I'm A Member Of Spiffy!

I'm very pleased to tell you all that I am now an official co-editor of the lovely blog Spiffy! Thank you so much Casey and Kate for letting me be a part of this!

You can read my first post here!

Charlie Chaplin with Abe Lyman and His Orchestra

Yes, I know. I'm a terrible Chaplin fan. However, as much as I admire him, he is not my most favorite character in history for several reasons, which I intend to use as my excuse for the following statements:

Today I found out that in 1925, Charlie Chaplin wrote two songs for Abe Lyman and His Orchestra, and actually conducted the band for the recording of those songs. I did not know this up until today, even though I have been watching Chaplin since I was 13 and listening to Abe Lyman for about a year now. I'm really quite surprised that I only heard about this today, seeing as this sort of thing should be right up my alley.

Anyway, here are those two songs compiled nicely into one video. The first is "Sing A Song", and the second is entitled "With You Dear, In Bombay".




If you liked those two songs, here is a link to them on the Internet Archive, so you can download to your iPod and listen to your heart's content! (Notice the gross errors on the spelling? "Charley Chaplan"? "Abe Lymon"? Oy vey!)

Free Crochet Pattern From 1925

I have another free pattern from my collection for everyone! This was one taken from the May 1925 issue of Needlecraft Magazine, and is for a filet crochet camisole top. It would have been used on the top of camisoles or slips, but would have been going out of style by the this point in the decade, so I've never seen a pattern for a camisole top after 1925. I'm making this myself using a 1.25 mm hook, and size 30 crochet cotton, same as the pattern suggests.

The finished project:


Part 1:


Part 2:

And remember, antique crochet terms are the same as modern British terms. If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask!

We've Moved!

If you haven't all ready noticed, I have changed the name and web address of my other blog, "Flapper Flicks", to the "Flapper's Personal Kinetoscope Parlor". There was another person who had a blog with a very similar name, and to avoid confusion I changed my blog's name. It's a silly name I know, but seeing as it's not my main blog, it doesn't really matter what it's called!

Click here to see where it's been moved to!

The Woes of Larry Semon

I watch a lot of silent movies (and I can't possibly put enough emphasis on "a lot".) Of all those silent films I watch, about 75% are 2-reel comedies (I'm a high class dame, I is!) I've come to appreciate even the most unappreciated comedians. I've seen hours of Lloyd Hamilton, Gale Henry, Lupino Lane, Johnny Arthur, Clyde Cook, Snub Pollard, Billy West, "A Ton of Fun", Fred Evans and Charley Bowers, even though they are generally pushed aside by film historians in order to get a closer look at the better remembered "Big Three", and (to a degree) the lesser remembered Harry Langdon and Charley Chase. But there is one (and only one, actually) of the un-remembered comedians that I simply cannot wrap my head around, try as I like. The poor sap - Larry Semon.


Let me try and explain why I dislike him. He looks strange, but admittedly no stranger than Snub Pollard. He's very slapstick-y, same as Al St. John. He conducts his stunts on a grand scale, just like Buster Keaton. His titlecards contain a lot of word play, much like Harold Lloyd. If you go along these lines, he should be right up my alley, but he isn't. Snub Pollard, Al St. John, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd are going places. They are somebody, and they are doing something. Snub Pollard will have a healthy dose of surrealism and camera trickery. Al St. John (ever the cowboy) will undoubtedly do some stunting while riding a horse. Buster Keaton will have some sort of wry observation on modern life. Harold Lloyd will show the beauty of the human spirit. But Larry Semon just falls down, goes boom, and makes a big mess. Perhaps that is all that he is meant to do, but just making a big mess does not a very appealing persona make, and there isn't anything human involved. By the time the short is over, all that's happened is he's wrecked a few homes and torn his trousers. And don't you dare say "That was all Sennett did!" No - Sennett is mocking social standards and poking fun at the Victorian melodrama (and since the Victorian melodrama was the most popular silent film plot, he is essentially thumbing his nose at the movies themselves.)


(Neither Stanley Laurel nor Oliver Hardy can make me like Larry Semon. Sorry fellows!)


Because Semon isn't really anybody, it then puts him on the awkward spot of not being able to make that emotional connection with the audience. The other girls who I work with on 502movies (which we are over halfway done with and should be public fairly soon) have heard me rant about how silent films are better than talkies because they make that all-important emotional connection with the audience. To sum up the speech: Silent films are not whole because they do not have sound or color, so they need someone to see them to really come to life. A talkie doesn't actually need anybody, because they make their own noises, they show their own faces, and the music sets the mood. They are their own little world, and you (the viewer) are excluded from it, and must be content with peeking in the window. But silents, all black and white and mute, need a person to come alive, thus they become intensely personal. But Larry Semon is dangerously close to becoming a talkie, what with the way everything just goes flying by at a million miles an hour. There is one difference between Semon and a talkie - with a talkie they give us a reaction that we are just supposed to accept. In a Semon we don't get time to have a reaction to the massive damage he's made, so how can we possibly come to like him? No connection can be made, because neither Larry nor the audience can possibly have a reaction to the destruction before something else over-the-top happens. (Straying slightly off-topic, this is why I often find Buster Keaton and Harry Langdon the easiest to make that emotional connection with - they have such wonderful reactions to the chaos that we can share their surprise and horror and still have our own independent ideas about the situation.)

If you have had the patience to hear me become philsophical about slapstick, I would love for you all to watch some Larry Semon and share your opinions!