This page presents an annotated bibliography of articles, reviews, blogs and other pieces (including program notes, interviews, talks, etc…) by Thomas Gladysz, all of which relate to silent film or the early sound era. It is hoped that some of these pieces may prove of interest to individuals wishing to find out more about a favorite actor or film. This is a select bibliography. Not included here, for the most part, are articles about past screenings or other ephemeral happenings. (Also not included here are pieces about Louise Brooks and her films; those pieces can be found HERE.) This bibliography stretches all the way back to 1984, with the newest citations listed first. Many, if not most entries are linked to their place of publication. However, a handful pieces may no longer be found online, especially those written for the now shuttered Open/Salon and examiner.com, and SFGate (the website of the San Francisco Chronicle). Please note: many, if not most, of my old examiner.com pieces are archived on NewsBank, a database available through local and academic libraries.
“Florid in a Good Way: Herbert Brenon’s The Spanish Dancer (1923).” Film International, December 16, 2023.
— DVD review
“HE Who Gets Slapped.” Paramount Theater, October 23, 2023.
— introduction to the Lon Chaney film at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, Washington
“The Unexpected Raymond Griffith.” Film International, September 20, 2023.
— DVD review
“All Quiet on the Western Front.” Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium, September 2023.
— program essay
“Marion Davies’ Slow-Burn Revival:Zander the Great (1925) and Beverly of Graustark (1926).” Film International, May 28, 2022.
— DVD reviews
“Wings.” Cleveland Silent Film Festival and Colloquium, February 2022.
— program essay
“WINGS to screen at Cleveland Silent Film Festival,” Cleveland Patch, February 11, 2022.
— local interest article
“Buster Keaton’s Genius, Derailed: The Cameraman (Criterion Collection).” Film International, July 6, 2020.
— review of a Buster Keaton DVD release
“(Re) Considering Rudolph Valentino.” Film International, March 4, 2020.
— review of three new DVD releases
“Marion Davies: Gifted Actress and Impossible Boy.” Film International, December 23, 2019.
— article on the film actress
“Behind the Black Velvet Curtain: Louise Brooks and Rudolph Valentino.” August 23, 2019.
— keynote address at the 92nd Valentino Memorial Service
“Keeping Time with Timothy Brock.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Summer, 2019.
— interview with the conductor / composer in the Festival program
“Mendocino Made Film to show at San Francisco Silent Film Festival.” Ukiah Daily Journal, April 30, 2019.
— article in local newspaper
“The Real Stan and Ollie.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Winter, 2018.
— program essay
“The Musical Mind of Guenter Buchwald.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Summer, 2018.
— interview with the German musician in the Festival program
“It’s The Old Army Game – W.C. Fields and Louise Brooks in Ocala Florida.” Silent Locations, July, 2018.
— I contributed to a three part series on John Bengtson’s film blog
“San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2018: A Transformative Cinematic Experience .” PopMatters, May 30, 2018.
— festival preview
“The Beginnings of Fritz Lang.” Louise Brooks Society blog, April 3, 2018.
— review of a DVD box set
“Pola Negri: Her films were silent. She wasn’t.” Huffington Post, December 4, 2017.
— article on the film actress
“Rescuing the Past: The Fall and Rise of Silent Film.” Huffington Post, November 30, 2017.
— article
“The Case for Marion Davies.” Huffington Post, November 22, 2017.
— article on the film actress
“Before Hollywood, there was Fort Lee, New Jersey.” Huffington Post, September 22, 2017.
— article
“Two Film Historians and Their Lifelong Labor of Love.” Huffington Post, September 6, 2017.
— article
“Laurel & Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies.” Huffington Post, November 21, 2016.
— sometimes I have unlikely readers (see Mark Hamill’s tweet
“New Book Surveys Jules Verne on Film.” Huffington Post, October 27, 2016.
— book review
“getTV Premieres Rare Cary Grant film.” Huffington Post, May 4, 2016.
— article, cited in Edwin M. Bradley’s Hollywood Musicals You Missed: Seventy Noteworthy Films from the 1930s (McFarland, 2020)
“I Like Una Merkel, Helen Twelvetrees, and Sally Phipps.” Huffington Post, March 10, 2016.
— book reviews
Best Films Books of 2015.” Huffington Post, November 23, 2015.
