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Post by Charles Roberts on Nov 17, 2006 8:21:16 GMT
I realise that this is very ot, but I was wondering what the survival rate is for old pre-movie "shorts", eg cartoons, and the cliffhanger action adventures. Do these generally survive, or are they mostly missing?
Thanks
John
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Post by emitron on Nov 17, 2006 15:27:35 GMT
From what I know speaking to other film collectors, there are a large number of silent shorts missing, a smaller number of early sound shorts (particularly trailers) with missing picture or sound and a much smaller number of post 1933 shorts missing. Some losses from the 1940s are mostly newreels and due to destruction via bombing. Other losses since then are lab fires before material was copied to safety stock. Generally, there are a few shorts that are historically important and are missing, but the general picture for sound films is much better than the loss of complet early sound films and silent features.
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Post by Charles Roberts on Nov 20, 2006 7:33:22 GMT
Thanks, Andy.
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Post by Brian fretwell on Nov 20, 2006 12:08:19 GMT
Weren't a lot of films lost when the rights holders demanded that the Pathescope 9.5mm prints were destroyed after the rental agreement ran out, despite there being no other copies in existance? I'm sure I read this in some film collectors mag.
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Post by emitron on Nov 20, 2006 19:12:25 GMT
I've heard different versions of stories about pathe 9.5mm titles, but the rental agreements I usually think of were actually for some of the Chaplins, which were leased out on the agreement that the print you bought for home use was either destroyed or sent back. I guess many people kept them. Of course, none of these are now missing films, but there are quite a few 9.5mm titles being the only surving material. The image quality on pathescope and kodascope 16mm were usually good as being derived from 1st generation masters.
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