News and Views from the Empire State
Daredevil stunt man and movie actor Rodman “The Human Fly” Law had been shot out of a “monster sky rocket” and had jumped in a specialized “aeroplane parachute” from the Brooklyn Bridge and the 792-foot Woolworth Building, the tallest building in the world at the time.
For his next feat, Law came to the Adirondacks. [Read more…] about Early Stunt Men, Daredevils ‘The Human Fly’ & ‘Hurricane Hutch’ in NY
This week on The Historians Podcast, movie historian and SUNY Albany lecturer emeritus Audrey Kupferberg discusses film preservation. [Read more…] about Preserving Motion Picture History (Podcast)
Barbara Tepe Lupack’s new book Silent Serial Sensations: The Wharton Brothers and the Magic of Early Cinema (Cornell University Press, 2020) is a book-length account of the dynamic early film industry, focusing on the pioneering and prolific filmmakers Ted and Leo Wharton. [Read more…] about Ithaca’s Wharton Brothers and Early Cinema
The Whallonsburg Grange Lyceum is set to continue their spring series “Hidden in Plain Sight” with the presentation “Port Henry: Hollywood of the East” on Tuesday, March 10th. [Read more…] about Port Henry: Hollywood of the East
Daniel Defoe’s The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (1722) is the story of the notorious life and ultimate repentance of a woman who lived much of her adult life as a prostitute and thief. Set in London, the novel reflects immigrant urban life. It’s a tale told by a woman who does not reveal her real name, but to fellow streetwalkers she is known as Moll Flanders.
She was just six months old when her mother was imprisoned for stealing three pieces of fine “Holland” (imported Dutch fabric) from a draper in Cheapside. The baby was “sold” and spent time in the company of “gypsies” before running off as a child ending up in Colchester. The story starts amid the textile industry of Colchester and Norwich, noted for its refugees from the Low Countries. [Read more…] about Moll Flanders in Manhattan (Daniel Defoe and Martin Scorcese)
Catherine Curtis, an early woman motion picture producer, offered advice to women entrepreneurs.
“If there are any rules for success, the same ones apply for women as for men,” she said in an interview in 1921. “The essentials of success are the same in every career – determination, energy and an ideal higher than that of unselfish desire for personal gain and glory.”
Curtis, who grew up on Albany and lived for a time in Glens Falls, was a woman motion picture pioneer in a career that lasted about a decade before Curtis moved on to be a radio commentator, financial expert and conservative political activist. [Read more…] about Catherine Curtis: Glens Falls Film Pioneer
A large-scale video projection on UAlbany’s Science Library will celebrate the unique cultural history of the Capital Region and Albany’s contribution to film and literary history.
Using sophisticated computer 3-D mapping and high-performance projectors, the projection mapping display will illuminate the 195-foot wide, 45-foot high exterior of the building, located on the University’s Washington Avenue uptown campus.
[Read more…] about Large-Scale Projection Celebrating Albany Film, Literary History Planned
This week on The Historians Podcast, Victoria Riskin, a psychologist and movie/TV producer, is author of a book about her parents Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir. Fay Wray was in the original King Kong and over 100 other movies. Robert Riskin was a highly-regarded screenwriter. [Read more…] about Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir
Dr. Joseph W. Ho, Assistant Professor of East Asian History at Albion College in Michigan, will present “Missionary Lenses, Windows to the Past: Visual Practices, Medical Missions, and Global Connections between Rye and Pre-1949 China” at the Jay Heritage Center in Rye, NY on Wednesday, May 3rd at 7 pm.
Ho’s scholarship concerns the visual practices of American Protestant and Catholic missionaries in modern China between 1900 and 1950, examining photographs, films, and image-making processes as vividly preserving traces of historical experience “on the ground.” [Read more…] about Missionary Lenses: Rye and Pre-1949 China Global Connections
The film IRONWEED, adapted for the screen by William Kennedy from his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, will be shown on Friday, December 9, 2016 at 7 pm in Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, on the University at Albany downtown campus. The screening is a 30th anniversary celebration of its filming in Albany. Prior to the screening at 6:30 pm Kennedy will offer film commentary and reminiscences of the film’s production. The celebration will also include raffle giveaways and a reception following the screening. [Read more…] about Ironweed 30th Anniversary Screening, Celebration