Thursday, October 15, 2015

Advertisement for 1924 silent-movie version of Peter Pan


Last week's opening of (critically panned) Pan marked the latest in a long line of film adaptations of J.M. Barrie's 1904 stage play.

The first film treatment was Paramount Picture's 1924 silent movie Peter Pan. And, a while back, I came across a neat old advertisement for that version at the oft-mentioned antique/junk store in York New Salem. The long-surviving ephemera, the front of which is pictured above, is five inches wide and features a top flap that folds upward to reveal the full advertising copy.

The movie, which was originally released on December 29, 1924, was set for a three-day run in early January 1925 at the Grand Theatre in Norfolk, Nebraska1 (of all places).

Admission was 10 cents for children and 40 cents for adults. (The equivalent of $1.37 and $5.48 today, so, yes, movies have gotten disproportionately more expensive, compared to inflation, over the decades.)

Here's an excerpt from the advertisement describing this silent movie, which was 105 minutes long and has a 7.4 (out of 10) rating in IMDb.com:
"At last this most charming of all classics of literature has reached the screen in a wonderful picture that will delight everybody from eight to eighty. Betty Bronson, whom Barrie himself chose for the part and declared the sweetest girl in the world, is 'Peter.' ... It's the screen event of the season. Don't miss it!"

Bronson (1906-1971) also starred in the 1925 silent version of Ben-Hur. During her career, she worked alongside Al Jolson, Jack Benny and Gene Autry, among others. Her final role was a small, uncredited part in the 1971 Evel Knievel biopic, starring George Hamilton.

Other key individuals involved in 1924's Peter Pan were director Herbert Brenon2, Ernest Torrence (Captain Hook), and pioneering Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong (Tiger Lily).

Peter Pan received a positive review from The New York Times' Mordaunt Hall when it opened. An excerpt:
"Obviously inspired by his discussions with Sir James Barrie, Mr. Brenon has fashioned a brilliant and entrancing production of this fantasy, one which is a great credit to the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation and also to the whole motion picture industry. It is not a movie, but a pictorial masterpiece which we venture to say will meet the approval of the author. While he has introduced some ideas which were not possible on the stage, Mr. Brenon has not strayed from the theme of the whimsical story."
Modern reviewers also praise the movie, which is available on DVD. You can check out the IMDb reviewers here.

As for Norfolk's Grand Theatre, it's still around. It opened in in 1921, underwent several name and ownership changes, and closed as a movie theater in 2002.

But it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 4, 2013, and is now owned by the Norfolk Community Theatre, which hopes to restore and perform in the building.

Finally, here's the back of the Peter Pan advertisement...


Related post
A trip to New York City to see "Cleopatra" at the Rivoli

Footnotes
1. Norfolk, Nebraska, is the birthplace of Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft, who had a fabulous name and, more fabulously, is the uncredited vocalist on the classic "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch."
2. Brenon's 125 directing credits include 1912's The Clown's Triumph, the 1926 version of The Great Gatsby, and the 1928 Lon Chaney film Laugh, Clown, Laugh.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

May 2, 1937: A nice day for a portrait on the lawn


This is a nicely framed snapshot, for which the only available information, written on the back, is "May 2, 1937."

In a minor trick-of-the-eye, note the pile of rocks to the right of the women. The cracks between the rocks, at first glance, look like they could be extensions of the tree branches above them (and further in the background).

Here's a closer look at the two women...


For historical context, this photograph was taken four days before the LZ 129 Hindenburg burst into flames in Lakehurst, New Jersey.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Papergreat coming attraction




In the meantime, to whet your appetite, you can check out this guide to Papergreat's photos of graveyards and old buildings and revisit 2011's Halloween Countdown.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Vintage postcard featuring goats and Devil's Cheesewring


England has, far and away, the best place names and addresses on Earth.1 This postcard, which was mailed in August 1915, features some goats on a hillside, next to some mysterious rock formations. The caption reads: "Lynton, Valley of Rooks, Devil's Cheesewring, Mother Meldrum's Cave."

Let's take them one at a time:

1. Lynton: A small town of about 1,100 located in the North Devon district of the county of Devon in South West England. The region has been occupied by human civilizations for thousands of years, as the barrows and quarries and henges attest. In modern times, Lynton itself owes much to George Newnes, who brought a town hall, church and rail service to the town around the turn of the 20th century.

2. Valley of Rooks: This is ... a typo! It's definitely supposed to be the Valley of Rocks, which makes more sense if you think about it.2 So, the Valley of Rocks is located less than a mile west of Lynton, along the coast. According to Wikipedia, it is "a popular tourist destination, noted for its herd of feral goats, and for its geology, having good exposures of the Lynton Beds (formally the 'Lynton Formation') that are among the oldest Devonian rocks in north Devon and are highly fossiliferous."

Speaking of the goats, there is a Lynton Feral Goat Preservation Society ("Friends of the Lynton Goats").3 They even have a Facebook page and a 2016 calendar that's available for order.

