Silent Photoplay Forum

1939 family movies of sledding—with score by Ben Model.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lu9xEIy_7g&feature=em-uploademail

I love that there is still a good amount of Christmas themed silent films. This one is titled The Night Before Christmas (1905) which is loosely based on the poem of the same name. Note the obviously painted reindeer when Santa first throws open the door, and we get a special treat at the end with a close-up of Santa. I wonder what started the whole thing where he touches the side of his nose with his finger?

Kitty wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 19, 2017 7:51 pm

I love that there is still a good amount of Christmas themed silent films.

Yes, there are a lot of wonderful Christmas-themed early silents extant. I love this one.

Kitty wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 19, 2017 7:51 pm

I wonder what started the whole thing where he touches the side of his nose with his finger?

It goes back to the poem, I guess, and I suppose Moore needed something to rhyme with "up the chimney he rose."

Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

A Christmas Carol (1910)https://youtu.be/ZGYQYhpR4O0

donnie wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 10, 2017 3:04 pm

1939 family movies of sledding—with score by Ben Model.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lu9xEIy_7g&feature=em-uploademail

I loved this. I want to know where this was shot and who this band of happy people are! They are having so much fun, and not a sign of crankiness amongst them. Looks like the whole town is there sledding. How dangerous looking those feats are!
One thing I noticed is there aren't very many young children there. Was this kind of sport for the big kids? They mostly look like they're on the cusp of adulthood.

Kitty wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 21, 2017 11:47 am

I loved this. I want to know where this was shot and who this band of happy people are!

I'm glad you liked it! I made a comment to Ben Model concerning the location, and he said he'd not been able to determine it. He said that auto tags can often be used to pin it down, but that he had not been able to get a good look at the tag in this one.

Oh! I read that comment and didn't know it was yours!

The Paymaster, of note because this was Gene Gauntier's screen debut, and the scene at the very end where she was thrown into the river... She didn't know how to swim and the water was about 30 feet deep. She decided that she would do it anyway if someone saved her from the water. The company didn't want to do it, but she insisted, and in the end, they were so pleased with the scene that they paid her $5 instead of the going rate of $3. And that was her break into the movie business.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUGW3XKZajY

Here is an extremely pleasant, oddly uplifting clip of a bunch of college girls going for sleigh rides and sliding through mountains of snow in 1906 in Gloversville New York.

[BBvideo=560,315]https://youtu.be/vt8F9jl4bIc/BBvideo]