January 19, 1907: An Exciting Honeymoon and The Life of a Cowboy are the first films to be reviewed in the entertainment trade magazine Variety. January 18, 1923: Drug addiction claims leading man Wallace Reid, whose morphine dependency followed an…
Read more →Articles by: Jay Steinberg
This Week In Film History, 01-08-12
January 10, 1914: With Mack Sennett’s instruction to Charlie Chaplin to “get into a comedy make-up,” the legendary “Little Tramp” is born. January 10, 1923: The “Hollywoodland” sign is dedicated. It was built on the Hollywood Hills to promote sales of…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 01.01.12
January 1, 1900: French film pioneer Charles Path� releases the historical re-enactment Episodes of the Transvaal Warin Paris. January 1, 1951: 300 Chicago households take part in the first TV pay-per-view movie system. For $1, they can watch 1948’s April…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 12.25.11
December 31, 1903: Capital Execution is the first feature from what will be a thriving Danish film industry, until its decline during World War I. December 26, 1913: Less than two years after the sinking of the Titanic, the disaster…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 12.18.11
December 24, 1906: Considered to be the first feature-length (70 minutes) motion picture, the Australian drama The Story of The Kelly Gang debuts in Melbourne. December 19, 1909: The first use of freeze frame for dramatic effect is employed by…
Read more →Mickey Rooney: All Singing! All Dancing! All Terrific!!!
The skill and professionalism honed onstage since he could walk, combined with an inimitable exuberance, made this diminutive Brooklynite Hollywood’s hottest draw over his adolescence, and a welcome screen presence throughout a career that continues to infinity. The son of…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 12.11.11
December 11, 1930: A protest of All Quiet on the Western Front by members of the Nazi Party in Berlin will lead to the banning of the film from Germany. December 12, 1939: Douglas Fairbanks, dashing and athletic leading man…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 12.04.11
December 7, 1919: Director/actor Erich von Stroheim, “The Man You Love to Hate,” makes his directorial debut with Blind Husbands. December 4, 1924: Greed, previewed in a nine-hour, 42-reel version earlier in the year, opens in a studio-mandated 10-reel cut…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 11.27.11
December 1, 1903: Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery, the first motion picture to use intercutting scenes to form a unified narrative, is released. December 2, 1910: Hefty funnyman John Bunny, the cinema’s first comedy star, makes his debut…
Read more →This Week In Film History, 11.20.11
November 25, 1940: Voiced by Mel Blanc, Woody Woodpecker laughs his way into cartoon fame in the Andy Panda short Knock Knock. November 26, 1942: Taking advantage of Allied landings that put the North African city in the news, Warner…
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