THE LIVING NICKELODEON PART II
PARTE II: Accompaniment by verbal pun
THE SUBURBANITE (tr. l.: La mania dei sobborghi. Biograph, 1904, D.: 8’07”).
The dream of a better life in the suburbs dates not from after WW II but from before WW I. Shot across the river from New York City in Asbury Park, New Jersey, this film reveals all the joys and pleasures of suburban life.
Accompaniment: well-known tunes of the period: “Home on the Range”, “Wait for the Wagon”, “Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter be?”, “Rock-a-bye Baby”, “Melancholy Baby”, “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary”, “Forty-five Minutes from Broadway”, “Give My Regards to Broadway”, “The Old Grey Mare”, “I Don’t Care”, “Crown Him with Many Crowns”, “I Want to Go Back to Michigan”.
Illustrated Song Slides: “Some of These Days” (1910). Words & music by Shelton Brooks. Slides by Scott & Van Altena.
SCHNEIDER’S ANTI-NOISE CRUSADE (tr. l.: La crociata anti-rumore di Schneider. Biograph, 1909, D.: 5’44”).
Between 1907 and 1910, many films were based on sound motifs, including this little-known gem directed by D. W. Griffith and shot by Billy Bitzer and Arthur Marvin. The part of the wife is played by Florence Lawrence, the “Biograph Girl”.
Accompaniment: well-known tunes of the period: “Only a Message from Home Sweet Home”, “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”, “Everybody Works but Father”, “There’ll be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight”, “Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage”, “My Gal Sal”, “Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?”, “Steal Away”, “Blest Be the Tie That Binds”
Illustrated Song Slides: “All Alone” (1911). Words by Will Dillon, music by Harry von Tilzer. Slides by Scott & Van Altena.
Film Notes
The Living Nickelodeon is a new kind of show. Reconstructing pre-World War I cinema exhibition practices, The Living Nickelodeon brings together several types of entertainment in a multimedia program. The films, carefully chosen from New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Paper Print Collection at the Library of Congress, include little-known masterpieces by well-known directors like Edwin S. Porter, D. W. Griffith, and Lois Weber, as well as several films chosen for the variety of accompaniment challenges that they present.
Today we too often think of nickelodeons as film theaters, whereas in fact they regularly featured other media as well. The Living Nickelodeon is proud to feature illustrated song slides from the Marnan Collection. These 8 x 10 cm hand-colored glass slides served as the nickelodeon’s main basis for live entertainment and audience participation. Like period programs, The Living Nickelodeon also makes heavy use of lantern slide advertisements and announcements.
The Living Nickelodeon is made up of several different short programs, each exemplifying one type of accompaniment practice common during the prewar period. Our research has demonstrated that during this early period music was often used between the films rather than during them. Many films were accompanied only while a sound source remained on-screen. Others were accompanied by the songs that inspired them. Around 1910 a common practice was to choose popular songs as accompaniment, not by their sound but according to connections with the image suggested by the song’s title or lyrics.
In an attempt to help audiences relive a period when film spectatorship was much more active than it has since become, The Living Nickelodeon uses singalongs, constant chatter among the performers, and interpellation of spectators to induce an experience of active audience participation.
Rick Altman