zine, The Dumb Angel Gazette, explores his various obsessions; its 1989 book-sized special edition Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile! kick-started a revival of interest in Brian Wilson's unreleased Smile project that ultimately led to Wilson recording a new album of this music. A native of Los Angeles, Priore met Secret Cinema programmer Jay Schwartz when both served as contributing editors to Marshall Crenshaw's book Hollywood Rock: A Guide to Rock 'n' Roll in the Movies (1994, Harper Collins).
Riot on Sunset Strip (1967, Dir: Arthur Dreifuss)
One of the best loved of American International's late-60s drive-in fodder movies, "the most shocking film of our generation" purported to blow the lid off the wild goings on in the Hollywood discotheques of the day. Producer Sam Katzman, ever watchful of trends, based the film on the real-life violent riots that erupted on the Sunset Strip after police harassment of the mobs of teenagers there.
Mimsy Farmer (who also starred in Hot Rods to Hell before moving to Europe) plays a troubled girl who gets in with a bad crowd at the local rock club. She then goes off to a wild party where she is slipped LSD in her diet coke and is taken advantage of by five boys. Her absent father happens to be the chief of police, and the previously-tolerant man's violent reaction triggers a massive demonstration (the father is played by the late Aldo Ray, who began his career in mainstream movies and by the '70s had fallen to accepting a non-sexual role in a hardcore porno film).
As fun as all of this acid-crazed wild youth business is, the best reason to see Riot on Sunset Strip is the great footage of the garage rock heroes who appear in the nightclub scenes. The Standells (of "Dirty Water" near-fame) play the great title track and "Get Away From Here." The amazing Chocolate Watch Band, featuring genius Mick Jagger-imitator Dave Aguilar (now an astronomy professor) dish up two scorching punk anthems. Aguilar's snarling performance of "Don't Need Your Lovin" (a canny rewrite of "Milkcow Blues") stands as the cinematic definition of punk rock, past, present and future. The underrated Enemies (who left behind a few 45s on MGM before singer Cory Wells reunited with founding member Danny Hutton to form Three Dog Night) also perform.
The Secret Cinema brings '50s shockumentary Karamoja!
to International House
International House
3701 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
Thursday, May 17,
7:00 pm
General admission is $7.00 ($5.00 students & seniors)
On Thursday, May 17, the Secret Cinema will return to guest program a night at International House, featuring a rare "shockumentary" from the early 1950s. The film, Karamoja!, features an unforgettable look at the primitive and brutal rites of an obscure African tribe. This rare film will be presented using an archival 35mm print.
The screening will include surprise short subjects.
There will be one complete show, starting at 7:00 pm.
General admission is $7.00 ($5.00 students & seniors)
A complete description of the feature follows:
Karamoja! (1954, Dir: William B. Treutle)
"This is the story of a man with six months to live...and of the strangest honeymoon a bride ever had." California dentist William B. Treutle had never made a film when doctors gave him his fatal prognosis. It gave him the courage to fulfill his lifelong ambition to travel to Africa, and while doing so, he filmed this unforgettable documentary, in a closed territory of Uganda.
An early entry into the "Shockumentary" genre (an international phenomenon ten years later, in the wake of Mondo Cane, Ecco, and countless others), this often-unsettling look at the rites and lives of the primitive people of Karamoja does have a fascination with the bizarre and the visceral. There are graphic scenes of blood drinking, ritual scarification, tattooing, and knocking out of teeth, and the eating of raw bull intestines, not to mention copious full frontal nudity, both male and female.
Notorious exploitation distributor Kroger Babb played this up to the fullest ("See it all! Uncut! Uncensored! Unclothed! Unashamed!"), but behind the sensation was a revealing, sincere and even sensitive look into a way of life 6000 years out of step with the Western world. Treutle, who met and married his wife early on his African voyage (she worked as sound recordist while he ran the camera), surely felt a kinship with the excited, shy young nuptials in a filmed Karamojan wedding ceremony...as he documented their many differences (in one tradition, the bride and groom smear cattle dung on each other).
