13th Annual Broncho Billy SIlent Film Festival June 25, 2010

We are proud to present our 13th Annual Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival in our historic 1913 Edison Theater.

This year's festival includes:
- A variety of silent films made in 1910 including films from the western and Chicago Essanay studios
- Silent films made in the Bay Area
- Rare rediscovered features from the archives

All films are accompanied by outstanding pianists from the Bay Area, Chicago, and New York.

Fortune and fate, bad turns and lucky breaks– not to mention drama, romance and plenty of laughs - carry through the weekend in films we’re lucky to have for you.

We kick it off with Bell Boy 13 (1923) starring Douglas MacLean, Margaret Loomis and Essanay actors John Steppling and Harry Todd. We’ll also be screening The Lottery Man, a 1916 film directed by Theodore Wharton who had previously worked at the Chicago Essanay studio. Of special note, Oliver Hardy, years before he was to star with Stan Laurel, plays a female cook in an important minor role.

We’re lucky to be able to present Just Squaw, a 1919 feature starring Beatriz Michelena and made in San Rafael and Boulder Creek, CA. Although the surviving footage is less than half its original length and some of it is damaged by deterioration, the story is still remarkably intact. We’re pairing this film with a rare Texas Guinan feature, The Gun Woman, directed by Frank Borzage and featuring another strong female character at its center.

We’re also pleased to present two features from the Edison Film Company: The Customary Two Weeks (1917) and The Innocence of Ruth (1916), the latter starring Viola Dana directed by her husband John Collins, whose notable career was cut short by his death from the flu in 1918.

Along with these feature films, you’ll see plenty of shorts, including rare early aviation footage and 100th anniversary films from both Essanay’s Chicago studio and its Western company which filmed in Colorado, Texas and California. Among these are ten films directed by G.M. “Broncho Billy” Anderson himself.

We hope you’ll join us to experience all these treasures of early American film shown the way they were meant to be seen: in an authentic 1913 nickelodeon theater, accompanied by live music.

The programs begin with an 8:00 show on Friday evening, with two afternoon shows and an evening show on both Saturday and Sunday. An event pass that lets you into all the shows is available for $50. Afternoon show tickets are $8, evening show tickets are $10. Passes and tickets are available on our web site through PayPal.

WE hope to see you there!