Steve Gann1913 Abraham Lincoln Film Found In Barn Loft
April 14th 2010 02:46
The 30 minute film entitled "When Lincoln Paid," follows the story of the mother of a dead Union soldier asking Lincoln to pardon a Confederate soldier whom she had initially turned in during the war.
Peter Massie, who found this film along with seven others, contacted nearby Keene State College, where film professor Larry Benaquist thought it was a rare find.
After working with the George Eastman House film preservation museum in Rochester, N.Y., the college determined that the film did not exist in film archives. In fact, it was one of eight silent films starring Ford as Lincoln. Sadly there are no known surviving copies of the other films..
"The vast majority of silent films are gone," said Caroline Frick Page, curator of motion pictures at George Eastman House. "That's what makes these stories so incredibly special."
Benaquist said the images themselves were well preserved, likely because they endured decades of New England winters in the barn, which also was well sheltered by trees. Nitrate film, which was phased out in Hollywood in the 1950s, is highly flammable. The 35 mm film itself had shrunk and the sprocket holes used on projectors were shredded.
Francis Ford, who died in 1953 at age 72, is better known for small, mostly comic roles in at least 30 of his younger brother's films, "often playing a coonskin drunk who can spit across the room," said Tag Gallagher, author of the book "John Ford."
Incredibly IMDB credits Ford with nearly 500 acting credits in his longtime acting career that spanned five decades.
Keene College is preparing to show the film this month. I hope one day this film is available to the general public as it is more than a film but a historical document.
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