The Secret Cinema at Moore presents
Counter-Culture Obscurities double-feature
Saturday, May 12
The Monitors - 8:00 pm
A Session With the Committee - 10:00 pm
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
On Saturday, May 12, The Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art and Design will offer a special double-feature event called Counter-Culture Obscurities. Comprised of two ultra-rare feature-length films from the late-1960s. The two films are quite different from each other, but both clearly could only have been made in the hippie era, and oddly, are both centered around underground comedy troupes. Needless to say, both of these features are hopelessly forgotten in 2007, not available on DVD, and unlikely to be shown anywhere else ever again on the big screen!
First off will be The Monitors. This sci-fi farce, about an Orwellian race of bowler-hatted aliens who set out to control human behavior, was centered around the talents of the already-legendary Second City comedy group. It was produced by film-equipment maker Bell & Howell, who hoped to encourage filmmaking in their hometown of Chicago.
Next we'll show A Session With the Committee, a straight-up performance film showcasing a long-lost live concert with the titular improv comedy group, whose familiar faces included Howard Hesseman and Peter Bonerz.
Each feature will be preceded by unusual short subjects. Admission is $6.00 for either one or both films.
Complete descriptions of the two features follows:
The Monitors (1969, Dir: Jack Shea)
In an Orwellian dystopia of unknown date, an omnipotent army of suited, turtle-necked, bowler-hat clad overseers monitor citizens for illegal acts -- including sex, violence, politics and display of emotions -- in an effort to force peace on the world. Loudspeakers instruct that "The Monitors are your friends." Underground, a right-leaning resistance movement plots the overthrow. That's the minimal storyline, and it frequently makes little sense.
The Monitors is a real curiosity from a time when filmed strangeness was in theaters everywhere (just a few examples from the same year are Head, Alice's Restaurant, The Bed-Sitting Room, Putney Swope, and Wonderwall). The production of The Monitors was a collaboration between Bell & Howell (makers of motion picture equipment -- including Secret Cinema's most-used projectors!), prolific industrial film studio Wilding, and the then fast-rising (and now truly legendary) Second City comedy troupe. They all had hoped to promote Chicago as a major feature-filmmaking city, but The Monitors did not succeed in this mission (though the city's futuristic skyline contributed a suitably eerie look). The cast includes all of the following, and more: Guy Stockwell, Susan Oliver, Avery Schreiber, Keenan Wynn, Ed Begley, Larry Storch, Alan Arkin, Xavier Cugat, Senator Everett Dirksen, Stubby Kaye, Peter Boyle and Jackie Vernon. The often-excellent music was composed by Fred Kaz, with singing by Odetta. Cinematography was by Vilmos Zsigmond.
A Session With the Committee (1968, Dir: Del Jack)
In the "head-y" atmosphere of the late-'60s/early-'70s, pot-friendly comedians could be like rock stars, and some popular hipster comedy teams were even named like bands: The Firesign Theater, The Conception Corporation, Ace Trucking Company...and The Committee. Though forgotten today, The Committee were among the most visible during their brief prime, even providing some "relevant" improv scenes to popular films like Petulia, Billy Jack, and Steelyard Blues. Before those, they made this lost concert film, shot minimally and cheaply, capturing the troupe's propless, setless skits in a nightclub, live in front of a real audience.
The cast includes a few instantly recognizable faces -- Howard Hesseman (then calling himself "Don Sturdy") and Peter Bonerz (best known as the dentist on The Bob Newhart Show) -- and perhaps a few familiar yet less-placeable ones (character actors Garry Goodrow and Mel Stewart). Being from the late 1960s, there are some predictable comedy themes: marijuana, race relations, draft boards, and fear of police. Quite a few bits are still funny, however, and deserve to not be lost. Thanks to the past golden age of repertory cinemas (which provided a readymade market for movies like this), and to the hardy nature of non-digital media, the hippie humor of the Committee is still with us, to amuse and confuse future generations.
The Secret Cinema at Moore presents
Totally Wired: The Films of Bell Telephone
Friday, April 20
8:00 pm
Admission: $6.00
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
On Friday, April 20, the Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art & Design will present an evening of short films from one of the major motion picture producers of the 20th century -- the phone company!
For 99 years, until its breakup in 1984, the Bell System (aka A.T. & T.) enjoyed an unprecedented monopoly of the telephone communications business in America. And one of the ways it consolidated its strength was by utilizing movies to their fullest potential as a shaper of attitudes: of its employees, its business customers and the general public.
Totally Wired: The Films of Bell Telephone is a varied collection of short, non-theatrical films produced by the Bell System, covering all of these uses. As the largest corporation in the world, Bell had unlimited resources, producing corporate films more skillfully and more entertainingly than most companies could. They spared little expense, with frequent use of color, animation, and expert talent, on both sides of the camera.
We will show an assortment of rare Bell sales films, in-house training films, commercials and public relations films. As they depict the various missions and agendas of one business throughout the years, the movies also provide a revealing look at mid-century America in general. Many of these reels have never been shown to the general public -- until now.
As with all Secret Cinema presentations, Totally Wired will be shown using real 16mm film projected on a giant screen (and not using video or DVD projection, which is inferior).
There will be one complete show, starting at 8:00 pm. Admission is $6.00
Just a few of the highlights of Totally Wired: The Films of Bell Telephone will be:
Telephone Highlights (1947) - Using the lively techniques of the classic theatrical newsreel (quick editing, enthusiastic narration, peppy background music), this action-packed one-reeler details post-war news and accomplishments of the New York Telephone Company. Shown are the top-to-bottom construction of a new (pre-electronic) phone exchange in midtown Manhattan, and the connecting of the one-millionth telephone in upstate New York. Producer Leslie Roush was a veteran director of short subjects for Paramount in earlier years.
What's in a Name? (1950s) - This rare business office training film uses a dramatized story to explain the potentially snowballing impact of getting just one character of a customer's phone listing incorrect.
Dial "O" for Operator (1965) - A peculiar and possibly frightening short, using dramatic scenes from the Sidney Poitier film The Slender Thread to demonstrate the advancements made in the technology of...tracing phone calls.
Invisible Diplomats (1965) - This humorous look at business telephone etiquette, made in gorgeous Technicolor, tells its message through the perspective of two cheerful but harried PBX (private branch exchange, or in-house switchboard) operators. The familiar cast includes not only The Honeymooners' Audrey Meadows, but also One Day at a Time's Bonnie Franklin and Harold Peary of radio's The Great Gildersleeve (he was also a character actor in countless TV and voiceover credits). Directed by prolific Hollywood choreographer Leroy Prinz.
Operator (1969) - Documentary pioneer Richard Leacock (working here for Maysles Films) uses the cinema verite techniques he helped invent to show the challenging but rewarding work of a telephone operator, in an effort to recruit young women into the profession. With psychedelic music provided by the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble.
Picture Phone (1970) - This demonstration film shows off the enhanced business capabilities of an updated version of the Picture Phone, famously demonstrated at the 1964 New York World's Fair. It was sadly to remain one of Bell Telephone's greatest failures.
D.J.'s Silvia & Jay spin international vinyl rarities at
third Made in Spain night at Tritone
Thanks for the kind words in response to our emailed memories of Rick D.
The last time we saw Rick was at the second Made in Spain party, a night of Spanish rock 'n' roll spun at Tritone by D.J. Silvia and Secret Cinema's Jay Schwartz (me). Our final conversation was about when we would do Made in Spain next -- while we originally contemplated this being a monthly event, as we parted that night we decided to hold off on doing it in April. Rick really felt it could build into a very popular monthly party, and I felt almost guilty saying we preferred to space them out more.
Well, as it turns out Rick will get his wish of an April Made in Spain: It seems he never did get a chance to book another event for Tuesday, April 24 before he passed away, which we realized when we saw Tritone's strip ad in the Philadelphia Weekly and City Paper this week. Rick's surviving Tritone partner Dave Rogers confirmed that he had nothing else available to book for this date, so we agreed to pack up the vintage vinyl and do it again. In fact, D.J. Silvia will be out of the country in May, so this will be the last MIS until at least late June.
So, if you missed out previous MIS's, or if you came and dug it, then come next Tuesday for another night of rare rock and Iberian oddities, plus a chance to meet some interesting bilingual party-ers. And while you're at it, raise a drink to Rick. Admission is free. More details below...
Tuesday, April 24,
9:00 pm until late
Admission: FREE
Tritone
1508 South Street, Philadelphia
(215) 545-0475
On Tuesday, April 24, Tritone will once again host a special music party called Made in Spain, featuring a variety of beat, mod and soul music from the sixties -- all of it recorded in Spain.
It all starts at 9:00 pm and runs until the end of the night. Admission is free.
