Last week I received the March edition of Turner Classic Movie’s ‘Now Playing’ guide.  I always get excited when this arrives in my mailbox.  Breaking the seal, grabbing a highlighter and, like a kid in a candy store, I scan the rows of featured films.  I ask myself important questions, such as “How much open space is on the DVR?”  “How many can I watch in a day without drying my eyes out?”  But most importantly, I ask “What are the silent films of the month?”

 Most Sunday nights, TCM offers a silent movie, usually around midnight, Eastern Time.  This March 7^th is one of my favorites-SHOW PEOPLE (1928). 

Directed by King Vidor and starring Marion Davies and William Haines, it tells the story of a young girl who goes to Hollywood to become a dramatic actress and finds herself cast in slapstick comedies.

  Cameo appearances are made by such popular actors as Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, John Gilbert, and Mae Murray.  A funny, sweet and revealing story, SHOW PEOPLE is a wonderful behind the scenes look at life in the movies.  But while the title says it is about the people of show business, that isn’t the only thing you will see.  According to the TCM website: “Studio scenes were taken at the, by then, derelict Essanay studios, where such comedy greats as Chaplin and Mabel Normand had gotten their start. Shortly after filming, the whole place was demolished.” 

 George Eastman House holds the original nitrate camera negatives for SHOW PEOPLE in its vaults.  It is not available on DVD or video, but is fully preserved at GEH.  For more information on SHOW PEOPLE (and to vote on the TCM website for its release on DVD) please see   http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=2609.  Enjoy!

Howard Bingham has been the influence of my photography and film making over the last ten years or more.  As a child, due to the influence of education from both parents and extended family, I found history and news to be an interest and strength of mine in school. When my father placed me in a shutterbug class at Glendale Community College in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona at the age of 10, I began using the camera as a way of telling historical stories.

Renowned photographer Howard Bingham is a George Eastman House Board of Trustees member.

Howard Bingham, born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1939 where his father was a minister and Pullman car porter for the railroad, moved the family to south central Los Angeles in 1943 in search for a better life.  After graduating from Centennial High School in Compton, California in 1956, Bingham attended Compton Junior College, initially as music major, while also showing an interest in photography.  Due to substandard grades in a photography courses, Bingham was subsequently forced out of school.

His interest in photography was not over.  Bingham’s interest grew once he noticed his neighbors, the Hodsons, were involved in the photographic arts. Bingham states, “I would see many beautiful women going in and out of the house and that’s what really sparked my love for photography.”  Bingham soon began working for a weekly community newspaper. In 1962, young Howard met a young boxer around the same age named Cassius Clay, (soon changing his name to Muhammed Ali) while on assignment.  Upon their meeting, Bingham took Ali on a tour around Los Angeles, which turned into a lifelong friendship. 

With Bingham becoming Ali’s personal photographer, the two traveled around the world supported by great entourages with Bingham documenting Ali’s life successes and failures. The two have been close friends now thirty-eight years. Anyone who knows these two as well as they know themselves would say they were brothers.

As time passed, Bingham’s photographic and film opportunities grew.  Howard met Bill Cosby for the first time during the filming of the prime time show I Spy with Ali leading to camera guild as a still photographer in 1969. The guild created opportunities for work on such films as The Candidate, All the Presidents Men, The Electric Horsemen and Ghost Dad and Ali. Bingham also became an essential photographer for magazines as Life, Look, Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated People, Ebony and other international magazines.  His work also is recognized by the several years he spent documenting significant people such as the Beatles and many other legends; and events, not to exclude moments in history surrounding the civil rights movement.

Bingham has also published books; Muhammed Ali: A Thirty Year Journey which chronicles Ali’s life and career, and the book Howard Bingham’s Black Panthers, 1968. Bingham is also quite a humanitarian, having a scholarship named after him at the Rochester Institute of Technology for minority photographers as well as a media center soon to be named after him in Watts, California for young people living in south Los Angeles to learn photography.

Although Bingham has obtained the highest of heights within the forty-six years of when he first picked up the camera, he remains the icon and model for countless aspiring photographers and filmmakers worldwide. 

At 70, Bingham is still active as being on the board of trustees at Eastman House in Rochester, New York, traveling from coast to coast while simultaneously juggling numerous projects.

No matter what keeps him busy Bingham still manages to accommodate time to leave Los Angeles to go visit his life long best friend Muhammed Ali in Scottsdale, Arizona.  Bingham is “The Greatest” and I don’t think Ali would dispute that title.

Next Sunday, as the Best Actress nominees are announced, it is expected Meryl Streep will graciously smile, yet again, as her name is announced.

For her flamboyant portrayal of colorful chef Julia Childs in the film Julie and Julia, she has earned her 16th Oscar nomination. In 2003 she surpassed record-holder Katharine Hepburn – who received 12 nominations – and Streep now extends her reign as the most nominated performer in Academy history with her 16th nod.

Meryl Streep on the Dryden Theatre stage in October 1999, to receive the George Eastman Award. (Photo by Ken A. Huth)

On her crowded mantel of awards, however, is the George Eastman Award, which she was given in October 1999 in front of hundreds at the Dryden Theatre. That cheering crowd included her parents, who traveled to Rochester for the event.

When a staff member noted to her mother, “You must be very proud of Meryl,” her mom smiled and said, “We are proud of all of our children.” It was clear from whom Meryl inherited her graciousness, poise, and “realness.”

Meryl Streep, with her mother at her side, talks with then-Kodak CEO George Fisher, at a dinner in her honor before the award ceremony. (Photo by Ken A. Huth)

The George Eastman Award has been given by the Museum since 1955, for distinguished contribution to the art of film. A long list of past George Eastman Award honorees include Fred Astaire, Charlie Chaplin, Cecil B. DeMille, Lillian Gish, Frank Capra, Joan Crawford, Jimmy Stewart, Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck (who was given his award by surprise guest Audrey Hepburn), and Martin Scorsese.

While at Eastman House, Meryl Streep was kind and fun and humble – the same persona that comes through when she takes part in interviews and shares sheer delight during acceptance speeches.

The Eastman House screened a video tribute, featuring highlights from her film career, prior to the award ceremony. Taking the stage immediately following, the then 50-year-old Streep told the audience, laughingly, “Gee, it was so nice to watch myself age before your eyes on a big screen.”

During the visit she toured the motion picture vaults and witnessed some of the film-preservation work conducted on site.

Meryl Streep talks with the media during a a press conference at Eastman House. (Photo by Ken A. Huth)

“We are at risk of losing our cultural history and also our documentary history,” Streep said, during a press conference the next day at the Museum. “Eastman House is in a pre-eminent position to be in the vanguard. I don’t think other museums have caught up to the idea that that’s what’s coming. There must be this care given, to preserving film of all kinds.”

After viewing 1945 film footage of the liberation movement of Auschwitz preserved in the Eastman House archive, Streep noted, “This was an amazing document. But we live in a little window of time where that document is verifiable. Next century, somebody might say, ‘Well, they put that together. That’s not true. They can do anything to that film.’

“And so the people who can really verify and give credibility to visual work will be these ‘DNA experts’ of the future,” Streep continued. “And they’re all working and being trained here at Eastman House.”

Last April an excited Dryden Theatre audience chatted with triple-threat Tom McCarthy — in Hollywood terminology, that’s an actor/writer/director — who took questions while seated on the Dryden stage, after a screening of his acclaimed 2007 film The Visitor.

 Tom McCarthy talks to the Dryden audience on April 20, 2009, following a screening of his film “The Visitor.”

McCarthy then hung out after the formal program to talk one-on-one with folks and sign autographs.

On March 7, McCarthy may be onstage at the Kodak Theatre, to receive an Oscar^® for Best Original Screenplay, for his role in penning the animated film “Up.” Reports say McCarthy is the one credited with mapping out the film’s story, and along with Peter Docter and Bog Peterson is nominated for an Academy Award.

Eastman House will surely be cheering for McCarthy, who since visiting us has donated to the motion picture collection a print of The Visitor, which he wrote and directed. The film earned an Oscar^® nomination for lead actor Richard Jenkins.  The film and McCarthy are popular with critics: “Best movie I’ve seen so far this year? Hands down, it’s Tom McCarthy’s superb The Visitor,” said Lou Lumenick of The New York Post.

Tom McCarthy, left, at Eastman House with Jim Healy, assistant curator of motion pictures, and Marilyn O’Connor (who is proud to also be known as “Philip Seymour Hoffman’s mom”)

And while the “actor” McCarthy, who trained at Yale School of Drama, may get the “Oh, I know that guy” reaction when you see him on screen, or look at the images that accompany this blog (the same reaction Philip Seymour Hoffman got from the masses before Capote), his filmography is lengthy. Since the early 1990s, he’s appeared in more than 20 feature films — including Meet the Parents, Baby Mama, Good Night, and Good Luck, and Flags of Our Fathers  — plus several TV shows, notably The Wire.

Tom McCarthy, left, signs autographs at the Dryden.

The UK newspaper The Guardian last week called McCarthy “a Hollywood Renaissance man.” The writer also called him a “a rare talent, and, moreover, one with a habit of veering off in wholly unexpected directions.”

And from the looks of it, McCarthy is headed in one sure direction … “Up.”

Bravo and look good on Oscar^® night, from the Eastman House.

The George Eastman House has recently completed the preservation on THE OLD FOLKS AT HOME (Fine Arts Film Co., 1916.)  Directed by Chester Withey and starring Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Josephine Crowell, Elmer Clifton, and Mildred Harris [aka Mrs. Charles Chaplin], it is the story of the rural Coburn family, living a simple, yet happy, life on the homestead.  While John runs a modest campaign for state senator, his wife keeps their home and son in loving comfort. 

When the votes are counted, the family is thrilled to learn that Mr. Coburn has been elected!

Years pass, and we see the family in a new environment.  John is now running the state, and has little time for his former life.  Still, they go back to the homestead once a year, and try to stay in touch with their son, Stevie, who has turned to gambling and a scandalous woman.  Stevie becomes involved in a murder, and mother and father must make a difficult decision-help their son, or have him face the consequences with the state. 

The foundation for this preservation was a nitrate print brought to Eastman House in 2003 by Ted Larson and Harold “Rusty” Casselton.  These beloved film professors, historians, and film collectors were internationally known and respected restorers of rare and silent films.  Both collectors have passed on but will always be remembered for their enthusiasm and knowledge of film.  Ted and Rusty, on their way to Cinefest in Syracuse, NY, would visit Eastman House and talk to students of the Selznick School about film collecting and how they fell in love with cinema.  Over the years, the warm relationship with Ted and Rusty and the motion picture department evolved and an agreement was reached for some of their rare nitrate prints to be conserved at Eastman House.

 Although neither Ted nor Rusty survived to see the preservation of this film, the Eastman House is proud to carry on their work: to preserve, show and to inspire a love of film. (Preservation funded by the National Endowment of the Arts.)

Ted Larson

Rusty Casselton