SFSFF Remembers Pioneering Female Documentarian & WWI Era Sound Films 

\'Amazing Tales from the Archives\': SFSFF Remembers Pioneering Female Documentarian & World War I Era (!) Sound Films

“Amazing Tales from the Archives”: Pioneering female documentarian Aloha Wanderwell Baker remembered at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival – along with the largely forgotten sound-on-cylinder technology and the Jean Desmet Collection.

\'Amazing Tales from the Archives\': San Francisco Silent Film Festival & the \'sound-on-cylinder\' system

Fans of the earliest sound films would have enjoyed the first presentation at the 2017 San Francisco Silent Film Festival, held June 1–4: “Amazing Tales from the Archives,” during which Library of Congress\' Nitrate Film Vault Manager George Willeman used a wealth of enjoyable film clips to examine the Thomas Edison Kinetophone process.

and Warner Bros.\' sound-on-disc technology, the sound-on-cylinder system invaded the nascent film industry with a collection of “talkies.” The sound was scratchy and muffled, but “recognizable.” Notably, this system focused on dialogue, rather than music or sound effects.

As with the making of other recordings at the time, the technology was, for all purposes, purely acoustic. The actors needed to stand perfectly still and shout into horns suspended overhead to make their voices record onto a wax cylinder, which played back when the film was shown.

As to be expected, the device was plagued by synchronization errors. I can only imagine the effect this distorted sound had on the audience.

More \'Amazing Tales from the Archives\': The Desmet Collection & unsung female documentarian Aloha Wanderwell Baker

Next up at “Amazing Tales from the Archives” was a look – courtesy of Amsterdam\'s EYE Filmmuseum silent film curator Eilf Rongen-Kaynakçi – at the Desmet Collection from 1907–1916. Film collector Jean Desmet (1875–1956) managed to save not only films, but a wealth of posters, programs, and other documents. This supports my theory that hoarding and saving are not always pathological.

The last “Amazing Tales from the Archives” presentation – by Academy Film Archive Film Preservationist Heather Linville – was the one I found the most inspiring, as it focused on a remarkable, early female documentarian. In the 1920s, Aloha Wanderwell Baker (born Idris Galcia Welsh in Winnipeg, Manitoba) practically circled the globe documenting people and places from Turkey to Africa to China.

Photos from the era showed her roughing it on airplanes, boats, and caravans, much to the amusement of the locals. Her enthusiasm for film and social anthropology made itself evident by the fact that she was still reminiscing about her travelogues while in her 80s.

Aloha Wanderwell Baker died at age 89 in June 1996 in Newport Beach, California.

The Devil hijacks an unlucky family during a train trip: “Amazing tales” of a different kind, as the satanic figure pictured above plays a key role in pioneering British filmmaker Walter R. Booth\'s 1907 short

One of my favorite pleasures is watching silent fantasy shorts. In this case it was “Magic and Mirth,” presented as a tribute to Blackhawk Films and Lobster Films\' movie preservationist David Shepard, who died last January.

Those Awful Hats (1909). In this short directed by

filmmaker D.W. Griffith, we see moviegoing ladies with increasingly large headdresses being swept up to the roof as a penalty for blocking the movie screen. Something the theater audience approved of raucously.

Cartoon Factory (1924). From the Fleischer Studio (

) comes Koko the Clown, as imagined from a drawing pen. The Fleischer Brothers (Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer) are credited for having pioneered cartoon art and for combining live action and animation, predating Walt Disney (e.g.,

) by decades. By the way, Max Fleischer was the father of director Richard Fleischer (

The Masquerader (1914). A Keystone short featuring Charles Chaplin in drag, this slapstick comedy was a movie-within-a-movie mélange where everything goes wrong. The cast also features popular comedians of that time, including Roscoe \'Fatty\' Arbuckle, Chester Conklin, and Charles Murray, in addition to Mabel Normand in an unbilled cameo.

