Living, as we do, in the age of Apple TV and Netflicks the whole idea of being able to watch a film that is twenty years old does not seem to be a terribly queer idea. Yet for the folks who first read the attached Delineator Magazine article from 1937, it was a time when there weren't any motion picture revival theaters whatever; once a film had left the local theater, it was indeed gone and highly unlikely to be seen again. The reigning film studios were not likely to establish a public repository for such purposes; they are always interested in tomorrow's movies, not yesterday's. This article is about the 1935 founding of the Museum of Modern Art Film Library.
"The plan of preserving films as historical data was hatched by the officers of New York's Museum of Modern Art, under the wing of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.."
The article makes reference to all the Hollywood silent film pioneers who also played a part in helping the film library.
Below are a few lines concerning a short-lived motion picture
museum that once struggled in the city of Los Angeles:
- from Amazon:
