Thursday Day 1 |
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Early birds were able to get a jump on their memorabilia shopping when the dealers' rooms opened at noon on Thursday. DVDs, books, vintage posters, and stacks of classic stills beckoned from every table.
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Fervent Cinephiles began lining up to get
their pre-registration packets as early as 4:30. By five o'clock there was quite a crowd waiting but Cinecon volunteers worked quickly to hand out the envelopes containing registration materials. |
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Within minutes they had distributed most of the packets and happy attendees could be seen eagerly flipping through the program to get a preview of the cinematic feast to be presented over the next 5 days. |
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By 6:30 much of the convention action moved down Hollywood Blvd. to the historic Egyptian where the weekend's screenings were slated to take place in the 600 seat Lloyd E. Rigler theater.
The show opened with an unusual low budget short (very low budget) of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century from 1934. This film is definitely not to be confused with the more popular 1939 Buck Rogers serial starring Buster Crabb. The unknown actors in this short were stiff and the "special effects" were so unbelievably cheap they were laughable which was exactly the point of showing this off beat little piece. |
The first feature film of the weekend was also our first celebrity screening.
Hideaway, a sweet little rural comedy from 1937 starred Fred Stone and co-starred our guest for the evening, stage, screen and television actress Marjorie Lord. It was one of her earlist films and she remembered it fondly.
After the film Mike Schlesinger interviewed Marjorie and then lead the a question and answer session with the audience. |
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Although Ms Lord is perhaps best known to baby boomers as Danny Thomas' wife on the hit 50s TV show Make Room for Daddy she actually got her start in the theater and during the course of the interview she spoke about that early stage work and how she got into films.
Her film career included over 25 movies and some of the audience questions touched on those pictures. She also talked about some of the actors she had the pleasure to work with over the years such as James Cagney, Bob Hope, Edward G. Robinson, Basil Rathbone and Barbara Stanwyck among others.
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When the Q & A ended Marjorie moved to the theater lobby where fans lined up to get autographs and speak further with her. They also got the opportunity to buy her autobiography, A Dance and a Hug, and have it personally inscribed.
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After the autograph session the film program continued with the classic silent melodrama Sorrell & Son from 1927. The film starred H. B. Warner as a World War One veteran struggling to raise his son (played as an adult by Nils Asher) through one hardship after another. Other actors in the film included Anna Q. Nilsson, Alice Joyce, Louis Wolheim and Mary Nolan. This was a special screening because for a long time Sorrell & Son was thought to be a lost film until a print was recently discovered in a collection donated to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Although incomplete, the film has been restored to a viewable condition with stills and title cards inserted to bridge the gaps of missing footage.
Last year we ran a short featuring the famous radio and pulp magazine character, The Shadow. It turned out to be very popular with our members so we decided to run another Shadow short this year, a neat little mystery from 1931 called Trapped.
It was a H. B Warner double feature evening as he played a supporting role in the final film of the night, a spry little romantic comedy from 1930 called The Second Floor Mystery. Loretta Young and Grant Withers star as a young couple who meet through notes exchanged in a newspaper column until they are sucked into a murder mystery. The Earl Derr Biggers story has several twists and turns before everything's resolved in the end. |
Friday Day 2 The short film which opened the Friday morning session was the fourth chapter of The Iron Claw (1941) a 15 chapter serial about a reporter trying to figure out what's going on in an old house amid secret passages, sinister people and hidden gold. Chapters 1 through 3 were shown at 3 previous Cinecons but this time we wouldn't have to wait until next year for the next installment because Chapter 5 was scheduled for Sunday.
The first feature of the day was a very entertaining comedy It Can't Last Forever, from 1937 starring Ralph Bellamy and Robert Armstrong as struggling theatrical agents trying to pull a scam to get publicity for one of their performers with Betty Furness as the suspicious reporter trying to expose them.