— this article, like each of my annual Best Books of the Year pieces, received some positive attention (see pair of tweets to right)
“Lulu-mania Sweeps New York City.” Huffington Post, November 9, 2015.
— article
“Danger and Desire: 6 Great Lulus.” Huffington Post, November 9, 2015.
— article
“The Return of Baby Peggy — The Last Silent Film Star.” Huffington Post, October 21, 2015.
— article
“William Gillette and the Making of SHERLOCK HOLMES.” EatDrinkFilms, May 22, 2015.
— article on the first actor to play Sherlock Holmes on film
“Our Ramona at Our Silent Film Festival.” Huffington Post, May 27, 2014.
— article
“New book: John Wayne the Life and Legend,” examiner.com, April 2, 2014.
— article on John Wayne the Life and Legend, by Scott Eyman
“He Who Gets Slapped.” Ebertfest (16th Annual Roger Ebert Film Festival), April 2014.
— slight variant of my earlier essay
“Lost Movie by First Film Superstar Found.” Huffington Post, October 3, 2013.
— article about a Mary Pickford film
“The Patsy.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival, 2013.
— program essay in festival booklet about the Marion Davies film
“Alma Rubens: A Marked Woman.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival, 2013.
— feature piece in festival booklet
“Last Edition screens again at SF Silent Film Fest.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, July 19, 2013.
— article about a film restoration
“Mary Pickford event at Rafael Film Center.” San Rafael Patch, January 30, 2013.
— article
“Q & A with Christel Schmidt, editor of Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, January 29, 2013.
— interview with a film historian
“Marguerite Clark: America’s Darling of Broadway and the Silent Screen.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, January 10, 2013.
— blog piece on the early film star
“Actor Paul McGann Talks about Silent Film.” SFGate, July 11, 2012.
— interview with the eighth Doctor Who
“Jim Tully takes Hollywood, again.” examiner.com, October 10, 2012.
— the text of this piece on the hobo writer has been archived here
“Salomy Jane: Once Lost Silent Film Returns to Marin.” San Rafael Patch, September 25, 2012.
— article on the silent film
“Once Lost Film Returns to Bay Area.” Huffington Post, September 19, 2012.
— article on Salomy Jane, cited in Jeremy Geltzer’s Film Censorship in America: A State-by-State History (McFarland, 2017)
“Silent film star recalls 1924 Democratic Convention.” Open Salon, September 5, 2012.
— a Salon editor’s pick, and one of the most viewed pieces on Salon that day; the text of the piece has been archived here
“A Hollywood Fairy Tale Gone Wrong.” Huffington Post, September 4, 2012.
— article on Baby Peggy
“Frank Thompson’s The Commentary Track reveals film history.” examiner.com, August 19, 2012.
— the text of the piece has been archived here
“Peter Pan shows in Vacaville.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, August 11, 2012.
— article on the Herbert Brenon film
“Wings.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Summer 2012.
— program essay in festival booklet; cited in Laura Horak’s Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934 (Rutgers University Press, 2016)
“Film historian Jeffrey Vance talks about Douglas Fairbanks.” San Francisco Chronicle, July 8, 2012.
— footnoted in the book found here, and reprinted on the website of the Douglas Fairbanks Museum
“Could WINGS have been a 3-D film?” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, June 11, 2012.
— see also related posts on June 13th “Newspaper advertisements for WINGS,” June 14th “WINGS See it at popular prices“, and June 17th “WINGS with sensational sound effects”
“Laurel y Hardy en Español.” San Francisco Chronicle, May 10, 2012.
— article
“Historic Bay Area Film to Screen in Niles.” Union City Patch, February 23, 2012.
— article
“Dizzy Heights: Silent Cinema and Life in the Air.” Berkeley Patch, February 20, 2012.
— article
“Napoleon: A Lost Masterpiece Returns.” Huffington Post, February 13, 2012.
— article
“Howard Hawks Retrospective in Berkeley.” Huffington Post, January 11, 2012.
— article
“Silent era screenwriter Frederica Sagor Maas dies at age 111.” examiner.com, January 8, 2012.
— article
“Oscar-Winner Kevin Brownlow Continues His Labour on Behalf of Cinema.” Huffington Post, December 2, 2011.
— article
“Susan Orlean talks Rin Tin Tin.” San Francisco Chronicle, October 26, 2011.
— article on a book
“Theda Bara – the first movie vamp.” examiner.com, October 19, 2011.
