Availability of Sennett Educationals

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Rob King
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Availability of Sennett Educationals

Postby Rob King » Sat Jan 02, 2010 10:27 am

Brent's book might have the answer to this, but while I wait for McFarland to ferry my copy up to Toronto, I thought I'd post here. Does anyone know which of Sennett's Educationals are available on DVD/VHS? I'm looking in particular for The Lion's Roar, but also for some of the early Gribbon-Clyde pairings (e.g., The Big Palooka, The Bees' Buzz, The Lunkhead, The New Halfback, Whirls and Girls - some of which I'm unsure are extent, although I know The Bees' Buzz is out there). I have The Golfers through Grapevine, but that's it.

EDIT: This thread should, of course, be in the sound comedy forum. Do any of the admins know how this can be moved?

Richard M Roberts
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Re: Availability of Sennett Educationals

Postby Richard M Roberts » Sat Jan 02, 2010 1:49 pm

Rob King wrote:Brent's book might have the answer to this, but while I wait for McFarland to ferry my copy up to Toronto, I thought I'd post here. Does anyone know which of Sennett's Educationals are available on DVD/VHS? I'm looking in particular for The Lion's Roar, but also for some of the early Gribbon-Clyde pairings (e.g., The Big Palooka, The Bees' Buzz, The Lunkhead, The New Halfback, Whirls and Girls - some of which I'm unsure are extent, although I know The Bees' Buzz is out there). I have The Golfers through Grapevine, but that's it.

EDIT: This thread should, of course, be in the sound comedy forum. Do any of the admins know how this can be moved?


Most of the Sennett Educationals survive,they are part of the Zoary Collection at the Library of Congress as well as being in a number of private collections. THE LIONS ROAR is currently available from Grapevine as an extra on their DVD of THE NIGHT BIRD with Reginald Denny. Videobrary used to have a number of Sennett Educationals available on VHS.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Rob King
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Re: Availability of Sennett Educationals

Postby Rob King » Sat Jan 02, 2010 2:12 pm

Thanks again, Richard. I guess I'll schedule an LoC trip ca. the upcoming Slapsticon.

Rob Farr
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Re: Availability of Sennett Educationals

Postby Rob Farr » Sat Jan 02, 2010 3:32 pm

A decent version of The Bee's Buzz can be found on the Internet Archive and the MP2 version can be burned to DVD.
Rob Farr
"If it's not comedy, I fall asleep" - Harpo Marx

Brent Walker
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Re: Availability of Sennett Educationals

Postby Brent Walker » Sat Jan 02, 2010 4:55 pm

Eddie Brandt's Saturday Matinee (in North Hollywood, CA) has many Educationals on VHS from the very early Videobrary, which you can rent from them mail order for $5/10 each. (Not the greatest copies, but this was where I saw a lot of them before I saw the Atlas Television prints at LOC.) Besides the Grapevines, and Dream House with Bing Crosby which is out on one of the Kino Big Band/Music sets (along with a couple of the Paramount Sennett Crosbys), there aren't a whole lot of Sennett Educationals available.

Archive.org does have one of the early talkies THE OLD BARN available for viewing/download, however:

http://www.archive.org/details/old_barn

Your best best however, as Richard mentioned, is the Zouary Collection at LOC.

Rob King
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Re: Availability of Sennett Educationals

Postby Rob King » Sat Jan 02, 2010 5:52 pm

Thanks, Rob. And thanks, Brent (congrats, too, on the Sennett book - I'm waiting to see how long it takes for a four-pound book to make it through Canadian customs!).
I'm downloading both of these films now. Steve Massa showed me The Bees' Buzz last year. The Old Barn I've never seen. Judging from some of the scripting materials I've seen at Herrick, it looks like TOB interestingly incorporates sound into one of Sennett's oldest comic devices - the burlesque melodrama based on a mistaken apprehension of danger (Help! Help! and Bangville Police, for ex.).
Only one hour and forty five minutes of downloading time to find out ...


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