3. Devil's Cheesewring: This is the name of the tall rock formation featured in the center of the postcard. A cheesewring, historically, was a press-like device that was used to make cheese. The Devil's Cheesewring can be classified as a tor (or castle koppie) and should not be confused with the more famous Cheesewring in Cornwall. You can see other photos of the Devil's Cheesewring here and here.

4. Mother Meldrum's Cave: This spot, also sometimes referred to as Mother Meldrum's Kitchen, isn't really a full-fledged cave. And it's more tied to fiction than reality. "Mother Melldrum" is a character in the 1869 novel Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor, by R. D. Blackmore.4 This is how the character is introduced in the novel:
"Now the wisest person in all our parts was reckoned to be a certain wise woman, well known all over Exmoor by the name of Mother Melldrum. Her real name was Maple Durham, as I learned long afterwards; and she came of an ancient family, but neither of Devon nor Somerset. Nevertheless she was quite at home with our proper modes of divination; and knowing that we liked them best — as each man does his own religion — she would always practise them for the people of the country. And all the while, she would let us know that she kept a higher and nobler mode for those who looked down upon this one, not having been bred and born to it.

"Mother Melldrum had two houses, or rather she had none at all, but two homes wherein to find her, according to the time of year. In summer she lived in a pleasant cave, facing the cool side of the hill, far inland near Hawkridge and close above Tarr-steps, a wonderful crossing of Barle river, made (as everybody knows) by Satan, for a wager. But throughout the winter, she found sea-air agreeable, and a place where things could be had on credit, and more occasion of talking. Not but what she could have credit (for every one was afraid of her) in the neighbourhood of Tarr-steps; only there was no one handy owning things worth taking.

"Therefore, at the fall of the leaf, when the woods grew damp and irksome, the wise woman always set her face to the warmer cliffs of the Channel; where shelter was, and dry fern bedding, and folk to be seen in the distance, from a bank upon which the sun shone. And there, as I knew from our John Fry (who had been to her about rheumatism, and sheep possessed with an evil spirit, and warts on the hand of his son, young John), any one who chose might find her, towards the close of a winter day, gathering sticks and brown fern for fuel, and talking to herself the while, in a hollow stretch behind the cliffs; which foreigners, who come and go without seeing much of Exmoor, have called the Valley of Rocks. ...

"Now Mother Melldrum kept her winter in this vale of rocks, sheltering from the wind and rain within the Devil's Cheese-ring, which added greatly to her fame because all else, for miles around, were afraid to go near it after dark, or even on a gloomy day. Under eaves of lichened rock she had a winding passage, which none that ever I knew of durst enter but herself. And to this place I went to seek her, in spite of all misgivings, upon a Sunday in Lenten season, when the sheep were folded."
As the narrator approaches Melldrum's dwelling, he notes that "In patches underneath the crags, a few wild goats were browsing; then they tossed their horns, and fled, and leaped on ledges, and stared at me."

So, indeed, this is a very Lorna Doone postcard.

But the fictional character might have a little basis in reality. According to an article titled "Lorna Doone and Exmoor and the Exmoor National Park":
"The original 'Mother Meldrum' of Lorna Doone was a 19th-century wise woman, Aggie Norman, who sometimes lodged in a shelter under the rock known as the Devil's Cheesewring in the Valley of Rocks, and held consultations here for star-crossed lovers and sick people."
An article about R.D. Blackmore on the Exmoor National Park website adds that Norman, who died at age 83 in 1860, was "reputed to be a witch."


* * *

Getting back to the postcard, it was part of the Frith's Series and was postmarked on August 16, 1915. It was addressed to Mrs. Pye of Rochester, Kent. The note states:
"We have had 10 days' leave & have been spending it in the country six miles from Lynton. It has been glorious. We return tomorrow & have plenty of hard work to look forward to. Hope you are all keeping well & not too harassed with moving. We have long been trying to come & see you & hope to when we can get a day free. Love from us both. Alfred."

Footnotes
1. For example, this week I am sending a Postcrossing card to an individual in the UK whose address includes: The Moorings, Narrowboat "Take Five."
2. Although you could argue, too, that some of the rock formations look like rooks from chess.
3. Some excerpts from the Lynton Feral Goat Preservation Society's most recent online report:
  • "This year has had its ups and downs for Lynton's Feral Goat colony. In terms of health the general condition of the herd has been very good, and, although never far from controversy, they continue to delight and attract visitors to the valley."
  • "Prior to the April round up a number of the older billies, that had allegedly been making quite a nuisance of themselves in the surrounding villages and gardens, were culled in an area outside the valley."
  • "For those who weren't aware, Blossom was a billy that featured as a kid in an Animal Rescue TV documentary when he was rescued by helicopter from a ledge on castle rock. He was a distinctive and popular sight in the valley until his untimely death a few years ago, victim of an incompetent marksman, unknown. His offspring can be recognised from their lighter colouring and distinctive 'eyebrow' markings."
  • "The number of goats continues to cause concern, and the council are looking for possible rehoming opportunities."
4. I have no idea why the book's character is Mother Melldrum and the rock formation is Mother Meldrum. I guess spelling just wasn't as important to people of the past.