july 28

Flick Friday: [The] Forbidden Lover 1923

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IMDb & Amazon Image One
Image Credit: IMDb & Amazon

One hundred years, ago, today, the black & white silent film [The] Forbidden Lover was released. Brackets around “THE” is a product of the differences of the title from data sources. This film is an edited version of The Power of Love, the very first 3-D movie, released on September 27, 1922 at the Ambassador Hotel Theater in Los Angeles. Both films are believed lost.

Directed by Nat G. Deverich and, written by Kate Corbaley & Caroline Crawford, it starred Elliot Sparling, Barbara Bedford, Noah Beery, Aileen Manning, Albert Prisco and John Herdman.

Yankee sea captain lands on the coast during the old Spanish days to trade with the ranch owners. He meets a girl who is betrothed to a man she loathes. After a series of adventures and narrow escapes, he shows up the unscrupulous ranch owner and wins the girl.

IMDb [The] Forbidden Lover Storyline
Motion Picture News Booking Guide
October 1923
Production Company: Sierra Productions
Tagline: A Romance Of Early California

IMDB & Amazon Image Two
Still Image
The Power Of Love
Image Credit: IMDb & Amazon

Because of his financial trouble, Don Almeda promises his daughter, Maria, to Don Alvarez but, Maria does not love [him]. In fact, she falls in love with Terry O’Neil, a stranger who has been wounded by robbers associated with Alvarez. O’Neil takes Alvarez’s place at a masked ball. Alvarez, in turn, robs the old Padre of some pearls and stabs him to death with O’Neil’s knife. He then accuses O’Neil of the murder and tries to shoot him but, wounds Maria instead, having thrown herself in front of him. Maria recovers and, after proving that Alvarez is a thief and a killer, weds O’Neil.

IMDb The Power of Love Storyline
Moving Picture World
October 1922
Production Company: Perfect Pictures
Tagline: A pair of spectacles will be handed to you as you enter the theatre, through which you will view the new sterescopic pictures.

The Power of Love was screened in front of a live audience at the Ambassador Hotel Theater […]. It was projected dual-strip in the red/green anaglyph format, making it both the earliest known film that utilized dual strip projection and the earliest known film in which anaglyph glasses were used. The camera rig used to shoot the film was made by the producers themselves and as you can imagine, it was far from perfect. Simply put, the film was not a success. It was screened, again, for exhibitors, and press, in New York City and, then, almost immediately fell out of sight. It was not booked again by other exhibitors. Unfortunately, we may never see what this movie looked like.

3-D TV & Movies

The first stereoscopic image dates to 1844, which makes 3-D images as old as the art of photography. [No] less a personage than Queen Victoria was photographed in 1854 in stereoscopic 3-D. 3-D stereoscopic moving images date to the 1850s with what was called the Kinetamatoscope [sic]. The first public display of a 3-D movie came in 1922 with The Power of Love […]. The film received a decent review in Moving Pictures World, then promptly disappeared from history by changing its title to Forbidden Lover and touring the country in a 2-D version. It was too complex and costly at the time to take 3-D on the road.

Randome
Looking Up/My Daily Plant Blogspot (Blogger)
Cirque de 3-D
March 6, 2009

What Was The First 3D Movie? (3D TV & Movies/Web Archive/06-02-2011)
A Tour Through The History Of 3-D Movies (Reelz/Jeff Otto/01-22-2009/Web Archive/07-20-2012)
Forbidden Lover (Silent Era/06-08-2013)
The Power of Love (Silent Era/10-16-2011)
Forbidden Lover (TCM)
The Forbidden Lover (AFI Catalog)
The Power of Love (AFI Catalog)
The Shot Of The Year (The Dissolve/Calum Marsh/12-19-2014)

Hans 2021 Song Draft: Round Eight-Pick Nine-Witness-Sarah McLachlan (1997)

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Modern Vinyl Image One
Image Credit: Modern Vinyl

Hanspostcard has a song draft challenge. This is my Round Eight pick.

I remember when I heard Possession on the radio the first time. I was driving home from work and I was immediately in love. The music was stunning, her voice was stunning and I was captivated. Who is she, I thought to myself (I had no idea that Sarah McLachlan had two previous albums). I found the Fumbling Towards Ecstasy CD as fast as I could. It is a fantastic album. There is not a bad song on it.

When Surfacing came out in July 1997, I snatched it, too. It was released to coincide with the Lilith Fair. Though Fumbling Towards Ecstasy remains my favorite of her albums, Witness is my favorite single. The sixth track, it was never released as a single, has no chart information what-so-ever and it remains in the shadow of Building A Mystery, Sweet Surrender, Adia and, in particular, Angel. The album is one of two that reached #2 on the Billboard 200. It was the #1 album on Billboard’s Canadian Albums chart on August 2, 1997 and on Canada’s RPM Top Albums/CDs chart on July 28, 1997.

As an odd bit of trivia, this album is mentioned in the Starr Report, Ken Starr‘s investigation of the Monica Lewinsky Scandal, as was Altoid Mints, the movie Titanic, Billie Holliday, Elvis, Spinach Dip, Starbucks and Leaves of Grass. Monica apparently liked track #5.

