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Museum of Art Debuts Series of "Made in Maine" Films
Story posted June 19, 2008
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art has kicked off a series of films to be shown over the course of the summer from the Northeast Historic Film Archive in Bucksport, Maine.
All four silent films to be featured in the museum's Media Gallery were filmed in Maine in the early 20th century and capture the "way Maine was" through satire and fictional biography.
From The Sailor's Sacrifice
The current film on view is the melodrama The Sailor's Sacrifice, circa 1909, which was directed by Maine's own Larry Trimble for American Vitagraph, one of the country's earliest film studios based in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The film stars Trimble's dog Jean, who came into later fame as the "Vitagraph Dog" and Florence Turner, the already established "Vitagraph Girl."
It follows the trials and tribulations of a sailor, his girlfriend, and his girlfriend's family once he is purported to be lost at sea.
Trimble directed at least half a dozen films for Vitagraph on the southern coast of Maine (likely Cape Elizabeth).
Maine in the summertime was a popular filming site for many major American studios in the early 20th century, allowing casts and crews to combine work and leisure, and bringing many enthusiastic local Mainers into crew and production employ.
The majority of Northeast Historic Film's collections of moving images
comprise regional film and videotape from Maine, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts and Vermont.
Major collections include film and videotape originating from television stations, industrial videos, professionally created fictional works and titles made by independent creators intended for public viewing.
The range of collections at NHF offers a glimpse of how life in
northern New England has changed during the past 100 years, and how it
continues to evolve. Northeast Historic Film has been a leader in
raising an awareness of the need to preserve these films and make them
accessible.
Schedule for summer showings:
June 10-July 6
The Sailor's Sacrifice, c. 1909, 20 minutes
Director: Larry Trimble
Starring: Florence Turner and Jean the Vitagraph Dog
Producer: American Vitagraph
July 8-July 27
Just Maine Folk, 1912, 8 minutes
Director: Barry O'Neil
Starring: Ethel Clayton and Harry Meyers
Producer: Lubin Manufacturing Company
From Just Maine Folk
Just Maine Folk was directed by Barry O'Neil and stars Ethel Clayton and Harry Meyers, two actors from O'Neil's stock company that made films for the Lubin Film Manufacturing Company.
In the summer of 1912, O'Neil brought his company of 30 to Cape Elizabeth where they stayed for 13 weeks in little cottages on a cliff they nicknamed "Lubinville-by-the-sea" after the main studio called Lubinville outside Philadelphia. According to author Joseph Eckhardt, the company "traveled in a special train with two Pullman coaches, one day coach, and three baggage cars.
Included in their luggage were three touring automobiles and ten complete sets of scenery and props." Just Maine Folk is a caricature of rural life intended for what was probably a predominantly urban viewing audience.
July 29-August 17
Brother of the Bear, 1921, approximately 28 minutes
Director: Philip Carle
Starring: Huntley Gordon, Charles Slattery and Mary Astor
Producer: Holman Day Productions, Augusta, Maine
Holman Francis Day is a well known Maine writer, famous as a journalist for Lewiston's Evening Journal, one of the most important newspapers during Day's lifetime.
From Brother of the Bear
He also wrote 23 novels, three books of ballads, magazine stories, as well as radio and film scenarios. In 1920-1921, Day made two-dozen short films in Augusta, Maine, including Brother of the Bear that included a small role by Mary Astor when she was a teenager.
Many of Day's films can be described as "Northwoods Adventures" with traditional story lines that go as follows: a young man and woman fall in love, the woman is the daughter of a rich man (in Brother of a Bear, the owner of a lumber company) and her father wants her to marry someone of his choice who, it turns out, only wants to marry his daughter for her inheritance.
The daughter's chosen lover must prove that he is worthy of the daughter's love despite the fact that he is not of the same social standing as his rival. In this way, Day's films were typical of the mainstream early film culture described by film historian Steven Ross: "sympathetic to the hardships honest working people suffered at the hands of rapacious businessmen, exploitative employers, heartless landlords, greedy money lenders and the idle rich." Brother of the Bear was filmed on the Kennebec River and premiered at The Strand in Gardiner, Maine in 1921.
August 19-Sept. 14
Bar Harbor Movie Queen, 1936, 24 minutes
Director: Margaret Cram
Boston-based itinerant filmmaker Margaret Cram (or Margaret Cram Showalter) spent a number of summers traveling to small towns in New England making "Movie Queen" films.
The film casts were made of the local townspeople — this one features the newly married 25-year old Vera Sleeper from Bar Harbor as the movie queen.
The loose plot documents the movie queen on a return visit to her hometown as the whole town shows up to welcome her.
From Bar Harbor Movie Queen
The film then follows her visits to local stores whose owners invite her to admire their merchandise.
Some have speculated that the merchants were asked to pay the filmmaker a small fee to be included in the film, possibly the first example of "product placement."
Cram's movies all include a scene in which the movie queen is kidnapped (with the local dignitaries playing the roles of kidnappers) and then rescued by a handsome hero.
The films were usually shot over the course of a week, returned to Boston for processing, and then projected unedited on the following Saturday night when large crowds turned out and paid the price of admission to see themselves, family and friends on the big screen.
The programs and exhibitions of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art are open to the public free of charge. The museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursdays from 5 to 8:30 p.m., and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. The Museum is closed on Mondays and national holidays. For more information call 207-725-3275.