The first Made in Spain party, in February, was a smashing success. Crowding into Tritone were a happy mix of Spanish expatriates, other Spanish-speaking locals, sixties/mod music devotees, and just regular people seeking some fresh sounds and good times. A few days after the event, D.J. Silvia was even interviewed live on Spain's RTPA radio station, to report on the growing presence of Spain's culture in Philly!
The event will again be hosted by "La Chica Ye Ye," D.J. Silvia. A favorite spinner at many past sixties-music events in Philly, New York and her native country of Spain, Silvia is sure to have some new surprises and rare sides in the multiplying boxes of discs she keeps bringing over. Silvia moved to Philadelphia in 2004, from her birthplace in the Spanish city of Gijón, in the green province of Asturias.
Assisting will be Jay Schwartz. Jay is of course the long-time programmer/creator of the Secret Cinema film series, and is the musical (and marital!) partner of D.J. Silvia.
Some of the artists to be played at Made in Spain will be Los Brincos (the period's most inventive group; arguably the Beatles of Spain), Los Bravos (Spain's most successful export act, of "Black is Black" fame), Los Iberos (produced by U.K. "Nothing But a Heartache" songwriting team Bickerton and Waddington), Los Salvajes, Los Sirex, Formula V, and many more, plus Spanish "Ye Ye" girls like Karina and Conchita Velasco. Records played will include both original songs and several Spanish language versions of familiar American and British pop hits.
In addition to sixties sounds, some time will also be devoted to Spanish music of today in the garage, indie and power pop styles.
As part of what is planned to be a regular series of events, Made in Spain is co-sponsored by The Secret Cinema and Los De Pata Negra En Philadelphia, a group recently formed to unify the growing community of Spaniards in Philadelphia and promote friendship, culture and networking.
The Secret Cinema returns to Philadelphia Film Festival, dirty movies
...plus a selective guide to PFF highlights
We at the Secret Cinema are excited to be back presenting a program in the Philadelphia Film Festival. It happens next Friday the 13th, and is a reprise of an old SC classic, Stag Movie Night: Vintage Porno From the 1920s, 30s and 40s. Some of you may remember our past presentations of these naughty reels at the late (and deeply lamented) Silk City Lounge. It's been about five years since we've shown them, however, and it seemed like a good time and good place to dust them off and corrupt some more unsuspecting viewers. If you've never seen vintage stag movies, you're in for a surprise! More details below...
Meanwhile, we'd like to possibly steer you towards some of the other very nice repertory/classic programming in this year's PFF, with appearances from some of our favorite people! The shows cater to many film obsessions of the Secret Cinema...
This weekend, don't miss the opportunity to see and hear Leonard Maltin present several great programs...well, we THINK he is going to be at the Disney shorts programs (the festival's program guide does not make this clear). But, Leonard will definitely lead A Conversation with Roy Disney (Walt's nephew), and also present Silent Our Gang shorts (accompanied by our friend Don Kinnier!).
Leonard Maltin is a true national treasure, a movie maniac who wrote the first edition of his best-selling Movie Guide books (originally called TV Movies) before he reached voting age. His many other published works are classics and well-thumbed reference sources in the Secret Cinema programming office (our favorite: 1972's The Great Movie Shorts). Besides being the leading authority on Hollywood's golden age, Leonard manages to see and review every new movie, too!
If you didn't take our last-minute advice to catch Leonard Maltin at the Syracuse Cinefest in March (and I think only one of you did), here's a much easier appearance to get to! If you only know Leonard from his television appearances, you probably like him anyway, but if you own any of his books or numerous video/DVD intros/commentary tracks, then you're already planning to attend these very special events.
Our afore-mentioned friend Don Kinnier will be adding music to another PFF silent film presentation, Saluting Siegmund Lubin on Wednesday, April 11. If you attended our 1999 special program A Tribute to the Siegmund Lubin Film Studios of Philadelphia, note that this will be a somewhat different event (though also presented by our friend Joseph Eckhardt, with contributions from Don Kinnier's wife Judy, and another good friend of Secret Cinema, Lou DiCrescenzo! It also affords another opportunity to see The Silver King, a rare Lubin short discovered by the Secret Cinema. Here's a full description of the show:
The Philadelphia Film Festival presents "A Tribute to Siegmund Lubin." Experience a recreation of movie-going one hundred years ago with this nickelodeon program in tribute to Philadelphia movie pioneer, Siegmund Lubin.