This song speaks to me on so many levels. It’s a beautiful piece with beautiful lyrics… ~Vic

Sarah Recording YouTube Image Two
Image Credit: YouTube

Make me a witness
Take me out
Out of darkness
Out of doubt

I won’t weigh you down
With good intention
Won’t make fire out of clay
Or other inventions

Will we burn in heaven
Like we do down here
Will the change come
While we’re waiting

Everyone is waiting

And, when we’re done
Soul searching
As we carried the weight
And died for the cause
Is misery made beautiful
Right before our eyes
Will mercy be revealed
Or blind us where we stand

Additional:
Lilith Fair @ 20 (Billboard Article/Gil Kaufman/07-05-2017)
Official Instagram
Official Website
Sarah McLachlan Named In Starr Report (MTV News/09-16-1998)
Starr Report Unearths New Bedfellows (The Hartford Courant/Rock Critic Roger Catlin/09-17-1998)
The Pop Life: Musical Damage In Starr Report (The New York Times/Neil Strauss/09-24-1998/Web Archive)

No Official Video

Live From Mirrorball

Sarah Discussing The Surfacing CD

Song Sunday: Keep On Runnin’ (Journey)

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Journey Escape Discogs Image One
Image Credit: Discogs

“Oh, it’s Friday night. Let’s run tonight, ’til the morning light…”

Returning to my Samsung playlist, this Sunday’s submission is Keep On Runnin’ by American rock band Journey, formed in San Francisco in 1973 out of former members of Santana and Frumious Bandersnatch. The fourth track from the album Escape (released in July 1981), it was co-written by Jonathan Cain, Steve Perry and Neal Schon and, was never released as a single, though the album, itself, reached #1 on the Billboard 200 on September 12, 1981. The song does show up in the Journey video game from Bally Midway, that came out in March of 1983, with this tagline (one of three):

“The hottest band in the country is about to take over the planet!”

The album got its own Atari 2600 video game in 1982. This album, and Frontiers after it, is a musical tapestry to my high school years.

Journey Group Image Two
San Antonio/Selma, TX
July 2006
Co-Headliner Def Leppard

I got to see the band in concert, twice, in Texas and was lucky enough to get to meet them. This is the tour where Journey dropped Steve Augeri and picked up Jeff Scott Soto for a year. Neither could match Perry but, Augeri was close.

I’m on the far left next to Jonathan Cain. My buddy Monica is in between Cain & Neal Schon. My buddy Amy is in between Deen Castronovo & Ross Valory.

It’s a shame the members are embroiled in a lawsuit. ~Vic

Lyrics

TV Tuesday: It’s Not Me, It’s Them! 1965

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BBC2 Image
Image Credit: BFI

Up until this point, the only TV shows I have been posting were American. I will be branching out a bit. Naturally, the first non-American show I choose doesn’t have a lot of information written about it…or a video. ~Vic

Fifty-five years ago, today, the British comedy mini-series It’s Not Me, It’s Them! debuted on BBC2. Produced by Graeme Muir and written by Donald Churchill (The Hound of the Baskervilles), it starred Churchill, Norman Bird (Fawlty Towers), Jack Bligh (Doctor Who), George Betton (Coronation Street) and Anthony Dawes (Fawlty Towers).

Synopsis:

[This was] an early series from the pen of actor/writer Donald Churchill, focused on Albert Curfew, […] a young man unable to hold down a job for any length of time. The title came from a regular saying of Curfew’s every time he lost his job. Churchill (who also starred as well as wrote the scripts) claimed he based the series on a close friend of his. Guest stars in the single season show included Liz Fraser, Bill Kerr and Kate O’Mara.

BBC Genome Beta
BFI
British Comedy Guide
Episodes
Memorable TV

Flashback Friday: War Begins & Ends 1914-1919

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Much like June 14, June 28 is also a very interesting day. It marks the beginning and ending of The Great War or, The War to End All Wars. Though true that the guns fell silent on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month with the signing of the Armistice in a railroad car in Compiègne, France, today’s date serves as solid markers in the timeline. ~Vic

Franz Ferdinand Image One
Image Credit: smithsonianmag.com

On this day in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are shot to death by a Bosnian Serb nationalist during an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. The archduke traveled to Sarajevo […] to inspect the imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908. The annexation had angered Serbian nationalists, who believed the territories should be part of Serbia. A group of young nationalists hatched a plot to kill the archduke during his visit to Sarajevo and, after some missteps, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip was able to shoot the royal couple at point-blank range, while they traveled in their official procession, killing both, almost instantly.

The assassination set off a rapid chain of events, as Austria-Hungary immediately blamed the Serbian government for the attack. As large, powerful Russia supported Serbia, Austria asked for assurances that Germany would step in on its side against Russia, and its allies, including France and possibly Great Britain. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and the fragile peace between Europe’s great powers collapsed, beginning the devastating conflict now known as the First World War.

[Source]

Treaty of Versailles Image Two
Image Credit: pinterest.com

World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles [on this day in] 1919. The treaty, negotiated between January and June […] in Paris, was written by the Allies with almost no participation by the Germans. The negotiations revealed a split between the French, who wanted to dismember Germany to make it impossible for it to renew war with France and, the British and Americans, who did not want to create pretexts for a new war. The eventual treaty included 15 parts, […] 440 articles, […] reassigned German boundaries and assigned liability for reparations.

The German government signed the treaty under protest. The U.S. Senate refused to ratify the treaty and the U.S. government took no responsibility for most of its provisions.

For five years the French and the Belgians tried to enforce the treaty quite rigorously […]. In 1924, however, Anglo-American financial pressure compelled France to scale down its goals and end the occupation. […] The French assented to modifying important provisions of the treaty in a series of new agreements. Germany in 1924, and 1929, agreed to pay reparations under the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan but, the Great Depression led to the cancellation of reparations in 1932. Hitler denounced the treaty altogether in 1935.

One can never know whether either rigorous Franco-British enforcement of the original treaty or a more generous treaty would have avoided a new war.

[Source]

Poppies Image Three
Evening walk.
05-07-2019