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David Perlmutter's avatar

To call the Little Ferry fire catastrophic is a massive understatement.

I knew nitrate film decomposed, and films made on it were flammable, but the value of the amount of material lost because of fires is incalculable. So no wonder good prints of many silent films are scarce now!

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Dan Daman's avatar

Great article. Scorsese touched upon the tragic loss of (silver nitrate) films of the French pioneer George Mรฉliรจs in "Hugo". Theda Barra was a huge star who dominated silent, pre-code movies, but most of us have barely seen anything about her.

I strongly STRONGLY recommend you all see "Dawson City: Frozen Time" for a complementary perspective on the lost (and in this case, found) archives of early film. It is a true story too fantastic to comprehend. The found footage includes a short newsreel scene of the (thrown) 1919 World Series that is priceless to baseball historians.

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