Saving & Collecting Silent Film Footage & Memorabilia

The interview with Mary Ann Cade on researching & collecting silent film continues (you can catch up with some of her astonishing finds in part one).

Mary, you’ve found some really rare film footage — of historical value. I know you have several collections, but in your silent film collection, what do you consider to be ‘the crown jewel’?

The rarest pieces of props that I have in my collection are a belt, slave bracelet and chain of office from the 1917 silent film production of Cleopatra starring Theda Bara, which is currently believed to be lost. I have a photograph of Ms. Bara wearing the belt in costume, so I am pretty confident that these are authentic pieces. All of them come with certificates of authenticity.

[Interviewer's Note: I peed a little at the notion of anyone owning such fabulous, jaw-dropping items. Can you even imagine?! And I felt a little dizzy when she sent me photos -- which you'll find throughout this post.]

Aside from the passion for collecting and an interest in silent film, why do you put so much effort into your research?

The films were originally produced to be viewed by audiences not held hostage in an archive. This problem is quite evident for people like me, who don’t live near a large city where silent film festivals are regularly shown or close to places like the British Film Institute archive for in-house viewing of materials.

I have never accepted any money for any of this. I have done all of my research and location of these films solely because of my love of silent film and my goal is to see that all films in archives are preserved and made available to anyone who wants to see them.

You mentioned buying films/footage copies from the Library of Congress. Can such things really happen?

Yes, you can purchase footage from the Library of Congress. I believe if it is before 1923, there aren’t any restrictions on the copyright issues but after 1923 you have to have complete clearances and/or be connected to the film in some way, either a cast member or crew member, relative of a cast member or crew member or involved in the production in some way.

What about other institutions and archives… Language barriers aside, can anyone obtain such copies?

The British Film Institute archive said they will not sell films to anyone other than film archivists or persons actually connected with the film itself. They confirmed they hold the 1909 Kellerman short Jepthah’s Daughter and at one time I was told they held the 1909 Kellerman short The Bride of Lammermoor A Tragedy of Bonnie Scotland, but haven’t been able to get further confirmation about it. They have confirmed that they hold the 1915 film Youth starring Antonio Moreno and featuring Valda Valkyrien. They confirmed they have partial footage of the 1915 Mary Pickford film Fanchon The Cricket which supposedly stars her entire family and may possibly have footage of Fred Astaire dancing with his sister Adele. I passed this information onto Hugh Munro Neely of Timeline Films, who in conjunction with the Mary Pickford Foundation is always looking for surviving footage of Ms. Pickford in the hopes of preservation and subsequent release.

Are there specific requirements (besides cash amounts lol) which must be met in order to arrange such a deal? Are there preservation issues &/or copyright concerns?

[Since] the original footage is retained in the archive that holds it, and you’d be purchasing a copy, preservation isn’t an issue in that sense.

I believe the archives store the footage that has not been preserved in cold storage facilities to preserve it until such time they have the funding for restoration purposes. I would imagine once the footage has been converted from nitrate to 16 mm or 35 mm, they probably destroy the nitrate stock because it is highly flammable and over time will disintegrate into dust.

I believe the reason the BFI and other archives are reluctant to deal with anyone other than archivists or persons associated with the respective work is because of copyright issues. I am not positive on this but I get the distinct impression that overseas copyright rules are much more gray in nature than they are in the US. They probably have this strict policy in place for ALL works instead of certain ones, it makes it easier procedurally than to have one set of rules that apply for one type of work (i.e. silent films or films before 1923) and another completely different set of rules for another type of work (i.e. sound films and/or pre-sound films after 1923).

Obviously, the question of copyright issue is a very complex one in nature and subject to legal interpretation. I do not profess to know the law on this issue and would not presume to interpret it, but in the past the LOC has told me that works before 1923 don’t have the restrictions placed on them that apply towards anything produced afterwards. I found this example on CinemaWeb that lists distributors of “public domain” films which might clarify things a bit better.

How does an average person go about seeing silent films which have not been released for sale or has public viewings, such as film festivals etc.?

Most archives allow viewing in person by scheduling an appointment with the respective organization. I am not sure if they charge for just viewing in person. Some of them also have some viewing services via the internet, I think this is relatively new. I believe when I was on the Screensound site, it mentioned something of this nature. I would imagine that you are probably limited on what can be viewed over the internet because of the film format, whereas in person you can watch 16 mm, 35 mm, VHS, DVD or any other form of media.

I have also discovered that many of the films sites are adding on-line catalogs to aid in searches for materials as well which is a big help. I am hopeful that maybe one day, the worldwide archives and libraries can put together their own information superhighway so we can search one big mammoth database for everything and find which respective archival institution or library holds it.

I have proposed to several people that I feel these archival institutions should make the footage available for viewing on-line via computer for a fee (like interlibrary loan) and the proceeds from the viewing of the films, would go to preserve other held titles for future viewing. This way, the films would be preserved and they would be viewable again.

By making this material available to persons who cannot afford to go to the BFI in London, but still want to view one of their holdings, this would make all things possible to all people. The material would be shown and not be locked away, the person who needs to view the footage, either for pleasure or scholarly research, is able to see it without spending a fortune to travel to do so and any fees charged should be put in a non-profit account specifically set aside for restoration and preservation of other films held.

This would be great not only for silent film fans but for classes at universities that teach film study. They could purchase titles on-line for class viewing and discussion. I think it’s a “win-win” situation for everyone involved without the complexity of copyright issues for films newer than 1923.

The archive can also make an argument to the fact that the costs of storing the films that haven’t been preserved can be expensive, but by implementing my ideas with respect to the non-profit account for monies collected, the films not yet restored would be preserved and made available to the public for viewing. This would reduce the amount of films in the archive not yet preserved and the newest ones restored would start paying for themselves because of the monies charged for viewing. By taking this approach, eventually wouldn’t everything held in the archive be restored at some point?

I agree. Where can we go to find silent films which are available now?

Ned Thanhouser is making the Thanhouser classics available on his website, www.thanhouser.org, in collections for purchase. I have all three sets thus far and they are very interesting to watch of an era long gone by.

Periodically, I will get emails from Grapevine Video about new releases as well. Please check out the various silent film websites which you can find via a google search for news of upcoming releases such as www.silentera.com or going to this link for a list of distributors of silent films which is regularly updated.

Anything you’re working on right now we should know about?

Right now, I am working on a biography about Ms. Kellerman as well as one on Valda Valkyrien for Tim’s site, www.silentsaregolden.com. I am searching for Valkyrien films, which are tougher to locate, but hopefully in the next few months I will have some news to report. There are many things going on behind the scenes that are still in the planning stages but if all goes well, I hope to report some wonderful news. I have had contact with surviving members of Valkyrien’s family which has been pretty exciting. I hope to get some information from them about this very elusive actress. I can keep you posted on this, if you are interested.

If I’m interested? Heck, yes!

So look for more on, and from, Mary in the future. You can reach Mary Ann Cade in the CQ Community, and you may email her at cadesmall@sbcglobal.net or mcade@ccmsi.com.

As mentioned, Mary has many collections, including a lovely collection of television props & memorabilia which we’ll be featuring some of those on Thursday.