April 11 at 7:00 p.m. at International House. $10.00
Curated by film scholar Joseph Eckhardt, the Lubin film program will recreate the unique experience of a nickelodeon circa 1907-- with live music, Magic Lantern slides, songs, narration, and sound effects. The films program includes comedies, melodramas and westerns, and offers a glimpse of Oliver Hardy in his earliest surviving movie role, and a cameo appearance by Siegmund Lubin himself. Live musical accompaniment will be provided by Don Kinnier with vintage songs and sound effects by Judy Townsend. In addition, film technology expert Lou DiCrescenzo will demonstrate the way that movies were originally shown by hand-cranking one film through a vintage Edison 1897 Kinetoscope.
The importance of film pioneer Siegmund Lubin to the American film industry would be hard to overestimate. He was America's first movie mogul, opening theaters, building projectors and fighting Edison in an endless stream of patent litigation. By 1910 he had built one of the world's largest studio complexes, "Lubinville," located in Northern Philadelphia. By 1917 he was bankrupt. In recognition of Lubin's work, the Philadelphia Film Festival is proud to participate in an evening screening of some of his best surviving films, on a day that also will see the unveiling of a Pennsylvania State Historical Marker at the site of his former home at 1608 N. 15th St.
[and don't miss the Lubin-centric Betzwood Film Festival in May; check the Betzwood link below]
On Friday, April 13, just before our own Stag Movie Night, you can see The Burglar, showing at the Ritz 5 at 7:00 pm. This is the shot-in-Philadelphia Jayne Mansfield film noir that we presented at Moore in 2001, produced by Secret Cinema hero Louis Kellman. This time, however, you can see it in an improved 35mm print, with introduction by our friend Irv Slifkin, author of the new book Filmadelphia: A Celebration of a City's Movies. Then, grab a taxi and tell him to step on it, to catch...
The Secret Cinema presents
Stag Movie Night: Vintage Porno from the 1920s, 30s And 40s
Friday, April 13
9:30 pm
Admission: $10.00 (see here for ticketing info)
International House
3701 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
(215) 387-5125
This collection of rare erotica films will surprise and shock those who believe the "sexual revolution" of the sixties and seventies gave birth to the celluloid depiction of sex.
The seedy adult theaters of the seventies and the home video industry that followed it did not exist when these films were made behind closed doors. The classic stag movies were distributed through a covert network of all-male screenings at lodges, bachelor parties, and fraternities. Though illegal contraband at the time, seeing these forbidden films was nonetheless a fairly common rite of passage for the American male back then, as the surviving reels testify.
The earliest extant pornographic film dates from 1915, and they were probably made well before then. The introduction of 16mm film in 1923 really opened the floodgates of stag production, and a standard format was established. Virtually all stag films are black and white, one reel in length (10 to 15 minutes), and silent -- assuring compatibility with the relatively low-cost home movie projectors that were rented along with a night's worth of programming.
What shocks today's audiences about these films is that most (though not all) of them are completely explicit in their depiction of sexual acts. The variety of acts and couplings filmed long ago is another eye-opener, and it is somehow comforting to note that the camera angles for such action, worked out nearly a century ago, survive in today's adult videos.
All of the films will be projected using 16mm film prints from the Secret Cinema archives onto a giant movie (not video) screen. The films will be accompanied by vintage period music, including early jazz, swing and dirty blues.
Titles to be screened include Sally's Sunbath, Mortimer The Salesman, Through A Keyhole, A Jazz Jag, Buried Treasure and more.
The Secret Cinema celebrates 15-Year Anniversary
with screening of The Touchables, more
Friday, March 23
8:00 pm
Admission: $6.00
Moore College of Art & Design
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
We almost let the occasion pass, but through a last-minute programming change, it came to our attention that we've just had our 15th birthday.
The Secret Cinema was born on March 9, 1992, with its debut film screening in a then unused upstairs at the Khyber Pass nightclub. The program consisted of the 1956 rock 'n' roll movie Don't Knock the Rock, plus bonus "unusual short subjects." Shorts shown that night included an educational film called Effective Listening, a 1950s infomercial for a spot-removing product, and a "coming attractions" trailer for an obscure psychedelic wonder called The Touchables. Total attendance for the event was eight persons, but the Secret Cinema continued on. A four-film schedule had already been distributed, so we really had no choice. By the fourth program (yep, The Touchables), we had our first sell-out.
