Clara Bow, 1927

Norma Shearer and Irving Thalberg aboard a ship traveling to Europe, circa 1930.

After 101 years – and a $20 find at a yard sale – Clara Bow’s lost film premieres

The Pill Pounder, one of the key titles in the CV of the iconic flapper, has enjoyed a belated revival at the San Francisco Silent film festival

Film-maker Gary Huggins inadvertently snapped up a slice of lost silent film history at an auction in a car park in Omaha, Nebraska, that was selling old stock from a distribution company called Modern Sound Pictures. Hoping to bid on a copy of the 1926 comedy Eve’s Leaves that he had spotted on top of a pile, Huggins was informed that he could only buy the whole pallet of movies, not individual cans. The upside? The lot was his for only $20. 

Huggins soon discovered that his new pile of reels included 1923’s The Pill Pounder, a silent comedy that had been thought to be lost for decades. It is a short, two-reel film, shot on Long Island, New York, and directed by Gregory La Cava, best known for later classics such as My Man Godfrey (1936) and Stage Door (1937).

Judy Garland

I disappear sometimes. It’s my thing.

favourite movies wached in 2023

3. Mildred Pierce (1945) dir. Michael Curtiz

It's your fault I'm the way I am.

Norma Shearer and John Gilbert in He Who Gets Slapped (1924)

sandwiches of the stars, 1929

the clara bow sandwich: jumbo sardines with vinegar mixed with chopped hardboiled eggs on rye, with a pickle ($0.50);

the charlie chaplin sandwich: camembert, roquefort, and sierra cheese on buttered rye ($0.60);

the pola negri sandwich: creamed chicken on toast with parmesan cheese and paprika ($0.75);

the gloria swanson sandwich: egg and sweet corn omelette between buttered toast ($0.40);

the virginia lee sandwich: chicken and tomato on toast with mayonnaise and french dressing ($0.65)

May Sarton, from Journal of a Solitude [ID in alt text]