Movie Night at Jean & John's
It's difficult to know what's going to happen when I stop by Jean and John's place. I never know what other characters may show up or what new treasures have been retrieved from an estate sale or the neighbor's trash bin. I expect they will be up to their usual verbal shenanigans where they suck me into a completely asinine conversation until I catch on and yell at them to knock it off.
One night while I was over, they were having fun trying to bait me when John decided it was time to bring out some things he had recently unearthed at an estate sale in Beverly Hills. John has spent years going through what other people want to unload and he knows what to look for and how to find it. Often the reason for an estate sale is that the home owner has passed away. In such an instance it is not unusual for the sale to be overseen by one of the former owner's children who has little knowledge of the items left behind; particularly those that are old and rare.
When John's at an estate sale and there's nothing special set out on the driveway, if he senses there's quality inside the house, he'll figure a way to get in. It might require buying some cheap thing he doesn't want and coming back later to pick it up when the sale is over; or maybe an urgent need for a glass of water so he can take his heart medicine. Whatever it takes, he'll usually manage to get inside.
Once inside, more often than not his hunch proves to be correct. When John finds something that interests him and asks about it, the seller will say, "Oh, that old thing?" They then tell John they never thought to put it out for sale because (1) they didn't think anyone would want it; (2) they weren't sure what it was; or (3), they were first going to ask Uncle Mortie if he wanted it. John explains he'd like it despite the fact that the item has little if any value because he has an old war buddy with a soft spot for that sort of thing. When John places the bills into the seller's hand they realize they don't care what it is after all; and besides, Uncle Mortie's in Tanganyika.
The seller then tells John there are more dusty old things they never thought to make part of the estate sale and before you know it they are leading John to the storage shed, the attic or the basement where the really good stuff has been sitting for half a century. Watching John do his thing is a real treat.
That evening John came back into the living room with a movie projector and a box with reels of 16 mm film. The projector weighed at least thirty pounds and had a production date stamped on it that I have forgotten but I do recall being amazed that it was prior to 1920. I've tried googling it and the closest thing to it I could find is shown below.
Photo from pinterest.com
In school I had messed around a bit making movies and John wanted me to take a look at the thing. I told John straight off there was no chance that the bulb would still be good, or that a replacement bulb could ever be found. A minute or so later we plugged it in, hit the toggle switch and I sat there dumbfounded as the projector's light came on. Whatever produced the light was housed in a metal box at the rear of the projector along with a fan that gave out a constant roar. The box was constructed of forged iron and became as hot as a stove top despite the efforts of the fan to cool things down.
We positioned the projector so the light shown on the living room wall above the roll top desk. I took a reel of film from one of the cans, threaded the film through the various spools and gates, and attached it to the take up reel. I hit the toggle switch to run the film and it ran smoothly through the projector. However, when I saw that the image produced on the wall was a total blur, I realized the projector was missing its lens. We looked in the box with the film cans but came up empty.
Since the bulb still worked anything now seemed possible, so John started bringing me glasses from the kitchen. It wasn't long before a simple empty jar from New Zealand (Jean being from there) that once held marmalade brought the images on the wall into focus. Unfortunately the image was upside down. Hardly discouraged by this John continued supplying me with various glass items until combined with the marmalade jar we had things not only in focus but right side up. The second glass piece that made the whole thing work was a clear paper weight magnifier shaped like a dome. We taped the two pieces to the top of a chair back, placed it in front of the projector and began to explore what awaited us on the reels of film.
The films were all black and white with no soundtrack but it was soon obvious that some of them were home movies taken by a well-to-do family during the early 1900s. The family consisted of a dozen adults wearing turn-of-the-century finery and traipsing around outside an enormous house they had either just bought or had built in Newport, Rhode Island.
The house was the size of a resort, sat a football field back from the shore, and its closest neighbor looked to be at least a half mile away. The lot surrounding the house was the size of Disneyland and had been freshly graded. It was all dirt without a single blade of grass. They took turns pointing in various directions and appeared to be rambling on at length about what one would assume were plans for the tennis courts, the polo field and landscaping. They seemed uncommonly at ease and gave no notice of being in front of a camera. The person filming them was known to them all and they frequently turned and spoke to him and as a result directly into the camera as well. This produced a surprisingly intimate affect considering we were separated in time by some ninety years, yet there they were on Jean and John's living room wall sharing with us their excitement about their new home.
