Audiobook11 hours
Silent Serial Sensations: The Wharton Brothers and the Magic of Early Cinema
Written by Barbara Tepa Lupack
Narrated by Tanya Eby
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
()
About this audiobook
A new, must-listen book about filmmakers Ted and Leo Wharton, whose serials become popular in the 1910s.
Related to Silent Serial Sensations
Related audiobooks
Opening Wednesday at a Theater Or Drive-In Near You: The Shadow Cinema of the American '70s Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love and Let Die: James Bond, The Beatles, and the British Psyche Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsImprov Nation: How We Made a Great American Art Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures: A True Tale of Obsession, Murder, and the Movies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940's Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln's Ghost Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing John Wayne: The Making of the Conqueror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stanford White and Madison Square Garden: The Shocking History of New York City’s Most Notorious Architect and Most Famous Arena Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Front Page: Hollywood Stage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo Thoroughfare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMeeting of Minds: Volume II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales from Sketches by Boz Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSun and Saddle Leather Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Blue Laboratory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dead Letter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Open Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Christmas Carol: By Charles Dickens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnStuck: Rebirth of an American Icon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Icons of Rock: In Their Own Words Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarilyn Monroe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Game Is Afoot: The Enduring World of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Don't Have a Happy Place: Cheerful Stories of Despondency and Gloom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 042 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlfred Hitchcock’s Legendary Leading Ladies: The Lives of Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, Joan Fontaine, and Kim Novak Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll in All: An Actor's Life On and Off the Stage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales to Remember Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDe Profundis (version 2) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Performing Arts For You
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Being Henry: The Fonz . . . and Beyond Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Create: Tools from Seriously Talented People to Unleash Your Creative Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Swingtime for Hitler: Goebbels’s Jazzmen, Tokyo Rose, and Propaganda That Carries a Tune Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Birth of The Endless Summer: A Surf Odyssey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bel Canto Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Is this Anything? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Macbeth: Fully Dramatized Audio Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hamlet: Fully Dramatized Audio Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Storytelling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer Night's Dream: Fully Dramatized Audio Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grapes of Wrath Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jim Gaffigan: Quality Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Julius Caesar: A Fully-Dramatized Audio Production From Folger Theatre Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5NPR Funniest Driveway Moments: Radio Stories That Won't Let You Go Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dracula (dramatic reading) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Power of Myth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When I Was Your Age: Life Lessons, Funny Stories & Questionable Parenting Advice From a Professional Clown Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Life in Parts Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Save the Cat! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dirty Daddy: The Chronicles of a Family Man Turned Filthy Comedian Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pure Drivel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Silent Serial Sensations
Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars
5/5
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Silent Serial Sensations: The Wharton Brothers and The Magic of Early Cinema, literature and film scholar Barbara Tepa Lupack argues, “In the early 1910s, the Wharton brothers established a successful independent production studio in Ithaca, New York, where they created some of the most acclaimed and highest-grossing films of the decade. Those popular serials, which aroused the enthusiasm of audiences worldwide, played a vital role in the evolution of cinema as a mass medium and as a form of entertainment for people of all ages and backgrounds; and they became forerunners of today’s ubiquitous crime and mystery procedurals and sensation-filled commercial blockbusters” (pg. xi).In their short films, Lupack writes, “The Whartons spoke directly to the concerns of their age and to the interests of their audiences” (pg. 13). These themes included the New Woman and feminism of the early twentieth century, particularly through shorts with women protagonists such as The Exploits of Elaine from 1914-1915 (pg. 84). Works like The Mysteries of Myra (1916) blended sexuality with the occult (pgs. 132-133, 146-147). The Wharton brothers similarly tapped into fears of war and sabotage as Europe erupted into conflict (pgs. 165, 211, 219). Like many films from this period, a great deal of the Wharton’s work was lost to time, so Lupack bases her close readings of the films on any extant clips, the archived scripts, and production photographs.Filming in New York, the Whartons made extensive use of the varied geography surrounding Ithaca and the Finger Lakes region (pgs. 52, 54, 69). Upstate New York offered further benefits due to its proximity to New York City and New Jersey, then the headquarters of the American film industry (pgs. 22-23). Unfortunately, following World War I, the film industry moved out west to Los Angeles (pg. 227). This, combined with the Whartons’ own financial woes once they went fully independent, ended both their business and the film industry in Ithaca (pg. 237).