It’s Silent-ology’s 9th Anniversary!

Well look at that. It sure doesn’t feel like it’s been nine whole years, and I could’ve sworn I wrote the 8th anniversary post just a couple months ago. And yet here we are, another year has passed and another Silent-ology anniversary has arrived!

It’s nice of Buck Jones to provide the cake for our celebration–thanks, Buck!

As always, I want to extend a sincere THANK YOU to all my readers. Maybe you pop in pretty often, or maybe you just browsed the site once or twice and aren’t even aware of what I’m typing right now. Whatever the case, I am always thankful. This labor of love continues because of you!

Let’s take a look back, eh? 2022 was definitely a more normal year than 2021 or, Lord forbid, 2020. I allowed myself to write fewer posts per month than I had before, because I’ve been going pretty strong for a long time and I knew there was a good library of content. (Back in 2014-15 I was trying to write 2-3 detailed essay-style posts a week! Ha, obsessed much?) I also have my Classic Movie Hub column now and other extra projects–huzzah!–so writing time needed to be divvied up accordingly. Happily, my stream of visitors has stayed pretty steady, and I was excited to get a good amount of comments too.

Me, reading your comments.

By the way, Silent-ology now has a proud count of 564 posts! Not bad, my friends.

It’s Silent-ology’s Seventh Anniversary!

While it sometimes seems like only yesterday when I started Silent-ology, today marks seven whole years since I first hit “Publish”! Seven years–and 460 posts exactly! Add that to the few dozen articles I’ve written for Classic Movie Hub, articles for the likes of Silent Film Quarterly and The Keaton Chronicle and other such works, and we’re looking at over 500 pieces of silent film love. Half a thousand, if you will (it sounds cool) averaging around 1250 words. Not too bad of an archive!

Why thank you Elaine Hammerstein in Picture-Play Magazine!

But I never would’ve built this archive in the first place if it wasn’t for–you! Yes you, fellow silent film lover, who is kind enough stop by and read my pieces and maybe leave a comment or two. Whether you’re a long-time reader or someone popping in for the first time today, I couldn’t be more grateful for you!

Here, have some champagne:

Maybe not from a slipper.

So like always, let’s do a review of the past year! It was a challenging 365 days, to put it lightly, and I gotta say it’s sure nice to have a project like Silent-ology to rely on for a bit of purposeful distraction. Here are my Top Five Most-Read Posts Published in 2020:

Well Look At That, Silent-ology Turns 6 Today!

As I finish up post #1 for Soviet Silents Month (I wanted to publish it yesterday but I’m not satisfied with it yet), I of course had to share that today’s Silent-ology’s SIXTH birthday!

Why yes, Clara, you may cut the cake.

Good lord, that’s over half a decade. That’s getting us closer to a decade, my friends. And this is all thanks to your support and mutual love of this fascinating, game changing era of film. A project like Silent-ology isn’t undertaken lightly–to call it “time-consuming” is a understatement–and knowing you guys appreciate what I write makes me feel…well, like a dancing Louise Brooks!

So now, let’s review how Silent-ology did in the past 365 days!

It’s Silent-ology’s FIFTH Anniversary!!

Well, whaddaya know? Today, Silent-ology turns five years old!

Norma’s happy to help me cut the cake.

We’ve been celebrating the unique, beautiful, quirky, inspirational silent era together for half a decade! This is all thanks to your continued visits, comments and support, which makes this huge, multi-year project such a fulfilling labor of love. I couldn’t ask for a more good-natured, appreciative audience, and that’s a fact.

And now, a respectable selection of 1924 silent film stars will join me in saying a very sincere:

to all!

By the way, I’m extra excited this year because…well…five is my favorite number. 😀 SO LET’S PARTY!!!

Whew, getting tired from all that partying? Let’s take a break and recap some of this blog’s highlights from 2018.

The Eleventh Hour Of The Eleventh Day

At the precise moment this post is going live, it is 11 a.m. in Belgium and France. This marks 100 years to the minute since World War I’s official ceasefire took effect at 11 a.m., November 11, 1918. After years of constant gunshots and shellfire, the final shots rang out in the same place they began–in Mons, Belgium. The last soldier to fall was American private Henry Gunther, who was killed by automatic fire in the village of Chaumont-devant-Damvillers, France, at 10:59 a.m.

Soldiers celebrating the end of fighting.

Millions had died from 1914 to 1918–far too many for our minds to comprehend, try though we might. And millions more died when the Spanish flu epidemic swept across the globe in 1918. But on that first Armistice Day, everyone allowed themselves to rejoice–to rejoice in the bloody struggle’s end, and perhaps to rejoice in life itself, fleeting as it was.

Silent-ology Turns Four Today!

Four years? Have I really been blogging about silent films for four whole years? 

The Indianapolis Circle Theater circa the 1920s sends its regards.

It sure doesn’t feel like it, my friends. Why, I haven’t even started covering the Hairbreadth Harry silent comedy series, and I haven’t even come close to researching the dramatic career of Eugenie Besserer, so you might say I’ve been slacking. Nevertheless, to all of you who been keeping up with Silent-ology these last few years and to all of you who are just starting to drop by, I offer a big, hearty, Art Deco:

“The Butcher Boy” (1917) Turns 100 Today!

