News : Palace viewers see unique movies from the beginning of the silent film era

Local theater enthusiasts saw this video, the first to show the crossing of the Brooklyn Bridge.

This unique movie by Melies taught local viewers about early efforts at special effects.

Imagine seeing, for the very first time, an elephant on a movie screen – and not just one elephant, but a group of several trained elephants and their riders frolicking in the water and spraying the camera.

Or imagine seeing, from hundreds of miles away, what it would be like to cross the Brooklyn Bridge at the turn of the 20th Century. Or imagine watching a close-up of a clown putting on his wig and make-up, practicing his facial expressions and then placing his clown suit on the floor and doing a summersault and coming up wearing that costume.

About 60 local theater enthusiasts had a chance to see some of the very first movies ever made – movies that remained hidden in a basement and then a shed for decades.

Washington County historian Michael Zahs joined Red Cedar Chamber Music performers to show approximately 20 movies, all well over 100 years old and one that was made in 1985. Part of the Brinton Collection, the films are now attracting attention throughout the world.

Zahs told the audience about each film, and discussed some of the early editing techniques film makers discovered as they experimented with the then-new medium. He also discussed the history of Frank Brinton, the showman who bought the films and then played them for audiences throughout eastern Iowa.

While the films have been seen in several places throughout eastern Iowa already, Thursday’s event at the Palace was the first to offer them on a big theater screen. Zahs explained that most of the events use a laptop and small projector, but Gerald Horst transferred the movies to the computer system used for the Palace’s big projector, enabling the Vinton audience to see them more like they would have been seen more than one century ago.

See more photos HERE.

See an earlier story, with many links containing much of the history of the Brinton Film Project, HERE.