Treasures III : social issues in American film, 1900-1934

Author

Scott Simmon

Call Number

• DVD 791.436552 T7844 (CEN)

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Edition

Full screen version.

Languages

Silent with music and English intertitles.

Performers

Commentators include Richard Abel, Margaret Archuleta, Blaine M. Bartell, Jennifer M. Bean, Lendol Calder, Donald Crafton, Margaret Finnegan, Jere Gulden, Tom Gunning, Randy Haberkamp, Jennifer Horne, Patrick Loughney, Russell Merritt, Chon A. Noriega, Rick Prelinger, Cecilia deMille Presley, Steven J. Ross, Shelley Stamp, Gregory A. Waller, Kristen Whissel.

Publication Information

[Chatsworth, CA] : Image Entertainment, 2007.

Physical Description

4 videodiscs (ca. 738 min.) : sd., b&w with col. sequences ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 book (xv, 173 p. : ill. ; 19 cm.)

Audience

Not rated.

Summary

In the years before World War I, virtually no issue was too controversial to bring to the screen. The first American movies were deeply engaged with society, coming from an era when movies and entertainment were intimately interwoven with public debate. As such, they were shown in commercial movie theaters but also in clubs, churches, schools, and everywhere screens could be hung outdoors--from the sides of city tenements to country barns. "The City Reformed" deals with the urban problems: poverty, criminality, health, safety, child welfare, and corruption. Gender, family, and the crusade for equal voting rights dominate in program 2, "New Women." Labor struggles and oppression are central to program 3, "Toil and Tyranny." The final program, "Americans in the Making," brings together films confronting immigration, race relations, and wartime home-front sacrifice.

Notes

Films originally produced 1900-1934.

Special features: optional audio commentaries ; "About the film" text features; book includes essays about each film by Scott Simmon and essays about the music for each film by Martin Marks.

Contents

• Program 1. The city reformed : The black hand / (1906) (11 min.)
• How they rob men in Chicago / (1900) (25 sec.)
• The voice of the violin / (1909) (16 min.)
• The usurer's grip / (1912) (15 min.)
• From the submerged / (1912) (11 min.)
• Hope : a Red Cross seal story / (1912) (14 min.)
• The cost of carelessness / (1913) (13 min.)
• Lights and shadows in a city of a million / (1920) (7 min.)
• 6,000,000 American children--are not in school / (1922) (2 min.)
• The soul of youth / (1920) (80 min.)
• A call for help from Sing Sing! / (1934) (3 min.).

• Program 2. New women : Kansas saloon smashers / (1901) (1 min.)
• Why Mr. Nation wants a divorce / (1901) (2 min.)
• Trial marriages / (1907) (12 min.)
• Manhattan Trade School for Girls (1911) (16 min.)
• The strong arm squad of the future / (1912) (1 min.)
• A lively affair (1912) (7 min.)
• A suffragette in spite of himself / (1912) (8 min.)
• On to Washington / (1913) (80 sec.)
• The hazards of Helen : Episode 13 "The escape on the fast freight" / (1915) (13 min.)
• Where are my children? / (1916) (65 min.)
• The courage of the commonplace / (1913) (13 min.)
• Poor Mrs. Jones! / (1926) (46 min.)
• Offers herself as bride for $10,000 / (1931) (2 min.).

• Program 3. Toil and tyranny : Uncle Sam and the Bolsheviki-I.W.W. rat / (1919) (40 sec.)
• The crime of carelessness / (1912) (14 min.)
• Who pays? Episode 12, "Toil and tyranny" / (1915) (35 min.)
• Surviving reel of Labor's reward / (1925) (13 min.)
• Listen to some words of wisdom / (1930) (2 min.)
• The godless girl / (1928) (128 min.).

• Program 4. Americans in the making : Emigrants landing at Ellis Island / (1903) (2 min.)
• An American in the making / (1913) (15 min.)
• Ramona / (1910) (16 min.)
• Redskin / (1929) (82 min.)
• The United Snakes of America / (1917) (80 sec.)
• Uncle Sam donates for Liberty Loans / (1919) (75 sec.)
• 100% American (1918) (14 min.)
• Bud's recruit / (1918) (26 min.)
• The reawakening / (1919) (10 min.)
• Eight Prohibition newsreels / (c1923-1933) (13 min.).