2009 Vintage Film Festivals

Each year brings a new round of film festivals devoted to classic films, silent films, B-westerns and serials from the birth of film through the 1950s -- the Bijou Years! While the films get older every year, fan enthusiasm to see any unseen gems grows stronger. The festivals are usually held in a hotel to accommodate fans from all over the country, Canada and often Europe. They feature well-stocked dealer rooms selling posters, books and films, as well as a non-stop screening room or rooms for 16mm, 35mm or video projection. Most festivals feature personal appearances by famous faces from the silver screen. The attendees themselves share the spotlight as faces are put on dealers and fans who met in cyberspace, and new friends soon become family.

All of these website links are active, although many have not yet been updated for 2009. Go see what you missed in 2008! If you like the programs, plan now to catch one or more festivals in 2009 and check back later for the program of films and guests. A trip to a vintage film festival can be an ideal vacation for anyone who loves classic movies. Each festival deserves recognition on its own, and we will strive to promote them several months beforehand.

CINECON 45 will be held Thursday-Monday, Sept. 3-7, 2009. Cinecon is held every Labor Day weekend. Films are shown in Grauman's Egyptian Theater, with the Dealer's Room and Banquet held in the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel. Cinecon was founded by Sam Rubin, editor of the "8mm Collector," that is still going strong as Classic Images. In 1965 Sam invited readers of his self-published magazine to his home town of Indiana, Pennsylvania. It was a small affair with only a handful of die hard film fans. They gathered in a small room at the local Holiday Inn and showed each other 8mm silent films from their personal collections. The following year another cinephile, Clark Wilkinson, hosted the show in Baraboo WI and Cinecon officially became an annual event.

For the next twenty or so years the Cinecon moved from city to city as a sort of moveable cinematic feast, but since the early 1990s all Cinecons have been held in Hollywood. The dedicated organizers include Bob Birchard, Michael Schlesinger, Stella Grace, Stan Taffel and dozens of volunteers. 2009 marks the 45th anniversary of this venerable vintage film festival.

CINEVENT 41 will be held Friday-Monday, May 22-25, 2009, at the Ramada Plaza in Columbus, OH. In 1968 film fans John Baker, John Stingley and Steve Haynes held a modest gathering they called Cinevent to screen their favorite movies. Cinephiles from Cinecon soon joined the party that has been held every year over the Memorial Day Weekend. CINEVENT is a gathering of over 700 fans of silent and early sound films, and of collectors of motion pictures and related items.

Movie screenings are available from mid-day Friday to mid-day Monday with a few hours off to sleep! Dealers fill over 170 tables full of film, video, sound recordings, posters, stills, lobby cards, books, autographs -- everything imaginable associated with film. An exceptional event at each Cinevent is a major movie poster auction conducted by Morris Everett Jr., owner of The Last Moving Picture Company.

CINEFEST 29 will be held Thursday-Sunday, March 19-22, 2009, at the Holiday Inn, Liverpool, which is a suburb of Syracuse, NY. Cinefest was the pride and joy of Phil Serling, who had hosted an early Cinecon in Syracuse and decided he wanted to run a film convention every year, mainly to see his friends more often. The initial regional meeting soon attracted national attendance as word got around that Cinefest was as much fun as Cinecon, except for the snow. With Phil's untimely passing in 2004, Cinefest continues to flourish under the guidance of Bob Oliver, Gerry Orlando, Rick Scheckman and an army of volunteers. One highlight is a 35mm session in the Palace Theater, and another is the live auction hosted by Leonard Maltin. You can see the 2008 film lineup here.

MEMPHIS FILM FESTIVAL 28 is coming Thursday-Saturday, June 4-6, 2009, at the Whispering Woods Hotel and Convention Center, Olive Branch, MS (25 miles from Memphis). Since 1972 Memphis has been the dream festival for fans of B-westerns. Past guests have included Tex Ritter, Max Terhune, Monte Hale, Don Red Barry, Eddie Dean, Sunset Carson, Lash LaRue, Buster Crabbe, George O'Brien and so many more.

This year's theme is a gathering together of many leading stars of classic television westerns, including: Will Hutchins, Denny Miller, James Drury, Robert Horton, Robert Fuller, Ty Hardin and Peter Brown. The festival features three separate screening rooms running 125 classic feature films and TV shows from 10 am to 11 pm each day. A daily highlight is a panel of stars who are there to answer questions, meet their fans and sign autographs. The 2009 festival is a cooperative effort involving Boyd Magers and his "Western Clippings" publication.

