Nitrateville Answer Dept:The Van Bibber Short Films

[Richard M Roberts]

Ya gotta love it these days with that sorry little site when someone actually asks a question that requires some amount of actual Film History knowledge and either one of two things happen, the thread will go off with a load of blathering tangents having absolutely nothing to do with the actual question asked, or it will die like a lead balloon in silence.

Case in point, R. Michael Pyle's question about Fox's Van Bibber shorts:

https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=35514

Crickets......Total crickets.

Well R. MIchael, to answer your question, yes, at least three of the Van Bibber shorts starring Earle Foxe and Florence Gilbert exist because they came out in Kodascope editions. I have prints of all three:THE TENNIS WIZARD (1926), THE MOTORBOAT DEMON (1926) and CAR SHY (1927), they were all run at Slapsticon and are delightful comedies. CAR SHY in particular is a lot of fun, with a wonderful and original opening gag having to do with the food chain of car theft. Earle Foxe is a good comedian in them playing Van Bibber, sort of a Bertie Wooster-type upper-class twit American-style. I think there may be a print of THE SWIMMING INSTRUCTOR at a foreign archive, but most of the late-20's Fox comedies that have come down to us are thanks to the Kodascope Libraries.

You're welcome Michael, we do have to do the heavy lifting for Nitwitvile these days, they're too busy arguing which is the definitive copy of THE BLACK PIRATE that will not offend their virgin eyeballs (like one couldn't possibly watch any of the various copies and in any way be entertained) or spreading bullshit about the survival history of THE CAMERAMAN (which, if one has a few minutes more time to waste, we will do the correction here later).


RICHARD M ROBERTS

[Richard Warner]

Sorry to derail your Van Bibber thread, but greatly look forward to you correcting my "Cameraman " bullshit if you have the time to waste.
Kind Regards,
Richard Warner

[Richard M Roberts]

Sorry to derail your Van Bibber thread, but greatly look forward to you correcting my "Cameraman " bullshit if you have the time to waste.
Kind Regards,
Richard Warner

It's not your bullshit, it was fine, it was the lhl12 nameless one. That old Films Inc print wasn't a blowup of a 9.5mm print, nor did it come from the Cinemateque as others have claimed. Later.


RICHARD M ROBERTS