Changing Reels

One of the must fun and frustrating experiences working in archives is trying to identify mystery films, or film fragments. Features cut up for toy projectors, saved from an odd reel, or mishandled by a previous owner can leave an archivist or historian scratching their head. I've had a fair number of this, but mystery films are common both and and out of the archives. My friend Josh from England, recently acquired this 40 second nitrate fragment and was able to identify it as from Der Balleterherzog: Ein Weiner Spiel von Tanz und Liebe (English translation: The Ballet Duke: A Vienna Game of Dance and Love ; Austria, 1927). The Kodak edge code is dated 1925, so is print likely used an older stock. .  Finding this fasinating, I did a little digging, and here are some of my findings: The film was recently restored by the Austrian Film Archive , from a print with English inter-titles.  Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be streamable currently and hasn't gotten a physical home v...

Recently, while browsing, I've come across this product, a poster for Steamboat Willie  (1928): (c) 2020 The Walt Disney Company. My knee-jerk reaction is that the art was a clever faux-vintage work by Disney Consumer products. Indeed the image has appeared on other products as well. However, When I think to the poster most commonly associated with Steamboat Willie  (see below) I wonder if either are actually authentic? (c) The Walt Disney Company Neither mentions a distributor, which seems unusual. The later poster seems more in line for what we saw for Mickey Mouse's 50th Anniversary retrospective at MOMA and the Lincoln center, where Disney provided recreated title cards stripped of United Artists,Columbia, and Celebrity Pictures names. The second also features the more familiar MICKEY MOUSE logo font in it's finalized form, where the first is much more organic and unrefined. Did Celebrity Pictures ever issue posters for Mickey's early films? I...