classics

a webshrine by spike,
presented in four parts.

the history of early film
lost silent movies
silver-screen crushes
links and photo credits

(this one's a long one. get your popcorn!)

p.s. this page abuses tooltips. click them to reveal important info
and click them again to make them go away :P

PART ONE
the history of early film

le prince and the lumieres

the birth of the moving picture was much less of an isolated incident than it was several people getting at different aspects of the same idea. convergent evolution, if you will. it all followed after the invention of the photograph and the kinetoscope An illustrated disc that when spun would
create the illusion of movement.
, more or less: once the still image was captured several people started wondering about how to capture the moving one. During the tail end of the 1890s and up until the 1900's films were still seen as a novelty, and mostly very short -- and mostly created by those already in the photography business. Below (left) is a gif of the Roundhay Garden Party (1888), a silent short made by Louis le Prince. It's the oldest piece of moving footage! To its right is a short film by the Lumiere brothers of workers leaving their factory.

The 1900's to 1910's is when film started actually picking up as new medium. once the technology was popularized and (fairly) cheaper than before, silent films became a very lucrative enterprise. due to the lack of sound, multiple films could often be shot on the same lot without having to worry about sound bleed, a problem that would appear in early talking pictures.

the switch to sound

now that everyone's voice could actually be heard, a lot of changes took place! the earliest talking films had a rough start. they suffered from issues Singin' in the Rain is actually a really good film to learn about this :3 While the issues the characters face are played for laughs, a lot of the stuff (hiding the microphone in the plant and etc) actually was done during this awkward phase of movies. like feedback, too much background noise, and sometimes... too much dialogue.

some actors bowed out of talkie opportunities, seeing it as a garish fad. but several actors' careers were changed completely and for the better. take Ronald Coleman, who as a silent actor played mostly cowboys and eastern europeans. the minute audiences could hear his actual voice (soft-spoken and distinctly British) the roles he played changed drastically.

PART TWO
lost silent movies

sadly, not a lot remains of our early attempts at the moving-picture. despite the many silent movies still available, approximately 75% of all silent films created are lost!

there are two big reasons for this overwhelming lack: the material used, and the way early film was stored/archived. for the first several decades, movies were shot onto silver-nitrate is this where the phrase "silver-screen" comes from? funny enough, No! the "silver screen" is a reference to the projection screen in theatres at the time, which were coated with metallic silver or aluminum paint to enhance brightness. film. while an industry standard at the time, silver-nitrate is very tempermental and it can grow mold and warp if not stored properly, damaging the print.

however the biggest problem with silver-nitrate film wasn't that it could get gross; it was extremely flammable!!

the problem comes down to this: nitrate the red here is oxygen, while the blue center is a nitrogen atom. is a chemical compond that releases oxygen as it's broken down. this means nitrate fires are technically water-proof; the common method of smothering a fire doesn't work because nitrate brings its own source of oxygenation. the only way for a nitrate fire to stop is for it to burn out naturally, which can take a very long time. which means that once a warehouse holding a bunch of silent film prints lit.... well, all of them are usually destroyed in such cases.

almost the entirety of the career of Theda Bara Theda Bara for the lost film Cleopatra (1917) is considered lost or is in small fragments. Bara's impact survives in the many references to her in other media from the time, including newspapers, magazines, and other silent films Buster Keaton mimicking Theda's egyptian dance in the short film The Cook (1918) . The story is similar for many other very early silent stars, with the cultural footprint of their art lasting much longer than the art itself.

PART THREE
silver-screen crushes

NOW ON TO THE (more) FUN PART!!! These are my favorite actors whose works just scratch my brain :)

Clara Bow

the original it girl. clara bow you were the only girl ever, to me. clara's an icon for various reasons. she practically invented the idea of a sex symbol in the early film world. she was the press's darling and their favorite victim. here's a really good video essay about her life!

clara is so dear to my heart because of the authenticity she brings to screen, and the sheer range! she was put in a lot of garbage movies honestly because studios knew she could carry a plot and make it worthwhile.

she had an extremely tough and traumatic childhood, even for the 1910s. the idea that she could get through all that to become such a success and an acting force is crazy and honestly gives me hope :)

despite misinformation clara did not stop acting at the advent of sound, and ended up having a pretty succesful go at talkies. however, she eventually retired to escape the media circuit and live the cozy domestic life she wanted.

