Since my “Silent Cinema” review this week was on a film that made it to DVD through generous contributions from Kickstarter viewers like you (little PBS joke there), I figured I’d whip into shape an extra post to alert the Thrilling Days of Yesteryear faithful of another crowdfunding project underway to bring more silent treasures to DVD and Blu-ray. Tommy José Stathes—early animation historian, archivist, preservationist, and international man of mystery—has been at the forefront of the efforts to collect and preserve silent film animation classics, thus making them available to modern audiences via the magic of home video. (If you happened to catch a special on The Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind™ in October of 2014, 100th Anniversary of Bray Studios, you saw Mr. Stathes chatting it up with TCM Oracle Robert “Bobby Osbo” Osborne.)
Tom’s the CEO of Cartoons on Film, an outfit
very similar to Ben Model’s Undercrank
Productions in that rather than wait for one of the major companies to say “Gosh,
Tommy…I just don’t think there’s an audience out there for silent cartoons…and
if there is, it’s a miniscule one that wouldn’t even begin to justify our ginormous
executive salaries” he decided to start his own DVD/Blu-ray label, dedicated to
“gradually mak[ing] archival films available to worldwide audiences and
scholars through vehicles such as home video.”
In tandem with Thunderbean
Animation—another organization specializing in releasing cartoons from the
past—Cartoons on Film put forth a collection entitled Cartoon Roots, which I
reviewed for ClassicFlix in
April of 2015.
In July of 2015, Stathes kicked off another Kickstarter
project to raise funds for a second Cartoon Roots release, The Bray Studios: Animation
Pioneers—the goal was met in less than a week (ultimately resulting in a total of $15,227), and
the finished DVD/Blu-ray combo (it looks positively spiffy) arrived here at
Rancho Yesteryear some time back; I’ve just yet to free it from its shrink wrap
(ask Andrew “Grover” Leal about
this idiosyncrasy of mine…better yet, don’t) but it will be done soon because I
want to write a review for the blog. The
fundraising went so well that a stretch goal was announced, soliciting funds
for a third Cartoon Roots volume—the subject of this post.
There’s a current campaign to raise money for what will be released as Cartoon Roots: Bobby Bumps
and Fido. Bobby Bumps, a
mischievous little shaver created by animator Earl Hurd, was the star of a
number of cartoon shorts released between 1915 and 1925—it was the first series
to use the cel animation process, which made animating cartoons a heck of a lot
easier. Tommy has selected fifteen
shorts for this release (he’s acquired nearly three dozen over the years; you
can read about his Bray Studios restoration project here) and after starting the
fundraising at Kickstarter, Operation: Bumps moved to Indiegogo
in an effort to further achieve the goal. This
fundraising originally ended in August of 2016…but because the release was only
half-funded the decision was made to extend the campaign to the end of
September—which was a positive outcome for your humble narrator, since I wanted
to throw some money into Tommy’s guitar case…but alas, I did not have the
fundage.
But…I will have received the necessary funds this week (probably
by the time you’ve read this), and will definitely donate to a worthy cause
(when I looked this morning, it had achieved 73%)—I just thought I’d pass this along
to interested parties to see if we can shake some additional coinage out of the
couch cushions. Put somethin’ in the
pot, boy…give what you can.
2 comments:
Thanks, Ivan, for letting me know!
I've thrown my two cents into the hat, as I'm sure Sam would have done!
Faustina assured us:
I've thrown my two cents into the hat, as I'm sure Sam would have done!
Thanks, Faustina -- slowly but surely, it's getting there!
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