#FlashBackFriday Harold Lloyd and his best friend Richard Simonton, Sr. crashing their kids Halloween party in 1970!
This image is originally from a 3-D slide and can be viewed in 3-D using a stereoscope or Loreo or similar type of 3-D viewer.
#KeepCalmTomorrowIsHalloween
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Hollywood Home Movies: Disneyland’
Where: Linwood Dunn Theater, Pickford Center, 1313 Vine St., Hollywood
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Tickets: The event is sold out, but there will be a standby line
Info: www.oscars.org
For a misty-eyed ride into that past, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is presenting “Hollywood Home Movies: Disneyland,” a sold-out show Saturday night, Oct. 24, at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Los Angeles.
Culled from the Academy Film Archive’s vast home movie collection, the featured clips include color footage from opening day, July 17, 1955; nominees for the foreign-language film Oscar (and Federico Fellini’s wife, actress Giulietta Masina) visiting the park in 1957; amateur home movie footage of families enjoying the Mad Tea Party, Dumbo and Jungle Cruise attractions; and even actor Steve McQueen and his family on a 1970 VIP tour for daughter Terry’s 10th birthday.
Suzanne Lloyd, the granddaughter of comedic actor Harold Lloyd, also will be on hand to present 3-D photographs of Disneyland taken by the silent film great a week before the park’s opening.
The evening isn’t just a celebration of the park’s 60th anniversary but also a glimpse at how Disneyland “was a similar and yet distinct experience for all different kinds of people from all different places,” said Randy Haberkamp, the academy’s managing director for programming, education and preservation.
[inset side=”right” title=””] Suzanne Lloyd, the granddaughter of comedic actor Harold Lloyd, also will be on hand to present 3-D photographs of Disneyland taken by the silent film great a week before the park’s opening.[/inset]
“Seeing real people in a particular year, you realize what people were wearing, the way people behaved in an amusement park,” Haberkamp said. “It does show the differences in culture over the decades and the difference in the attractions.”
The earliest footage in the program predates the opening of Disneyland by seven years. It’s from the Ward Kimball Collection donated by his son, animator John Kimball, who will be appearing at the event. Ward Kimball was one of Disney’s Nine Old Men group of core animators. The 1948 clips show Walt Disney enjoying miniature steam trains that inspired the creation of the park.
“That was a key year for the future of Disneyland and everything,” said John Kimball, who is featured in the footage as a little boy. “It was kind of a landmark year for big changes that were going to be taking place. My father had a railroad in our backyard in east San Gabriel. Walt would come out there, and they would run his train. It went from the back of the property to the front of the property, a distance of maybe 500 feet.”
The color footage of opening day shows just how unfinished the park was.
“They had about 15 rides on opening day,” said Lynne Kirste, the special collectors curator who selected the footage and will host the evening. “The trees are little. Now everything is manicured.”
A woman modeled a strapless bath suiting outside a store on Main Street. “They had a Cole of California bathing suit shop,” Kirste said. “They would never do that now. It’s too sexy.”
Fabulous footage from 1958 shows Guy Williams and the cast of Disney’s ABC series “Zorro” performing live for fans, and home movies shot between 1955 and 1959 capture appearances by the Mouseketeers and Bob-O the Clown.
Neile Adams, who was married to McQueen from 1956 to 1972, has donated home movies and more than 30 scrapbooks of her life with the actor. Adams’ movies are a kick to watch, not only for the outrageous clothing worn by the visitors but also for the joy on the faces of daughter Terry, son Chad McQueen and their friends as they enjoyed the VIP perks, such as not having to wait in lines. No one seems to recognize Steve McQueen — perhaps it’s his totally uncool hat — when he and Chad buy popcorn. But as soon as he sees the camera on him, he motions to Adams to stop filming.
“He was having a little hissy fit,” Adams said. “We were fighting. Eventually it was OK. For about an hour he wouldn’t speak to me.”
Harold Lloyd was great friends with Disney and used to go out with Walt, Suzanne Lloyd said. “They would dress up and go to costume parties and do crazy things.”