LONE PINE FILM FESTIVAL 20 Lone Pine is unique in running the many films, mainly westerns, that were shot in the area. Films are shown in the high school auditorium. This particular vintage film festival has a museum devoted to western films, and offers a tour of the splendid hills, valleys and desert featured in so many B-westerns. The Beverly and Jim Rogers Museum of Lone Pine Film History is a non-profit 501(c) 3 California Corporation, organized for public benefit. Its mission is to celebrate and preserve the movie history of Lone Pine, Death Valley and the Eastern Sierra areas. Held last year in October, details for the 2009 Lone Pine Film Festival have not yet been announced.

SERIAL FEST 9 distinguishes itself as the world's only all-cliffhanger film festival. This annual event is held in association with sister-site The Serial Squadron, aka The Academy of Cliffhanger Arts & Sciences. The Serial Squadron and Serial Fest have recently launched a comprehensive series of yearly combined print and DVD publications called the Serial Fest Annual.

Fans of classic movie serials would be hard-pressed to find more information and fan interactivity available in one place concerning cliffhangers from the silent era thru the sound era. The 2008 screenings were held at the Newtown Theater, Newtown, PA. Dates and location for the 2009 festival have not yet been announced.

SLAPSTICON 7 is an annual vintage film festival dedicated to the well-known -- and especially the lesser-known comedians, producers, directors, writers, and other early film pioneers who broke new ground in the art of motion picture comedy. These artists include the likes of Larry Semon, Jimmie Adams, Lupino Lane, Gale Henry, Lloyd Hamilton, Max Linder, Billy West, Bobby Vernon, Alice Howell, Snub Pollard, Billy Bevan, Ford Sterling, Fay Tincher, Andy Clyde, Monty Banks, Clyde Cook, and Raymond Griffith, among many, many others

This annual, four-day film festival - scheduled in July of every year - features screenings of rarely seen comedies from the silent and early sound eras. It is an opportunity to view films that are some of the earliest creative efforts in the development of motion picture comedy. The 2008 Con was held in Arlington, VA, and the date and location of the 2009 festival have not yet been announced.

KANSAS SILENT FILM FESTIVAL 12
is a free event held annually since 1997 on the campus of Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. A highlight of this years Feb 27-28 festival is the US premiere screening of the presumed long lost silent classic Bardelys the Magnificent (1926). The film was based on the celebrated Rafael Sabatini novel, stars John Gilbert and was directed by King Vidor. Lost for nearly eight decades the film was recently rediscovered in France by Serge Bromberg and Lobster Films.

James Travers at filmsdefrance.com wrote: "When significant "lost" films are bought back from the dead, there is sometimes a feeling of disappointment when we finally get to see them. This is certainly not the case here - Bardelys the Magnificent is a twenty-four carat cinematic gem that will delight any film enthusiast, particularly aficionados of the swashbuckling adventure genre." Of special interest to Bijou fans, the film also features the first screen appearance by Lou Costello, of Abbott & Costello fame, and a brief appearance by a 19 year old John Wayne, in his second film role.

This year's festival program is available here. Other films this year will feature Buster Keaton, Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, Tom Mix, Ronald Colman, Laurel & Hardy, Our Gang, Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand. Another highlight of the festival will be a rare public screening of Walt Disney's Puss and Boots (1926). Last April, in collaboration with animator/historian Ray Pointer, the Bijou Blog published a series on Pioneers in Animation, featuring the silent cartoon works of Walt Disney and Max Fleischer.

Marvin Faulwell, a theater organist, and the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra provide live background music for each of the films. The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra has provided the music scores for numerous silent films on video and DVD including Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1920), Blood and Sand (1922), and The Thief of Bagdad (1924) for Kino Video.

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Each of the these film festivals is highly recommended for meeting the test of time and continuing to grow in stature and popularity. Of course, there are other classic film festivals around the country that we would like to hear about and share with our readers. Should you know of any candidates for a future post, please contact executive producer Ron Hall at fesfilms@aol.com.
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Meet Otto Soglow

When the subject of famous cartoon stars comes up, names like Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny and Popeye come to mind. But within the larger galaxy of 20th century animated celebrities, the rarely seen "Little King" character is one of the most artful and esoteric. Since their theatrical release in the early 1930s, only one of the RKO Van Beuren Little King cartoons, out of a dozen produced, has retained its proper stature in American popular culture.