Silent film The Canadian entertained film fans before lunch. The genial 1926 Paramount feature was a variation on the country folks versus the city folks theme. This time taking place in Canada as a proper British woman (Mona Palma) comes to live with her brother and wife on his rustic farm. She spends most of her time looking down on everyone until one of the farm hands (Thomas Meighan) marries her and sets her straight. |
Serious collectors of movie memorabilia had been shopping in the dealers' rooms all morning but with a lunch break in the film schedule the rooms got even busier
Besides a great selection of collectibles shoppers also had the chance to buy some personally autographed books. |
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Throughout the weekend authors of film related books set up at tables just outside our dealers' rooms at the Renaissance Hotel to autograph and sell copies of their latest books.
Diana Cary who acted in silent films as a tot under the name Baby Peggy, had several of her books on hand. Besides her autobiography and a tome on Hollywood's Children she has written a new book about the life of one of the top silent child actors, Jackie Coogan: The World's Boy King. |
Another former child actor, Delmar Watson, also had a table to sell his books. All of Delmar's brothers and sisters were actors too but as the family grew up some of the boys, including Delmar, became Los Angeles press photographers. Among the books that Delmar was signing this weekend were several pictorial compilations of their work including Goin' Hollywood and Quick Watson, The Camera. |
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Everybody's getting into the act as Cinecon president, Bob Birchard (aka Robert S. Birchard) took time out of his busy schedule at the show to sign copies of his latest book Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood which was released last year.
These authors are just a few of the dozen or so who came to Cinecon to spend time with our members. |
After lunch the afternoon session started with the lively 1935 musical short Harlem Bound which showcased several New York based black entertainers of the era.
Up next was the brisk, light hearted comedy Ladies Should Listen a 1934 Paramount film featuring Frances Drake as a nosey switchboard girl who gets involved with playboy Cary Grant's romantic escapades.
Our next treat was a beautifully restored print (by UCLA) of the 1919 car race film The Roaring Road starring a young and dashing Wallace Reid. Reid plays an auto salesman who is tricked by his boss into setting a speed record for driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco in order to arrive there before a train carrying his sweetheart played by Ann Little.
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The last event of the afternoon session was a celebrity screening of The Band Wagon, a 1953 picture in Technicolor. The Egyptian Theater was the perfect venue to showcase the sharp, beautiful print in its original wide screen format. The energetic musical Starred Fred Astaire, Cyd Charise, Oscar Lavant, James Buchanan and our wonderful guest, Nanette Fabray. Following the film Nanette was interviewed by Miles Kreuger,
Cinecon's resident musical expert. |
Nanette Fabray started her show business career as a child in Vaudeville. She has appeared in hit shows on Broadway most notably in High Button Shoes and Love Life, for which she won the Tony award for Best Actress in a musical
She made frequent appearances in early television variety shows and eventually ended up replacing Imogene Coca as Sid Caesar’s foil in Caesar’s Hour from 1954-57 and won 3 Emmy awards in the process.
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Having spent part of her life as hearing impaired she has become well known for her humanitarian efforts on behalf of the disabled.
Nanette answered audience questions about her career and talked about the performers that she has had the pleasure of working with over the years.
And as you might expect there were quite a few questions about The Band Wagon including what it was like to work with Fred Astaire. |
It was a family affair as Nanette's son, Jamie MacDougall, daughter-in-law Cathy and grandchildren, Kylie and Ryan, joined her after the interview for a few photos.
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Out in the theater lobby Nanette took time to sign autographs and talk to fans as Cinecon VP, Marvin Paige, looked on |
After dinner the evening session began with one of our favorite musical quartets, the Merry Macs in a 1937 Warner Bros. musical comedy short One On The House
Next up was the long unseen 1921 silent film The Wonderful Thing starring silent screen great Norma Talmadge. She plays a sweet natured heiress who is wooed by a titled fortune hunter played by Harrison Ford whose family look down on her until she wins them over.
Pereneal supporting player Helen Broderick received top billing in a light hearted courtroom romp from 1931 aptly titled Court Plastered. This recently restored short was one of a series of early sound shorts starring Helen and her husband Lester Crawford.
The final film of the evening was Subway Express (1931) A typical whodunit of the era with the novelty of being set entirely in a subway car. The film starred Jack Holt and Aileen Pringle in a crisp new print courtesy of Sony Pictures Repertory. |
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