The following reel had them out on the family yacht dressed to the nines entertaining guests with an elaborate shindig. We began to wonder if the family name might be Du Pont, Astor or Vanderbilt. The boat shown below is 104 feet long and is nearly identical to the one in the home movie.
It was then that John handed me what turned out to be the sole reason he had picked up the projector and the box of films. It was a small reel of film with a hand-written label on it that read "The Blue Nun".
I asked, "What's this?"
John said, "Have you ever heard of it?"
I said, "Isn't there a wine named Blue Nun?"
John said, "Could be, I wouldn't know."
I said, "So what is this thing?"
John said, "I can't be sure but it could be big."
I said, "Big like what?"
John said, "I don't remember where I first heard it but there's been a old rumor making the rounds of the movie business for decades. The rumor claims that a young, down-on-her-luck aspiring actress named Ava Gardner once appeared in a stag film called The Blue Nun."
I said, "No shit?"
John said, "Last week I'm in this lady's garage, takin' my time looking through the cans of film with her lookin' over my shoulder when I see the 'The Blue Nun' on the label of one of the cans. I put it down as soon as I read it like it meant nothin' and walk away from the box. Ten minutes later I'm paying her for a watch that's a piece of junk and I ask her what does she want for the projector and the films. She said she'd take $20. I tell her I've only got $6 dollars left and she says, 'sold'."
Photo from tumblr.com
I threaded the film onto the projector and started to run it. The hand written title came up clear as a bell on the leader but when the first scene opened we couldn't make out anything. I stopped the projector and took a look at the film. It looked like normal black and white 16 mm film at first but then I discovered that it was a negative print. Everything that was white showed as black; and everything black showed as white. I started up the projector again and we watched the whole thing.
It was impossible to distinguish gender let alone spot a young Ava. There was plenty of action but it was very disorienting. We had fun arguing over who was doing what to whom, with what, how and where; but none of us really had any idea what we were looking at. There were times when we were fairly certain that someone in a nun's habit was involved because the screen would turn completely white except for an odd shaped black image that would float about that we figured was the bib.
When the film ended John asked, "What do we do now? Can we get a regular film made from this negative?"
I said, "I don't really know. I've never seen anything like this before. Maybe it's the way films used to be processed in the 1930s. If it is, I imagine the processing equipment would be hard, if not impossible to find. In any case you'd have to find a place willing to develop it and then you might be looking at legal issues regarding copyright or something like that."
John said, "I know exactly what to do. I'll take it all to the swap meet. Sooner or later, somebody will come along and also pretend not to notice 'The Blue Nun' sitting in that box. God knows what they'll be willing to pay for it."
One night while I was over, they were having fun trying to bait me when John decided it was time to bring out some things he had recently unearthed at an estate sale in Beverly Hills. John has spent years going through what other people want to unload and he knows what to look for and how to find it. Often the reason for an estate sale is that the home owner has passed away. In such an instance it is not unusual for the sale to be overseen by one of the former owner's children who has little knowledge of the items left behind; particularly those that are old and rare.
When John's at an estate sale and there's nothing special set out on the driveway, if he senses there's quality inside the house, he'll figure a way to get in. It might require buying some cheap thing he doesn't want and coming back later to pick it up when the sale is over; or maybe an urgent need for a glass of water so he can take his heart medicine. Whatever it takes, he'll usually manage to get inside.
Once inside, more often than not his hunch proves to be correct. When John finds something that interests him and asks about it, the seller will say, "Oh, that old thing?" They then tell John they never thought to put it out for sale because (1) they didn't think anyone would want it; (2) they weren't sure what it was; or (3), they were first going to ask Uncle Mortie if he wanted it. John explains he'd like it despite the fact that the item has little if any value because he has an old war buddy with a soft spot for that sort of thing. When John places the bills into the seller's hand they realize they don't care what it is after all; and besides, Uncle Mortie's in Tanganyika.
The seller then tells John there are more dusty old things they never thought to make part of the estate sale and before you know it they are leading John to the storage shed, the attic or the basement where the really good stuff has been sitting for half a century. Watching John do his thing is a real treat.
