February 2009
The Towers - 1950's
A color documentary which examines the creation of the Watts Towers and the Sicilian immigrant and visionary Sabato Rodia who realized them. This film contains intriguing footage of mid-1950's Watts, the neighborhood where greats like Charles Mingus amongst many others grew up.
Lincoln Highway Groundbreaking - 1915
A promotional film for the Lincoln Highway from 1915, this short reel shows a groundbreaking ceremony for Carl G. Fisher's dream project, the first coast-to-coast automobile highway. Conceived by headlight entrepreneur Fisher, also said to be the first car dealer in US history, the man, like many an American, seems to have become a visionary in the eternal quest of making the almighty buck.
In fact, the Lincoln Highway was the first memorial to Abraham Lincoln, predating the monument in Washington, DC by perhaps more than ten years.
Although Thomas Edison and Theodore Roosevelt were active boosters and financiers of Fishers idea, it is hard to say if these are the two men orating in this film. Hundreds of towns across the US lobbied to have the Lincoln Highway pass through their way with songs, articles and public events dedicated to the new interstate. This appears to be one such film.
Ultimately, the highway would follow a historically American path, stretching from Times Square in New York City, along the Chambersburg Turnpike so associated with Gettysburg, then in tandem with portions of the legendary Pony Express, up and over the dreaded Donner Pass and on to the final destination of Lincoln Park in San Francisco, California.
Carl G. Fishers Lincoln Highway would go on to become the major influence of Eisenhower's future Interstate System and Germany's Autobahn.
Photographic Studies in Hypnosis - 1940's
Hypnosis. Subconscious Suggestion. Somnambulism.
In this film Professor LF Beck of University of Oregon conducts a live experiment in hypnosis on an obviously pliant participant.
Upon watching it, one viewer recently called the film sadistic, like some sort of proto-Ludovico Treatment slouching towards Clockwork Orange.
To modern eyes, he could be seen as a latter day Dr. Caligari. However, Beck was known in psychoanalytic academic circles during the 1930s and 40s for his seminal work, Hypnotic Identification of an Amnesia Victim. In it he disputes, "in general, however, the hypnotized person has been depicted as an automaton, and memory disturbances hypnotically induced have been attributed to the instructions the hypnotizer gave."
Beck considered the hypnotic technique to be a potential tool in uncovering suppressed memories in victims of amnesia, giving new hope to advertisers and marketers everywhere.
Trailer: Bright Road starring Dorothy Dandridge & Harry Belafonte - 1953
A great new name in entertainment!
Millions have read about this amazing girl ...
Thousands know her as the reigning sensation of smart night clubs ...
BRIGHT ROAD
To see Bright Road will be a delight -
To miss it ... a regret -
Bright Road has everything a great picture needs ...
Beauty of story -
Heart interest -
Splendid performances -
Laughter ... And tears -