We made it, folks. THIS IS IT. Buster Keaton’s very first film–Roscoe Arbuckle’s fantastic The Butcher Boy (1917), distributed by Paramount Pictures–was released on this day 100 years ago. This is when his career in cinema truly began.

Please enjoy this priceless rare lobby card that just popped up on Google out of nowhere.

Happy Centennial Of Buster Entering Films!!!

Today is the day, folks. Chills!!

Back on Sunday we gave a nod to the day that’s thought to be when Buster Keaton visited Roscoe Arbuckle’s Comique studios for the very first time (or, at the very least, met friend Lou Anger and Roscoe himself on the streets of NYC). While there’s been a bit of confusion about these dates in the past, thanks to Buster’s surviving datebook we can confirm that he absolutely, 100% went to Comique on March 21st, 1917 to film The Butcher Boy! Today, he was captured by the motion picture camera in this very scene below…for all time! (And let’s give a shout out to the patient Mr. Méliès, who doesn’t mind that we keep interrupting his theme month. *wink*)

Analyzing The Molasses Scene From “The Butcher Boy”

This is my own post for the Third Annual Busterthon–hope you enjoy!

It’s one of the most famous scenes in all of silent comedy–the “can of molasses” scene from the Roscoe Arbuckle short The Butcher Boy (1917). This had the honor of being former vaudevillian Buster Keaton’s very first scene ever committed to celluloid. He always spoke of it with fondness and in his later years he enjoyed reenacting it for TV shows. And significantly, he would say that it had been done in one take. He’s often quoted from his autobiography, My Wonderful World of Slapstick:

Incidentally, I’ve been told that my first scene in The Butcher Boy is still the only movie-comedy scene ever made with a newcomer that was photographed only once. In other words my film debut was made without a single retake.  p. 93.

Having watched The Butcher Boy approximately 458 times, I now wonder: if we examined the gag frame-by-frame, could we discover how this seemingly simple scene was put together? And was the entire molasses scene done in one take? Can we spot any clues that would prove it? Clear your schedules, my friends, ’cause this is about to get detailed.

The Third Annual Buster Keaton Blogathon – Celebrating 100 Years of Buster!

IT IS HERE.

UPDATE 2/21/17: The third and final day of the blogathon is here! New posts are up and ready for viewing, enjoy!

For the third year in a row we’re celebrating the work of our genius in slapshoes, the one and only Buster Keaton. His work is timeless, his mark on film history irreplaceable, and of course, he was the master of making us laugh. And this time around we are also commemorating a special year: the centennial of Buster’s entry into films, a milestone year that will never come again.

100 years ago Buster agreed to play a scene in Roscoe Arbuckle’s brand new Comique two-reeler. And movie audiences have been falling for his talent and humor ever since.

Bloggers: Please send me the link to your post whenever it’s ready today, tomorrow, or Tuesday. I’ll be updating periodically throughout the blogathon. Don’t forget that I’ll be holding a drawing for all participants, the winners receiving a either a $25 gift certificate to Buster Stuff, a copy of Imogene Sara Smith’s book The Persistence of Comedy, or the DVD set Industrial Strength Keaton! The drawing will be held on February 22.

Readers: Drop by often to see the latest posts–and don’t forget that we bloggers adore comments. And when you’re finished reading all the wonderful posts, why not pop in a few Buster films? It’s BK100, y’all–let’s celebrate!

And once again, here are the links to the First and Second Annual Buster Blogathons.

The Roster:

Silent-ology: Analyzing the Molasses Scene From The Butcher Boy 

Silver Screenings: Steamboat Bill, Jr. or Buster Keaton and the Important Things in Life

Special Purpose Movie Blog: The General: Factual or Fictional?

MovieMovieBlogBlog: For the Love of Buster Keaton

Grace Kingsley’s Hollywood: An Early Keaton Fan: Grace Kingsley

Big Riot V Squad: Buster Keaton: From Stage to Screen

Finding Nelson Evans: Keaton’s Leading Ladies in Pictures

Caftan Woman: Review of the books Keep Your Eye on the Kid, Bluffton: My Summer with Buster Keaton, and Keaton Comedies: A Toby Bradley Adventure

Silent Locations: Amazing New Keaton Discoveries: My Wife’s Relations

Life’s Daily Lessons Blog: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum 

Little Bits of Classics: Chaplin and Keaton: Two Friends in the Limelight

Popcorn Optional: Buster Keaton: A Wonderful World of Slapstick

Welcome To My Magick Theatre: Buster Goes to College

Senseless Cinema: The Haunted Worlds of Buster Keaton

An Ode to Dust: Buster Keaton: In the Works (Graphic novel project)

Century Film Project: Oh Doctor!

Charlene’s (Mostly) Classic Movie Reviews: Our Hospitality

Critica Retro: Review of My Wonderful World of Slapstick

The Fyuzhe: On Buster’s Television Work

Hometowns to Hollywood: Buster’s Hometown of Piqua, Kansas

Prince of Hollywood: 100 Years of Buster Keaton: The First Films of a Comedy Legend

The Midnite Drive-In: Twilight Zone episode “Once Upon a Time”

The Scribe Files: Buster, Italian Style (or Due Marines e un Maestro)

Christina Wehner: The Joy of Discovering Buster Keaton

The Wonderful World of Cinema: My First Time With Buster Keaton: One Week

The Lonely Critic: The Navigator

—