102) Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film

[00:00:01] The Rambler Network Step right up ladies and gents, a show for the ages, a spectacle of silent silver. Gather round folks, don't be shy. A real humdinger of a picture of eight, thrills, chills and plenty of laughs.

[00:00:24] From the golden days of flickering reels and grand Nickelodeons comes a program most extraordinary. A real corker of a show, a top-notch talkie about a world with no talk at all. It's Casabloga Silent Treatment.

[00:00:35] This episode is going to be a little different from the rest of the episode this season. This isn't talking about a single silent film. In fact, this is a documentary about silent films. I consider it to be the main documentary on silent films. I know there are a bunch of them.

[00:01:05] This is Hollywood, A Celebration of the American Silent Film. It's from 1980. It is a British documentary series and it was written and directed by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. It was narrated by James Mason.

[00:01:26] And it features interviews from silent film legends such as Lillian Gish, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Colleen Moore, Gloria Swanson, Jackie Coogan, and a bunch more.

[00:01:46] Now, the episode, unfortunately, it hasn't been re-released on DVD or anything that I found. I found it on VHS for like $700, but I'm not doing that. I'm not going to do that.

[00:02:07] It is, however, available on YouTube. There is a playlist on YouTube. That's how I watched it this time. I've seen it a bunch of times before. First time I saw it was, I think, like back in 2011 on YouTube. And yeah, every time I've seen it was on YouTube. And I recently found out, when I was near the end of watching it this time, the entire thing is on archive.org.

[00:02:36] And it's in higher quality than what I've seen it. And obviously, because it's archive.org, it's completely free to download. So, I don't fear the YouTube one being deleted for copyright. But yeah, if you do want to watch it, I highly recommend the archive.org version because, again, higher quality.

[00:03:05] But if you don't care about the quality and just want to watch it, it is on YouTube. I will link that down in, uh, I'm used to a YouTube video. I'm down in the description. I will link that, um, in the description of the show, uh, episode. So, I'm going to kind of go through some of the episodes and, like, what they were about. Like, the first episode was about, it's called Pioneers, or The Pioneers.

[00:03:33] And it talked about, uh, like, um, like motion experiments and, like, the early days. It talked about, like, the very early days and how, like, the history of motion, of the motion picture. Thomas Edison basically had a, the patent on, uh, held a copyright on the motion, on the, the camera. Don't have time to get into it now.

[00:04:02] I am not a fan of Thomas Edison. And, uh, everybody is always talking about, oh, he was one of the greatest inventors of all time. Nah, he never invented anything. He was a businessman. And, uh, he just took credit of the, it's a whole long, I could do a whole episode on him. I don't like him. And, uh, but I will say that because of his greed, it's the reason that we have Hollywood the way we have it.

[00:04:30] Because originally, the early days of the motion picture was in, like, New York, New Jersey, that area. But, that's where, that's the area where Thomas Edison was. And he, he would send his lawyers after them saying, hey, you can't do that. Like, he wanted a cut of everything. And he was like, well, that's my thing and you can't use it for that. And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Uh, so what they, what did they do?

[00:04:59] They went to the West Coast and went to Hollywood. Um, Hollywood was an actual town at the time. It was a small town. It was like a farm. And it was very quiet. And then these filmmakers came along. In the early days, it was not, you know, they didn't come in and immediately change the landscape. It was very minimal.

[00:05:27] And it gradually became what it is today. Uh, but this episode, this first episode of The Pioneers is basically about that. Like, the early days of the motion picture before Hollywood became Hollywood. And, like, comedy was, like, a really common genre in the, like, especially the early days. It was, like, very, it was, like, slapstick.

[00:05:54] It was, like, it was very popular at the time. Not so much now, unfortunately. People want, like, vulgarity in their humor. And, I don't know, I always feel if you have to be vulgar to be funny, you're not funny. But, anyway. The birth of the feature film. It talks about D.W. Griffith. And the birth of a nation.

[00:06:21] Which is a very controversial film. Uh, it is... It wasn't the first feature-length film. It was, like, maybe one of the first big epics. And it was a very controversial movie at the time that it released.

[00:06:46] But, because of that, because people realized that that worked, um... Films became, be getting longer and more ambitious and more experimental. Audiences start following... Like, audience start following the people, not just the films. Like, two examples. Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford.

[00:07:16] They were two of the biggest stars of the silent era. And they were husband and wife. And the two of them, plus Taylor Chaplin, went on to create United Artists. Which was a studio that was basically run by the stars. Because the other ones, the other studios, weren't really treating the stars correctly. So they were like, hey, let's just do it ourselves. But, yeah.

[00:07:46] Like, there are 13 episodes total. And each one covers a different aspect of the silent era. And... It just basically goes to show that, like, the silent films were never silent. They just... We just had to learn how to listen to them, basically.

[00:08:19] I keep trying to stress to people that silent films are not boring. Every time I tell people I'm doing this season, they're... I get the same thing. Almost every single time I tell people I'm doing this season, they say, Oh, those are boring. Ugh, you just... You haven't watched them. If you think silent films are boring, you just haven't watched them. And there's 13 episodes in this show to show you why they're not boring.

[00:08:46] If you don't watch any movie that I cover this season, at least watch the documentary. Because it basically covers the whole history of the silent era. And explains why the silent era was as important as it was and isn't boring. That's boring. Like... I... I... I...

[00:09:15] I'm just so... Frustrated. That... That's, like, the number one thing. That, like... They just always say, It's boring. That's boring. That's boring. That's boring. That's boring. That's boring. That's boring. Have you watched one? Like... I don't want to just keep saying that over and over again all season. So, like... I'm trying not to say it anymore, but, like... I mean, if there's an... The... Meh. I mean, if there's an episode this season to...

[00:09:45] To continuously say that, it's this one. Because this is a documentary talking about silent films. And, like, why they're great. But, yeah. At least watch this one. I will put a link down below in the show notes, in the description or whatever. To the... To the playlist on YouTube. And I'll also link to the one on archive.org.

[00:10:15] Because... That is a better... That is a better quality copy. But, I feel like the YouTube one is a little bit more accessible. Because you just click it and it starts playing. The archive one, you still have to download. And I don't... I know not everyone's going to want to download them. They're not big files. Really. I mean... I mean, that kind of... That depends on how much space you have. But... Again, I think the YouTube one might be a little more accessible.

[00:10:45] So, I'll put both down below. And I highly recommend watching at least this one. If you don't watch anything else this season that I talk about, watch this. And... Cut! Step right up, folks. Don't let the show end here. If you enjoyed tonight's picture, there's plenty more waiting just beyond the curtain. Follow the show on Instagram at ramblernetwork.

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