Anton Walbrook

a.k.a. adolph wohlbrück. austrian born actor who emigrated at the onset of WWII to continue his career in the UK and US. walbrook came from a long line of actors (except for his dad, who broke tradition and was a circus clown). homosexual ♥

walbrook could play the rascal extremely well. his earlier career was based on playing sexy rogues (The Rat, Der Student Von Prag), which he tried to move away from in his later films -- I would say, very successfully. my dude had the range!!!

still, he never moved completely away from the villianous roles. his work in The Red Shoes and Gaslight (1940) are some of my favorites, where his performance gives nuance and charm to otherwise despicable and cold characters.

in the 1960s, he would refuse to work with actors who had been nazi sympathizers, at a time where it was very much a norm to sweep your coworkers' fascist histories under the rug.

off-screen he was reportedly very shy but personable. it's hard to trust interviews from this time period as a lot of them were usually fabricated entirely (lower journalistic standards, amirite?).

Judith Anderson

AGHAHAGHG judith.... judith!!!! usually relegated to character roles due to her "not hollywood standard" appearance, she played some of the best characters i've ever seen: the honest scheming Anne in Laura, the slightly-homicidal and lesbian-coded Miss Danvers in Rebecca, the normalcy-clinging Big Mama in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. also. she's fucking beautiful.

famously she was very successful in the theatre before her movie career, playing Lady Macbeth opposite laurence olivier's Macbeth at the Old Vic Theatre in 1937. she later would return to the theatre between film projects, playing Medea in 1947 to wide success. :)

later in life she did a lot of tv spots and guest stars, as many 40's and 50's actors did in their later years. she even shows up in star trek: the search for spock (1984) as a vulcan high priestess which is really cool.

Greta Garbo

genuinely i feel such an outpouring of love for garbo. she hated people and hated washing her hair, and she was the highest paid actress at one time. watching Ninotchka for the first time genuinely put a dreamy smile on my face that lasted several hours. several of my irl crushes have lacked the staying power that garbo has, ha!

if there's one thing about garbo, she is going to find a way to have a homoerotic moment with a female co-star or extra (most often kissing on the lips. wahoo!)

garbo along with marlene dietrich is one of the most widely sited 'old hollywood lesbians' though her identity is a little more complicated than that. she was probably bisexual, but lived alone most of her life and was never married or had children.

garbo might've also identified as gender-nonconforming, though the terminology didn't exist at the time. she very often wore men's clothes in her free time and would address herself as a man in letters to friends (usually by the nickname "harry").

Margaret Sullavan

margaret's film career is short but sweet, and i hope to work through it all, one rainy day! my first film of hers was the much beloved The Shop Around the Corner (1940). she won me over completely!!! sullavan's got a raspy voice and an earnest zeal she brings to her characters that is so fucking charming and so human!

of her films i have seen, I would say that The Shopworn Angel is my favorite. Another i like, The Mortal Storm has a lot of punching nazis but not a lot for sullavan's character to do. however, it did get MGM banned in nazi germany at the time, which is a fun bit of trivia.

sullavan was one of many actors who at some point in her career switched to theatre when she stopped getting as many roles, and found great success too!

sadly her career and life were cut short. sullavan became more and more hard of hearing due to a congenital hearing defect, which began to affect her work. along with that, sullavan had suffered from bouts of depression and several tough divorces. she overdosed at the age of 50, though it was unclear whether her death was intentional or not.

honorable mentions

click the tooltips for pictures!

hedy lamarr invented signal-hopping. she also escaped her husband and fascist germany by wearing all her jewelry to dinner and conveniently not showing up (fleeing to america). she was in the film Ecstasy which is the first on screen representation of a female orgasm AND she was the inspiration for the 1935 snow white!! she can truly do it all

conrad veidt is the bisexual who gave us cesare in the cabinet of dr. caligari. he was in one of the first gay films (Anders als die Andern) in the Weimar republic. he fainted at his daughter's birth because he was overjoyed. another emigre from fascist germany, he agreed to play nazis only as long as they were irredeemable, because fuck nazi sympathisers.

colleen moore, who a tour guide once told me i look like <--- so not true but i rode that high for DAYS. very few of colleen's films survive but she was, similar to (but preceeding) clara bow, very much an it girl of the time. she starred in a lot of silly and very racy comedies that are now lost to time :(

jimmy stewart is at the bottom of this list because everyone i know in real life has heard me make goo-goo eyes out loud at this dead guy's picture. the man is practically burnt onto my retinas. and i wanna spare you that. also while a general sweetie by all accounts, he was also a republican (BOO) and for that he loses points.