It’s hard to describe the emotion of that moment when something new pops up, in a long and slow search for information from 100+ years ago; but, use your imagination.
The initial thrill is always slightly tempered by the knowledge (or at least suspicion) that many of these articles were written by someone in the press office promoting an upcoming film, and may have had little input from the man himself; still, when an interview with Rupert turns up, including a bit of background on his career up to that point (also hard to verify), I do get a little excited…
I came across a quote from this article when someone updated Elsie Jane Wilson’s Wikipedia page recently, and set out to find a copy of it if I could.
To be honest, I’ve focussed more on Rupert’s work on this site because he was the one I first heard about, who piqued my interest initially because I was living in New Zealand at the time (and we seemed to share a birthday, give or take 90 years or so, too).
But over time I’ve learned more about Elsie and her career, and with some new research & work around early women filmmakers from the silent era in recent years there’s been more and more info out there about her and her contemporaries. Plus, I live in Sydney now, where she was born and grew up—I believe—so I’ve often wondered if I might find out more about her here than I had been able to previously…
Over on Rupert's Facebook page, I got a note from another silent-era-obsessed researcher named JL Barnett, who sent me this - MAGNIFICENT - image of Rupert with actor Charlie Gemora, about whom I knew very little...
During the more sedately spiritual Krotona occupation, the front building housed a kitchen, dining room, vegetarian cafeteria and lecture rooms until Krotona relocated to Ojai in 1924. The building, then called the Krotona Court, was designed by San Diego-based architecture firm of Mead & Requa. Every era at Krotona seems to bring a fresh interpretation of the Theosophical Society’s mission: to explore the inexplicable...
I got a little excited about this one - it's not every day a new image of Rupert crosses my desk! Just at a guess, I'd say this one is probably from around 1914-15, when he was an up & coming actor in Hollywood, but not the moustached director he would become later...
Just wanted to call attention to another addition to the (marvellous!) NZ On Screen site, where my good friend Barbara from the (marvellous!) Turnbull Library in New Zealand has written a biography of Kiwi actor Winter Hall...
While we're on the topic of things that should be saved, it's been announced recently that Melbourne's Astor Theatre is going to close next year when their lease expires, after negotiations with their landlord broke down...
Came across this just yesterday - a campaign to save Stage 28, the original soundstage built to house the Paris Opera sets for Rupert's Phantom Of The Opera during early production in 1924.
Not directly Rupert-related, but here's an interesting story of JC Williamson's early career, and move to Australia, from the Stage Whispers site...
I'm launching this site today to coincide with the arrival of Rupert's biography on the NZ On Screen site - you might notice it's quite similar to the biography here, which is obviously because I wrote both of them!