It was originally titled Pals (1933), but the title was subsequently changed to Christmas Night by Official Films when they distributed the Little King series to private consumers for home exhibition of 16mm film prints. The Little King animated cartoons were a popular mainstay of early broadcast television in 1947. While the home video format has evolved from 16mm/8mm format to today's DVD format and beyond, those of us who consider early American animation an art form are delighted that the complete Little King series is available once again.

The engaging story of Otto Soglow, the creator of the Little King character, and the cartoons themselves are the subject of a special holiday collaboration between the Bijou team and the creative team at Thunderbean Animation. Next week we will present the original Pals and other treasures from Thunderbean's "The Complete Animated Adventures of The Little King" DVD series as part of our special Bijou Christmas show, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's begin by meeting Otto Soglow, courtesy of author/filmmaker/historian Chris Buchman.

The Royal Chronicler of the triangular monarch of mirth and mythology was born in Yorkville, on the Upper Eastside of Manhattan, on December 23rd 1900. His parents were a housekeeper and a cook; his education was minimal. "I wanted to be a movie actor," he admitted, "but got nowhere!"

A natural cartoonist and admirer of Winsor McCay (Little Nemo), and George Herriman (Krazy Kat), Otto enrolled in the Art Student's League of New York where "fundamentals are taught proficiently and inexpensively" and had his first illustration published in 1919.

The changes in aesthetic sensibilities during the first part of the 20th century culminating in the Art Deco movement apparently had a great influence upon Soglow and his contemporaries. Such can be seen in their masterfully-playful use of distortion, simplification, and stylization of the human form and its environment. The employment of this style was partially effective in caricaturing society's pompous twits, hypocrites, and aristocratic low-life.

By the late 1920s, Otto Soglow's delightful panels were appearing in such popular publications as Judge, College Humour, and, of course, The New Yorker, along with such celebrated humorists as S. J. Perelman and James Thurber.

It was in the 1931 pages of The New Yorker that Soglow's pint-sized monarch, The Little King, began appearing. He was the very antithesis of most living royals in that he was kind and considerate, playful, uncomplicated and democratic, preferring to hob-nob with the hoi polloi rather than attend to royal duties. The little fellow thoroughly enjoyed taking his daily constitutional to retrieve the morning bottle of milk, eating lunch from a typical workman's pail, and 'clocking-in' to begin the duties of the day.

In 1932 the New York-based Van Beuren Studio contracted to produce a series of 12 animated cartoons based on characters created by Otto Soglow; the initial two would feature Sentinel Louey; the remaining ten to star The Little King. He was, in fact, hailed as a welcome addition to the reigning mouse named Mickey.

Meanwhile, the popularity of The Little King induced newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst, to acquire the rights to the strip for his King Features Syndicate when the contract with The New Yorker expired in 1934. The strip enjoyed a long run ending with its creator's death some forty-odd years later.


In January 1936 Otto Soglow, the former would be movie star, trod the boards of New York's 48th Street Theatre in "The Illustrator's Show" - a Minskyesque Revue of songs and sketches. A few involved became legends in the arts: author/illustrator, Dr. Seuss; composers/lyricists, Frank Loesser (The Most Happy Fella/Guys & Dolls); and Frederick Loewe (My Fair Lady/Camelot). Otto acted in several skits, and in one donned regal garb to portray The Little King.

"The Illustrator's Show" ran for just five performances. Call it a case of bad timing. Two days before the show opened on the 22nd of January, England's King George V died. Within a week of its closing "Betty Boop & The Little King," a Max Fleischer animated cartoon, made its bow. A pleasing Finalé to an auspicious screen career.

Soglow continued to contribute non-Little King panels and strips to The New Yorker and other popular journals; and he illustrated dozens of books including "Soglow's Confidential History of Modern England" (1939), and "The Primrose Path" (1935) with humorist, Ogden Nash.

And there were Little King toys, puzzles and comic books by Dell; and Otto lent his talents to advertising for Standard Oil, Pepsi-Cola, and Tops Gum; and in 1954 helped launch the short-lived Little King cigarettes.

Otto Soglow died of emphysema on April 3rd 1975 and was survived by his wife, Anne, daughter, Tona, and a sister.

The universal appeal of The Little King has never waned, except for the elitists who do not appreciate, let alone, comprehend, the delicate art of pantomime.

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All the original Little King cartoons have been beautifully re-mastered and preserved on DVD, along with further insightful commentary by Chris Buchman and many original illustrations. Even more rare and unusual cartoons are on display and available at Steve Stanchfield's Thunderbean Animation site.