Sorry, I know it’s not politically correct to use the “C” word and I know it’s not yet Halloween, but you need to know that I am crazy for Christmas. Not crazy that I have decorations up all year around or toilet-paper holders that play carols. I am just a connoisseur of holiday music and films. Yesterday, at the Cleveland Public Library (one of the best in the country–go www.cpl.org ) I ran across a collection of films in a volume called “A Christmas Past.” These are all short, black and white films, created between 1900-1925 (most of them created in Thomas Edison’s studios). They are all silent films accompanied by an original score by Al Kryszak and all are taken from the original 35mm films from the Killiam Collection (http://www.kino.com/killiam/).
Although the soundtrack has a tendency to annoy after about 90 minutes–these films are fantastic if you want to get a sense of early 20th century attitudes towards Christmas. One movie is simply entitled ”Santa Claus,” produced in 1925 it is filmed in Alaska and has fantastic views of reindeer herds, Nome in 1925, and–perhaps, all though I am not sure, an actual Eskimo family. [note: must write Herminia Din about this one, and before you yell at me my research tells me it is okay to use the word Eskimo and it is preferable in many cases to Innuit since I am not being specific]
The nine films also provide an interesting survey of a range of special effects from 1900-1925–reindeer flying, Santa Claus appearing and disappearing. My favorite perhaps is Charles Dicken’s “Christmas Carol” with brief inter-titles which condenses the familiar story into 10 minutes–and does it beautifully. The inter-titles remind one of the scenes and, my brain provided all the appropriate dialogue bits. I know they were appropriate, I checked.
This blog was really just an excuse to make a reading suggestion for museum professionals. If you haven’t read it yet, you ought to read Larry Levine’s “Highbrow, Lowbrow: The Emergence of a Cultural Hierarchy in America” That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
