“Olympia girl!” the Olympia newspapers proudly declared whenever one of Valentine Grant’s films played in local theaters. In the 1910s, films were still transitioning from being a novelty to being a form of mass popular entertainment and it gave local people a thrill to see one of their own on screen.
Deadline: 31-Jan-23 The Valentine Foundation is pleased to announce the Visionary Leadership Fund to strengthen the organizations that improve the lives
At the dawn of American cinema, when most film companies were already heading west to Hollywood, one company traveled east – to Ireland. The little-known story of the Kalem Company, or “The O’Kalems,” as they were fondly called, is the subject of a new collection from the Irish Film Archive.
A steam engine chugs into a small railway station in Ireland and a handsome, well-dressed man steps onto the platform, looking around him. He confers with a train conductor for directions, and we soon see that he has hitched a ride in a one-horse cart, and is traveling along a country road with a contented expression of home on his face.