Here's an early photo of what became known as The Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles, CA. As you can see, this photo was taken when the theater was playing Houdini's The Master Mystery.
Film buff John Hampton built The Silent Movie Theater in 1942. Hampton owned a near complete 16mm print of The Master Mystery containing far more material than what has ever been made commercially available. Patrick Culliton recalls seeing the complete serial at The Silent Movie Theater in the late 1950s and early '60s. The theater would also occasionally show The Man From Beyond and Haldane of the Secret Service.
The Silent Movie Theater closed in 1997 and John Hampton's print of The Master Mystery is today housed in the Packard Humanities Institute. It can be viewed at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, as I did in 2018.
You can read a history of The Silent Movie Theater, including details of its dark ending, at the excellent blog I Am Not A Stalker.
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| Hollywood Citizen News, May 3, 1947. |
Fascinating and sad to see the history of The Silent Movie Theater. I remember in the maybe early 1980s, seeing, "The Man From Beyond" there.
ReplyDeleteI also met for the first time, escape/Houdini collector/writer, Charles "Rubini" Ruben in the lobby.
Used to go there occasionally, and wonderful to talk with the couple who started it and experience their regard for the silent era that they said deserved to be treated seriously and they enjoyed doing it.
The Man From Beyond was the movie they seemed to play the most. I recall seeing it one Halloween. One of the actors from New Kids in the Hall was sitting in front of me.
DeleteI just checked my scrapbook. I have a flyer from that night. TMFB was a double feature with The Golem (1920). There isn't a year, but it says "54th Year!", so it must have been 1996.
DeleteYou know, it just hit me. The theater opened in February 1942 when Bess and Ed Saint were still alive and living in LA. Could they have ever gone? Maybe even to see The Master Mystery?
ReplyDeleteNow that's an interesting thought! Bess and Saint were still alive in 1942. I wonder what kind of health they were in by this time.
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