The full history of the Secret Cinema is beyond the scope of this announcement, but suffice to say that since that humble start, we have presented hundreds and hundreds of screenings, in countless venues from San Francisco to Spain. The vast majority of those events happened right here, in the nightclubs, cafes, bookstores, art galleries, open fields and even movie theaters of Philadelphia. In every single one of them -- even when they took place in as informal an environment as a coffee house with whooshing espresso machines -- we took great pains to make the presentation as high-quality as possible, always using real film in real movie projectors. And each one of them has continued the mission that we began 15 years ago: To show the neglected, the rare, and the unclassifiable parts of film's rich culture, both high and low -- films that would otherwise just not get seen.
To celebrate this anniversary, we thought it would be appropriate to bring out a favorite film that has been an enduring part of Secret Cinema history. The Touchables, an incredibly inventive, fast-moving, colorful and wholly original plunge into late-sixties pop culture (directed by famed Beatles photographer Robert Freeman), is a movie that seems to get no love elsewhere. Either wholly ignored or quickly dismissed by traditional critics as so much psychedelic excess, it has enjoyed a tremendous reception at each of several screenings we've presented. Having created an audience for this essentially lost film is one of our proudest achievements.
The 15-Year Anniversary screening of The Touchables will happen at Moore College of Art & Design*, on Friday, March 23.
Rounding out the program will be an extra helping of surprise short subjects.
There will be one complete show, starting at 8:00 pm. Admission is $6.00
A complete description of the feature follows:
The Touchables (1968-Great Britain) Dir: Robert Freeman
The Touchables is a cult film waiting to be discovered. Ignored or quickly dismissed in most film reference books, it is both ahead and wholly a part of its unique moment in time. The Touchables is also the best example of a heretofore unrecognized film genre, the Psychedelic Screwball Comedy (other British examples include The Magic Christian and the obscure Work Is A Four Letter Word). Like the classic screwball comedies of earlier decades, the plot zigzags through a series of unlikely complications and is populated by outrageous characters. Unlike any Carole Lombard or Cary Grant vehicle, The Touchables is set in a surreal, pop-art world and features characters that act irrationally and with little exposition (possibly Cary Grant imagined such a world during his admitted LSD experiments!).
Robert Freeman was a top fashion photographer who made many memorable photos of the Beatles (including the Rubber Soul album cover). He directed The Touchables with great pop-art flair. Combining bright, colorful photography, stylish editing, spirited performances, and a zippy Ken Thorne score, Freeman has left a film that is both a unique vision and an evocative time capsule.
*Another Secret Cinema anniversary will be marked later this year, in September, when we celebrate a full decade at our flagship venue, Moore College of Art & Design.
Friday, February 16
Moore College of Art & Design
On Friday, February 16, The Secret Cinema at Moore College of Art and Design will revive a special program last shown over six years ago. Nuggets: Celluloid Artyfacts of Sixties Rock is a unique hodgepodge of ultra-rare reels consisting of various short films and television shows showcasing mod, garage and pop music from the mid-to-late 1960s. When we named that program back in 2001, it was in naked homage to the inestimably influential 1972 garage rock compilation album of the same name. This year, we are thrilled to announce that in addition to the rare films, we will have with us the creator of the original Nuggets, Lenny Kaye.
Prior to his 30-plus years as Rock Hall of Fame inductee Patti Smith's chief musical collaborator, Lenny Kaye was a prolific rock critic and historian. He contributed to leading rock periodicals, wrote legendary liner notes (even earning mention within a Steven King novel), and was one of a handful of rock critics at the time to take serious interest in the supposedly frivolous corners of rock history, from doo wop to the previously-unlabeled genre of garage rock. This work reached a pinnacle when he compiled for Elektra Records a double-LP of what were then considered regional obscurities and "one hit wonders" of mid-late sixties rock, titled Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968. The collection brought together great proto-punk singles by The Electric Prunes, The Standells and The Seeds, sides that had been recorded just a few years earlier but had already been forgotten in the wake of progressive rock and singer-songwriters.
