history lesson – Media Services News

No, a silent film of a train probably didn’t cause mass hysteria

You’ve probably heard this one before: back during the dawn of motion pictures, a short movie showing a train heading for the camera caused audiences to freak out and try to run from the theater. It’s a funny anecdote about how much of an impact film made – and it makes those audiences look pretty … Continue reading “No, a silent film of a train probably didn’t cause mass hysteria”

But as Atlas Obscura’s Eric Grundhauser explains, this probably never actually happened. We can trace the story to a specific film (1898’s Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat), the lack of circumstantial evidence like news stories and police accounts of a mobscene suggests this was just a myth. If anything, it was a metaphor for the powerful impact of film, one that spread so quickly it was parodied in a 1901 short (embedded above).

So although audiences probably didn’t actually panic, the mental image was real. It might’ve been exaggerated shorthand. Think of it like a turn-of-the-century straw man argument.

The five years in Chicago when movies were forbidden

from Exhibitors Herald,via Wikimedia Commons Today, we learned about a truly bizarre moment in film history that we want to share. For as often as you hear people (usually wrongly) claiming censorship of media, you’ve never lived through anything like the reign of Major M.L.C. Funkhouser, film censor of the city of Chicago. As The … Continue reading “The five years in Chicago when movies were forbidden”

from Exhibitors Herald,
via Wikimedia Commons

Today, we learned about a truly bizarre moment in film history that we want to share. For as often as you hear people (usually wrongly) claiming censorship of media, you’ve never lived through anything like the reign of Major M.L.C. Funkhouser, film censor of the city of Chicago.

As The Chicago Tribune tells it, in 1913, Funkhouser was appointed by the Chicago police as a “censor of public morals,” which allowed him to crack down on antisocial behavior. Instead of looking at public drunkenness, prostitution, gambling, or any of the other traditional public vices, Funkhouser focused all his attention on motion pictures.

Funkhouser abused his powers in absurd degree. He banned movies depicting dancing, arguing that they could lead young people to go to bars and drink. He nixed comedies that made fun of authority and required film producers to edit or rewrite the movies to allow them to play. At one point, Funkhouser even rejected a film about the Revolutionary War because it could potentially undermine national interests in World War I.

Filmmakers ridiculed the censorship almost immediately. Their films, stripped of objectionable content, were apparently incomprehensible. And through all this, none of Funkhouser’s actions seemed to have any impact on the city apart from aggravating producers and audiences. After five years of this nonsense, the new mayor of Chicago found an excuse to suspend Funkhouser, closing the book on a dark age for expression on film.

To learn more about film censorship in Chicago, check out the article “Reel Life, Real Censorship” from the Chicago History Museum. We’re still in disbelief that this happened.

A rough early road for the Irish in film

Still from Whom the Gods Destroy via “Unsung Divas of the Silent Screen” While St. Patrick’s Day is now a generally beloved holiday (we’re going to grab Shamrock Shakes in a moment), it’s easy to forget that much of the world was inhospitable to the Irish a century ago. The hostile attitudes toward the Irish … Continue reading “A rough early road for the Irish in film”

Still from Whom the Gods Destroy via “Unsung Divas of the Silent Screen”

While St. Patrick’s Day is now a generally beloved holiday (we’re going to grab Shamrock Shakes in a moment), it’s easy to forget that much of the world was inhospitable to the Irish a century ago. The hostile attitudes toward the Irish continued through the early 20th century in the lead-up to the uprising in Ireland in 1916. In an interesting bit of timing, that coincides with the early days of film.

We found this lengthy but extremely in-depth article by Kevin Rockett from Trinity College Dublin about the representation of the Irish in pre-1916 films. To summarize, Ireland didn’t have much of a film industry until World War I, so a majority of Irish representation on-screen was left to American producers. Only a few of these films depicted the Irish was menacing stereotypes; most of these films depicted Irish history just because of the interesting content. But more controversially, they scrubbed these stories of their more radical, political elements, possibly as an appeal for cultural assimilation and an attempt to quell the rising anger.

European audiences imported and generally enjoyed these films, but it wasn’t until the rise of Ireland’s nationalist cinema a few years later that the Irish found their cause represented on-screen. Rockett notes that those nationalist films depicting Irish rebellion sparked such a strong, violent reaction that the film was banned in multiple countries.

Even as critics and producers at the time tried to downplay film as only an entertainment medium and not a political one, the depictions in and outside of Ireland – discouraging versus embracing Irish identity – had a message associated with them. You can read that same thread into modern depictions of race on film too: you can’t depict history without at least an implicit message.

This might be a little academic-y for St. Patrick’s Day, but we were greatly interested in Rockett’s take on this unexamined slice of film.

Your new podcast recommendation: You Must Remember This

Via our collections coordinator Molly Hubbs, we have a podcast recommendation for wonky film history types. You Must Remember This is a weekly hour-long program about secret tales from the classic film era. Every season, host Karina Longworth covers one major topic of Hollywood history across a dozen or so episodes. Earlier this year she … Continue reading “Your new podcast recommendation: You Must Remember This”

Via our collections coordinator Molly Hubbs, we have a podcast recommendation for wonky film history types.

You Must Remember This is a weekly hour-long program about secret tales from the classic film era. Every season, host Karina Longworth covers one major topic of Hollywood history across a dozen or so episodes. Earlier this year she tackled Charles Manson’s connections to the film business; she’s currently working through the stories of MGM’s producers and stars. Above, we’ve embedded the most recent episode (#64) about Spencer Tracy’s on- and off-screen relationships.

This is strictly film nerd territory, but if you’ve ever been curious about the reality behind the glitzy image of old Hollywood, it’s audio catnip. You’ll come away with a much better understanding of what made the studio era tick.

If you enjoy You Must Remember This, you might also like Moguls & Movie Stars (DVD 8381-8383), a TCM-produced documentary collection about the film business from its birth until the 1970s.

Must-see animation: Bayeux Tapestry (2009)

A simple concept done to perfection. The Battle of Hastings as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry with sound effects. link The producers, Potion Graphics, also came up with this entertaining short, Fear with Alfred Hitchcock.

A simple concept done to perfection. The Battle of Hastings as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry with sound effects.

link

The producers, Potion Graphics, also came up with this entertaining short, Fear with Alfred Hitchcock.