Harold Lloyd began shooting 3-D photographs in 1947. “He never shot anything but 3-D,” Suzanne said. “He felt it was so real.”
She recalled going to Disneyland with her grandfather, her governess and others on what she thought was a preview day. Her grandfather used his Stereo Realist camera to take stunning photographs of his granddaughter eating hot dogs and hamburgers, as well as the stage coach ride, the carousel and the trolley on Main Street. Stardust memories, indeed.
Below is a picture of Matilda and Shane Fleming. Shane is the world’s leading 11-year-old expert on Harold!
Here’s film historian Kevin Brownlow wearing our Harold Lloyd hat at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival!
Bye for now!
There should be little, if any, link between Pete Rock and CL Smooth’s iconic 1992 hip-hop track “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)” and silent film star Harold Lloyd’s 1928 action-comedy classic Speedy. But Z-Trip, the genre-bending Los Angeles musician who provided a live DJ score for the film Wednesday night at the Tribeca Film Festival, has carved a 15-year career unearthing unorthodox throughlines.
In this case, it was Pete Rock’s instantly recognizable looped horns of Tom Scott’s “Today” laced over one character’s call-to-arms bugle blast, just one of hundreds of synced cue points the DJ employed for an invigorating, unpredictable revitalization of the silent film score.
The film ostensibly rotates around Speedy (Lloyd) trying to stave off railroad magnates who are attempting to push out his girlfriend’s grandfather’s horse-drawn trolley company. But in Lloyd’s last silent film, plot takes a backseat for silly slapstick bits and elaborately planned chase sequences.
Z-Trip is not the first to bring a DJ sensibility to silent film – in 2003, British electronic jazz outfit Cinematic Orchestra performed live tracks set to Dziga Vertov’s 1929 Man With a Movie Camera, and DJ Spooky famously “remixed” D.W. Griffith’s racist 1915 Civil War epic to create Rebirth of a Nation in 2007. But Thursday night’s performance was revolutionary in its attention to detail: Some cues were obvious, like scratching up Beastie Boys’ “Fight for Your Right” during a fight between the railroad company’s goons and Lloyd’s friends.
But Z-Trip, who admitted after the show that he only had 10 days to soundtrack the entire 86-minute film, also employed subtle nods to cratediggers. When a dog appeared on-camera for the first time, the DJ played 10 seconds of Cat Steven’s 1977 instrumental proto-techno track “Was Dog a Doughnut?”
Z-Trip relished the dichotomy between recognizable, yet appropriate, tracks and obscure gems throughout the night. Cuing KRS-One’s “Sound of da Police” whenever a cop appeared might be an obvious choice; exposing the crowd to a salsa cover of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during a scene at a baseball game, however, is just different enough to seem inspired. The DJ has long been known for his use of children’s instruments, sound effects and other playful noises, and that skill was utilized frequently. (The sound of Super Mario Bros.’ Mario collecting coins when Lloyd earns a quarter received one of the biggest laughs of the night.)
“I hadn’t seen the movie [until] it came across my path and I’m totally blown away,” Z-Trip told the crowd after the film. “I think most people who see this stuff might glaze over certain things because its subtleties are so enormous, that if you happen to look away, you’ll miss the gag.”
The event worked mainly because Z-Trip found the line between reverence and irony. It’s hard not to laugh at the sound of Khia’s pro-oral sex anthem “My Neck, My Back” while watching Lloyd massage the grandfather’s neck to alleviate a cramp. But Z-Trip understood that he was just one part of the silent comedy, which has long been considered a classic before any musician – turntablist or otherwise – brought their interpretation to the movie, allowing certain scenes to unfold with minimal flourishes.
While this was only an one-off event for now, the DJ hinted at his desire to do more similar projects. After Bruce Goldstein, Director of Repertory Programming for New York’s Film Forum, noted that Lloyd made 11 silent movie masterpieces, Z-Trip replied, “This was completely uncharted territory for DJs like myself. Las Vegas parties and Coachella [sets] are a blast, but this is pushing the art form and allowing me to get creative and flex a new creative muscle. I definitely developed a hunger to do more of this.”
Check out the new “Time Machine” music video!