Vintage

Vintage: Nazi Propaganda Film Director Leni Riefenstahl (1930s)

Vintage: Nazi Propaganda Film Director Leni Riefenstahl (1930s)

Leni Riefenstahl (1902 – 2003) was a German film director. Riefenstahl heard Nazi Party (NSDAP) leader Adolf Hitler speak at a rally in 1932 and was mesmerized by his talent as a public speaker. Describing the experience in her memoir, Riefenstahl wrote, “I had an almost apocalyptic vision that I was never able to forget. It seemed as if the…
Vintage: Broken Blossoms (1919)

Vintage: Broken Blossoms (1919)

Broken Blossoms is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by D.W. Griffith. Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess) leaves his native China because he “dreams to spread the gentle message of Buddha to the Anglo-Saxon lands.” His idealism fades as he is faced with the brutal reality of London’s gritty inner-city. However, his mission is finally realized in his devotion to…
Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Delhi, India (1890s)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Delhi, India (1890s)

In 1757, the Afghan ruler, Ahmad Shah Durrani, sacked Delhi. He returned to Afghanistan leaving a Mughal puppet ruler in nominal control. The Marathas again occupied Delhi in 1758, and were in control until their defeat in 1761 at the third battle of Panipat when the city was captured again by Ahmad Shah. However, in 1771, the Marathas established a…
Vintage: Portraits of Colleen Moore – Silent Movie Star

Vintage: Portraits of Colleen Moore – Silent Movie Star

Colleen Moore (1899 – 1988) was an American film actress who began her career during the silent film era. At age 15 she was taking her first step in Hollywood. Her uncle arranged a screen test with director D.W. Griffith. She wanted to be a second Lillian Gish but instead, she found herself playing heroines in Westerns with stars such…
Vintage: The Last Laugh (1924)

Vintage: The Last Laugh (1924)

The Last Laugh is a 1924 German silent film directed by German director F. W. Murnau. Jannings’ character is a doorman for a famous hotel, who takes great pride in his work and position. His manager decides that the doorman is getting too old and infirm to present the image of the hotel, and so demotes him to a less…
Vintage: Sherlock Jr. (1924)

Vintage: Sherlock Jr. (1924)

Sherlock Jr. is a 1924 American silent comedy film directed by and starring Buster Keaton. A movie theater projectionist and janitor (Buster Keaton) is in love with a beautiful girl (Kathryn McGuire). However, he has a rival, the “local sheik” (Ward Crane). Neither has much money. The projectionist buys a $1 box of chocolates, all he can afford, and changes…
Vintage: Greed (1924)

Vintage: Greed (1924)

Greed is a 1924 American silent film, written and directed by Erich von Stroheim and based on the 1899 Frank Norris novel McTeague. John McTeague is a miner working in Placer County, California. A traveling dentist calling himself Dr. “Painless” Potter visits the town, and McTeague’s mother begs Potter to take her son on as an apprentice. Potter agrees and…
Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Singapore (1890s)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Singapore (1890s)

Raffles arrived in Singapore on 28 January 1819 and soon recognised the island as a natural choice for the new port. The island was then nominally ruled by the Sultan of Johor, who was controlled by the Dutch and the Bugis. However, the Sultanate was weakened by factional division and Tengku Abdu’r Rahman and his officials were loyal to Tengku…
Vintage: Pandora’s Box (1929)

Vintage: Pandora’s Box (1929)

Pandora’s Box is a 1929 German silent melodrama film based on Frank Wedekind’s plays Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (1904). Lulu (Louise Brooks) is the mistress of a respected, middle-aged newspaper publisher, Dr. Ludwig Schön (Fritz Kortner). One day, she is delighted when an old man, her “first patron”, Schigolch (Carl Goetz), shows up at the…
Vintage: Portraits of Bebe Daniels – Silent Movie Star

Vintage: Portraits of Bebe Daniels – Silent Movie Star

Bebe Daniels (1901 – 1971) was an American actress. In the 1920s, Daniels was under contract with Paramount Pictures. She made the transition from child star to adult in Hollywood by 1922 and by 1924 was playing opposite Rudolph Valentino in Monsieur Beaucaire. Following this she was cast in a number of light popular films, namely Miss Bluebeard, The Manicure…
Vintage: The Wind (1928)

Vintage: The Wind (1928)

The Wind is a 1928 pre-code American silent romantic drama film directed by Victor Sjöström. An impoverished young woman named Letty Mason (Lillian Gish) travels west by train from Virginia to live at her cousin Beverly’s isolated ranch in Sweetwater, Texas. On the way, she is bothered by the constantly blowing wind. Fellow passenger and cattle buyer Wirt Roddy (Montagu…
Vintage: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

Vintage: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is a 1927 American silent romantic comedy-drama directed by German director F. W. Murnau (in his American film debut) and starring George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, and Margaret Livingston. A vacationing Woman from the City (Margaret Livingston) lingers in a lakeside town for weeks. After dark, she goes to a farmhouse where the Man (George…
Vintage: The General (1926)

Vintage: The General (1926)

The General is a 1926 American silent comedy film released by United Artists. Western & Atlantic Railroad train engineer Johnnie Gray (Buster Keaton) is in Marietta, Georgia to see one of the two loves of his life, his fiancée Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack)—the other being his locomotive, The General—when the American Civil War breaks out. He hurries to be first…
Vintage: Claude Monet in His Studio at Giverny

Vintage: Claude Monet in His Studio at Giverny

Monet’s ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. From 1883, Monet lived in Giverny, where he purchased a house and property and began a vast landscaping project which included lily ponds that would become…
Vintage: Daily Life of Suffolk, England (Edwardian Era)

Vintage: Daily Life of Suffolk, England (Edwardian Era)

By the fifth century, the Angles (after whom East Anglia and England are named) had established control of the region. The Angles later became the “north folk” and the “south folk”, from which developed the names “Norfolk” and “Suffolk”. Suffolk and several adjacent areas became the kingdom of East Anglia, which later merged with Mercia and then Wessex. Suffolk was…
Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Madrid, Spain (1890s)

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Madrid, Spain (1890s)

On 27 October 1807, Charles IV and Napoleon I signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau, which allowed the passage of French troops through Spanish territory to join the Spanish troops and invade Portugal, which had refused to obey the order of international blockade against England. As this was happening, there was the Mutiny of Aranjuez (17 March 1808), by which the…
Vintage: Devon, England (1900s)

Vintage: Devon, England (1900s)

The name Devon derives from the name of the Britons who inhabited the southwestern peninsula of Britain at the time of the Roman conquest of Britain known as the Dumnonii, thought to mean “deep valley dwellers” from proto Celtic *dubnos ‘deep’. Since the rise of seaside resorts with the arrival of the railways in the 19th century, Devon’s economy has…
Vintage: Hurricane Camille, 1969

Vintage: Hurricane Camille, 1969

Camille is one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded and the most devastating natural disaster in Virginia’s history. The storm formed over the Gulf of Mexico on August 14 and quickly developed, reaching a category 3 hurricane over Cuba. Making landfall on the U.S. Gulf Shore as a category 5, Camille caused catastrophic damages throughout Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.…
Vintage: Portraits of Dorothy Gish – Silent Movie Star

Vintage: Portraits of Dorothy Gish – Silent Movie Star

Dorothy Gish (1898 – 1968) was an American actress. In Hearts of the World (1918), a film about World War I and the devastation of France, Dorothy found her first foothold, striking a personal hit in a comedy role that captured the essence of her sense of humor. As the “little disturber”, a street singer, her performance was the comic…