Nuggets insured that this music would never be forgotten again. It first spawned a host of similarly-named compilations of garage rock (Pebbles, Boulders, et al), and then Rhino Records turned the name Nuggets into something of a sixties reissue franchise, culminating in no less than three deluxe CD box sets of psych and garage rarities. Lenny Kaye, meanwhile, moved on, as leader of the Patti Smith Group, record producer, teacher of a university class in rock history, and author. His latest book is You Call It Madness: The Sensuous Song of the Croon.
At Nuggets, the film screening, Lenny Kaye will discuss sixties rock and add his insightful commentary between films.
To make this an even more special event, we'll have Stewkey (lead singer and keyboardist of Philadelphia's greatest sixties band The Nazz) in person to present a rare print of the promo film for "Open My Eyes."
There will be one complete show at 8:00 pm. Admission is $6.00.
A few highlights of Nuggets include:
Girls In Short Short Dresses (1966) - Paramount made this topical film in the final days of the theatrical short subject era, to capitalize on the worldwide interest in then very-Swinging London. It stars actual mod band The Thoughts, who are best known to collectors for their recording of Ray Davies' otherwise unreleased song "All Night Stand," on Shel Talmy's Planet Records label. In this previously unheralded Technicolor film, they perform two songs in the famous Blaise's nightclub, and in a reverse on the usual rock band scenario, they chase girls around tube stations and Carnaby Street boutiques. The film also makes a visit to the studio of fashion designer Mary Quant, inventor of the mini-skirt.
The Ecstasy Is Sometimes Fantastic (1966) - Made by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, this is a rare cinema verite look at a working, not-quite-made-it rock group. Toronto garage band Jon and Lee and the Checkmates reveal all sides of their world, from belting out James Brown numbers in packed clubs, to going over itineraries and accounting, to the crucial business of getting the right haircut.
The Nazz: Open My Eyes (1968) - Rock videos weren't invented in the eighties; they've been around since sound film was perfected. In the sixties they were called "promo films," and this was one of the better ones. Stewkey, the lead singer and keyboardist of Philly's greatest mod band, will introduce this rare public screening of his personal 16mm print (which is actually a rare alternate edit of the clip MTV has shown!)…and be interviewed by Lenny Kaye, who included this great song on the original Nuggets LP!
Plus clips from feature films and television with music performed by The Standells, The Chocolate Watchband, The Seeds, The Birds (UK), The Marmalade, The Orphan Egg, The Zombies and more!
Tuesday, February 27,
Tritone
On Tuesday, February 27, Tritone will host a special music party called Made in Spain, featuring a variety of beat, mod and soul music from the sixties -- all of it recorded in Spain.
It all starts at 9:00 pm and runs until the end of the night. Admission is free.
Some of the artists to be played at Made in Spain will be Los Brincos (the period's most inventive group; arguably the Beatles of Spain), Los Bravos (Spain's most successful export act, of "Black is Black" fame), Los Iberos (produced by U.K. "Nothing But a Heartache" songwriting team Bickerton and Waddington), Los Salvajes, Los Sirex, Formula V, and many more, plus Spanish "Ye Ye" girls like Karina and Conchita Velasco. Records played will include both original songs and several Spanish language versions of familiar American and British pop hits.
In addition to sixties sounds, some time will also be devoted to Spanish music of today in the garage, indie and power pop styles.
The event will mark the return of "La Chica Ye Ye," D.J. Silvia. A favorite spinner at many past sixties-music events in Philly, New York and her native country of Spain, Si
A group of four beautiful, inexplicably wealthy and exceptionally whimsical girls live together. When not attending their American friend's ballet-like pro-wrestling bouts, they commit outlandish pranks, such as stealing a wax dummy of Michael Caine. They take their impulsive behavior a step further when they kidnap a young pop star and take him to their bizarre country retreat, a large inflatable dome filled with pinball machines and mod furnishings. There they tie him down and take turns having their way with him. Things start to get out of hand -- especially when their friend's wrestling rival, a wealthy black gangster, decides he must also possess the pretty boy.
Lenny Kaye and Nazz singer Stewkey join Secret Cinema
for Nuggets: Celluloid Artyfacts of Sixties Rock
8:00 pm
Admission: $6.00
20th & Race Streets, Philadelphia
(215) 965-4099
D.J.'s Silvia & Jay spin international vinyl rarities
at Tritone's Made in Spain night
9:00 pm
Admission: FREE
1508 South Street, Philadelphia
(215) 545-0475