That evening John came back into the living room with a movie projector and a box with reels of 16 mm film. The projector weighed at least thirty pounds and had a production date stamped on it that I have forgotten but I do recall being amazed that it was prior to 1920. I've tried googling it and the closest thing to it I could find is shown below.
Photo from pinterest.comWe positioned the projector so the light shown on the living room wall above the roll top desk. I took a reel of film from one of the cans, threaded the film through the various spools and gates, and attached it to the take up reel. I hit the toggle switch to run the film and it ran smoothly through the projector. However, when I saw that the image produced on the wall was a total blur, I realized the projector was missing its lens. We looked in the box with the film cans but came up empty.
Since the bulb still worked anything now seemed possible, so John started bringing me glasses from the kitchen. It wasn't long before a simple empty jar from New Zealand (Jean being from there) that once held marmalade brought the images on the wall into focus. Unfortunately the image was upside down. Hardly discouraged by this John continued supplying me with various glass items until combined with the marmalade jar we had things not only in focus but right side up. The second glass piece that made the whole thing work was a clear paper weight magnifier shaped like a dome. We taped the two pieces to the top of a chair back, placed it in front of the projector and began to explore what awaited us on the reels of film.
The films were all black and white with no soundtrack but it was soon obvious that some of them were home movies taken by a well-to-do family during the early 1900s. The family consisted of a dozen adults wearing turn-of-the-century finery and traipsing around outside an enormous house they had either just bought or had built in Newport, Rhode Island.
Photo from americanillustration.org
Photo from pinterest.com
The following reel had them out on the family yacht dressed to the nines entertaining guests with an elaborate shindig. We began to wonder if the family name might be Du Pont, Astor or Vanderbilt. The boat shown below is 104 feet long and is nearly identical to the one in the home movie.
Photo from Mathis Yacht Building Company
It was then that John handed me what turned out to be the sole reason he had picked up the projector and the box of films. It was a small reel of film with a hand-written label on it that read "The Blue Nun".
I asked, "What's this?"
John said, "Have you ever heard of it?"
I said, "Isn't there a wine named Blue Nun?"
John said, "Could be, I wouldn't know."
I said, "So what is this thing?"
John said, "I can't be sure but it could be big."
I said, "Big like what?"
John said, "I don't remember where I first heard it but there's been a old rumor making the rounds of the movie business for decades. The rumor claims that a young, down-on-her-luck aspiring actress named Ava Gardner once appeared in a stag film called The Blue Nun."
I said, "No shit?"
John said, "Last week I'm in this lady's garage, takin' my time looking through the cans of film with her lookin' over my shoulder when I see the 'The Blue Nun' on the label of one of the cans. I put it down as soon as I read it like it meant nothin' and walk away from the box. Ten minutes later I'm paying her for a watch that's a piece of junk and I ask her what does she want for the projector and the films. She said she'd take $20. I tell her I've only got $6 dollars left and she says, 'sold'."
Photo from tumblr.comI threaded the film onto the projector and started to run it. The hand written title came up clear as a bell on the leader but when the first scene opened we couldn't make out anything. I stopped the projector and took a look at the film. It looked like normal black and white 16 mm film at first but then I discovered that it was a negative print. Everything that was white showed as black; and everything black showed as white. I started up the projector again and we watched the whole thing.
It was impossible to distinguish gender let alone spot a young Ava. There was plenty of action but it was very disorienting. We had fun arguing over who was doing what to whom, with what, how and where; but none of us really had any idea what we were looking at. There were times when we were fairly certain that someone in a nun's habit was involved because the screen would turn completely white except for an odd shaped black image that would float about that we figured was the bib.
When the film ended John asked, "What do we do now? Can we get a regular film made from this negative?"
I said, "I don't really know. I've never seen anything like this before. Maybe it's the way films used to be processed in the 1930s. If it is, I imagine the processing equipment would be hard, if not impossible to find. In any case you'd have to find a place willing to develop it and then you might be looking at legal issues regarding copyright or something like that."
John said, "I know exactly what to do. I'll take it all to the swap meet. Sooner or later, somebody will come along and also pretend not to notice 'The Blue Nun' sitting in that box. God knows what they'll be willing to pay for it."