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Restoration of a lost Stetson film

kaosharper1

One Too Many
Messages
1,304
Location
Pasadena, CA
So I guess the main news is that its available on DVD now with some other neat films like Hitchcock's first film (which I had also read about earlier) all restored.
 

Matt Crunk

One Too Many
Messages
1,029
Location
Muscle Shoals, Alabama
Making a Stetson (a/k/a Birth of a Hat) - rare silent era industrial film

Just found this while browsing on youtube. Don't know if it's been posted before, and apologies if it has, but I thought more than a few Loungers might find it interesting.

[video=youtube;g_lZnPn0C0k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=g_lZnPn0C0k[/video]
 
Messages
10,950
Location
My mother's basement
Yup, we've seen this before. But it's still fun to watch again.

On watching it, I'm left thinking that the workers at the Stetson factory back in those days surely did earn their daily bread. And I'm wondering how many of them developed respiratory problems from years of inhaling airborne fur fibers.

It's interesting to see how the processes have (and haven't) changed since then.
 

Worf

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,212
Location
Troy, New York, USA
That was when men and women WORKED! Hard labor with your hands and your back. And I imagine that in the summer time that factory resembled the outer regions of hell! Not as bad a laboring in the fields, log woods or steel mills, but it ain't exactly squinting at a computer screen in a cubicle either. Wow... thanks.. first time I saw this one.

Worf
 

Walt

One of the Regulars
Messages
269
Location
Idaho
Heads up! I just discovered that on TCM tonight they are showing American Treasures from the New Zealand Film Archive Part one and then in one week part 2 (24 of November, 2013). So hopefully one of these nights we will get to see the Stetson movie. The TCM broadcast info doesn't indicate which movies are shown which nights.

More info at http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2001487/Lost-and-Found-American-Treasures-from-the-New-Zealand-Film-Archive-Part-1/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2001487/Lost-and-Found-American-Treasures-from-the-New-Zealand-Film-Archive-Part-1/
and
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2001488/Lost-and-Found-American-Treasures-from-the-New-Zealand-Film-Archive-Part-2/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2001488/Lost-and-Found-American-Treasures-from-the-New-Zealand-Film-Archive-Part-2/

The DVD is available for purchase as well. You can Google for it.
 

Shanghailander

One of the Regulars
Messages
202
Location
Pennsylvania
Birth of a Hat

TCM is running a series of "lost" films which were found in New Zealand. They date from 1914 to 1928.

From the TCM website:

Birth of a Hat: The Art and Mystery of making Fur Felt Hats was produced around 1920, and believe or not, this fourteen-minute documentary turns the manufacturing of Stetson headwear into a fascinating spectacle. It's basically a commercial, but its glimpses of American industry and workers are crisply filmed and adroitly presented.


Screens tonight (Saturday) at midnight.
 
Messages
12,032
Location
East of Los Angeles
For anyone in the U.S. with DirecTV, check TCM's listing for Sunday, November 24, at 9:00 p.m. and you'll find Lost and Found: American Treasures From the New Zealand Film Archive (Part Two); "Birth of a Hat" is one of the short movies featured therein.

For everyone else, you'll probably find it airing at 12:00 a.m. on Monday, November 25th.
 
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