First Success / First Prize in Cello / Premier Prix de violoncelle (1907), from Pathé Frères. This funny skit showed how hazardous cello playing can be when the whole neighborhood responds to an unwanted street busker by throwing projectiles at him.

Fantasmagorie (1908), from Gaumont. Directed by Émile Cohl, this stream-of-consciousness film had no narrative, thus setting the pace for all future avant garde cartoons to come.

Tit-for-Tat / La peine du talion (1906), from Pathé Frères. Directed by Gaston Velle, this stencil-colored film is also known as

(meaning: an eye for an eye). Here, a butterfly collector pays a dear price for his hobby.

When the Devil Drives (1907). Directed by Walter R. Booth for the Charles Urban Trading Company, this British fantasy-adventure short revolves around an unsuspecting family being hijacked by a satanic figure. Its primitive special effects have charm and wit.

Down in the Deep / The Pearl Fisher / Le pêcheur de perles (1907), from Pathé Frères. Directed by Ferdinand Zecca, this stencil-colored short chronicles a man\'s undersea nightmare, which features a mean-looking octopus, sea stars, comely maidens, and pearl-bearing oysters. The muted colors and the lively scenery made this one special. Cinematography by Segundo de Chomón.

The Dancing Pig / Le cochon danseur (1907), from Pathé Frères was a grotesque bit of whimsy about a man in a pig costume prancing around with a lady dancer.

The Witch / La fée Carabosse ou le poignard fatal (1906) was a Georges Méliès film I looked forward to seeing. I was not disappointed. Although this story of love and deceit suffers under too much narration, the magic of Méliès – the master of trick photography – remains unsurpassed. The delicious print and hand-colored tinting particularly stand out.

The “Magic and Mirth” shorts had live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin and Frank Bockius, which made the experience complete.

with Anna Pavlova: Pioneering female director Lois Weber (

) guided the legendary Russian dancer in this tale about a Spanish peasant seduced and abandoned by an aristocrat. In addition to special programs such as the “Amazing Tales” series and the David Shepard homage, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival screened about two dozen features from three continents.

Amazing tales & personalities from the archives: From Sergei Eisenstein & Ernst Lubitsch to Ossi Oswalda & Anna Pavlova

Besides the presentations “Amazing Tales from the Archives” and “Magic and Mirth,” the four-day 2017 San Francisco Silent Film Festival showcased movies by or with, among others, the following:

Sergei Eisenstein. Ossi Oswalda. Ernst Lubitsch. Tod Browning. Priscilla Dean. Lon Chaney. Paul Robeson. Oscar Micheaux. Clara Bow. Vera Reynolds.

H.B. Warner. Douglas Fairbanks. Anna Pavlova. Lois Weber. Harold Lloyd. Bessie Love. Lloyd Hughes. Wallace Beery. Dinosaurs.

The restoration of The Lost World (1925), from Arthur Conan Doyle\'s classic novel.

More about “Amazing Tales from the Archives” subject Aloha Wanderwell Baker at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website.

More info about \'Amazing Tales from the Archives\' at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival website.

Margarita Landazuri\'s essay about Anna Pavlova, Lois Weber, and

Images of “Amazing Tales from the Archives” subject Aloha Wanderwell Baker, the devil in the “Magic and Mirth” short

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Aloha Wanderwell Baker • Anna Pavlova • Classic Movies • Film Sound / Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) / Cinema Audio Society (CAS) • Georges Méliès • Lois Weber • Max Fleischer • Movie Festivals • San Francisco Silent Film Festival • Short Films • Silent Movies • The Dumb Girl of Portici (1916)  

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1 Comment to “\'Amazing Tales from the Archives\': SFSFF Remembers Pioneering Female Documentarian & World War I Era (!) Sound Films”

I\'ve discovered a new interest in the past two years: silent movies! I found your website via Google. Very nice site! I \'m going to the Silent Festival next year! Thank you.

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