— article
“Director John Huston – the story of a story-teller revealed in new book.” San Francisco Chronicle, September 28, 2011.
— article
“Once banned film resurfaces 90 years after scandal.” Open Salon, August 25, 2011.
— my second piece on Open Salon, and my first Salon editor’s pick
“Harold Lloyd featured at Niles.” examiner.com, August 18, 2011.
— article
“John Bengtson, archeologist of early cinema.” San Francisco Chronicle, August 17, 2011.
— article
“Walt Disney’s silent inspirations.” San Francisco Chronicle, August 9, 2011.
— article
“The return of Baby Peggy, the last silent film star.” Open Salon, August 4, 2011.
— article
“He Who Gets Slapped.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Summer 2011.
— my essay in the festival program was praised from the stage of the Castro Theater by the Academy Award winning director Alexander Payne; it was later reprinted by EbertFest and the Telluride film festival
“Reading the stars: books from old Hollywood.” San Francisco Chronicle, June 27, 2011.
— article about my San Francisco Public Library exhibit
“Jim Tully Revival: Hobo Author Back in Print.”Huffington Post, December 8, 2010.
— article
“Two New Releases Show Genius of Charlie Chaplin.” Huffington Post, November 24, 2010.
— article
“Early film star Baby Marie dies at age 99.” examiner.com, November 17, 2010.
— my related piece “Baby Marie Osborne in San Francisco” appeared on the San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog
“Valley of the Giants.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, October 26, 2010.
— blog on the 1919 film starring Wallace Reid
“Rin Tin Tin saves the day.” examiner.com, October 2, 2010.
— this piece was archived on nitrateville.com
“Joan of Arc film to be shown here.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, September 30, 2010.
— article
“The Remarkable Life of Valeska Gert.”Huffington Post, September 24, 2010.
— article on the German dancer and actress
“Rare Oscar to a Film Historian… and the Award Goes to Kevin Brownlow.” Huffington Post, August 31, 2010.
— article
“The Secret Historian and the Silent Film Star: One Was Gay.”Huffington Post, August 31, 2010.
— commented on by New York Times critic Dave Kehr; referenced on the Smithsonian magazine blog; and cited in Joseph A. Boone’s The Homoerotics of Orientalism (Columbia University Press, 2014) and Susan Potter’s Queer Timing: The Emergence of Lesbian Sexuality in Early Cinema (University of Illinois Press, 2019); this article led the publisher, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, to revise later editions of the book
“Sir Arne’s Treasure, with the Mountain Goats, in December.” examiner.com, August 16, 2010.
— this piece was archived on nitrateville.com
“New Chaplin book by Kevin Brownlow.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, August 15, 2010.
— article
“G.W. Pabst: A Film Director for All Seasons.”Huffington Post, July 13, 2010.
— article on the German director
“The Return of Norma Talmadge.” examiner.com, July 5, 2010.
— article
“Daisy D’Ora, one-time German actress, dies at age 97.” examiner.com, June 27, 2010.
— article
“This handsome fellow.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, June 26, 2010.
— blog on actor George O’Brien
“Remembering H.A.V. Bulleid, Author and Pioneering Film Historian.” Huffington Post, June 14, 2010.
— article
“Georges Méliès – Cinemagician of early movies.” examiner.com, April 23, 2010.
— this DVD review was archived on nitrateville.com
“Starstruck: Vintage Movie Posters from Classic Hollywood.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, April 20, 2010.
— book review
“Celebrating silent film star Baby Peggy.” examiner.com, April 15, 2010.
— this piece was archived on nitrateville.com
“A Century of Cinema (in Sacramento).” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, March 31, 2010.
— blog article
“New book on silent mystery and detective movies.” examiner.com, March 23, 2010.
— this piece was archived on nitrateville.com
“Anna May Wong.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, March 22, 2010.
— blog on the actress
“Silent-era actress Dorothy Janis dies at age 100.” examiner.com, March 12, 2010.
“Mack Sennett’s fun factory.” examiner.com, March 9, 2010.
— book review, acknowledged on the Mack Sennett blog
“The personal touch, with smallpox.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, March 2, 2010.
— blog piece about movie theaters and the fear of catching a disease
“Image magazine, and the GEH.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, February 9, 2010.
— blog piece
“Early Westerns featured in new book.” examiner.com, January 21, 2010.
— review of Western Film Series of the Sound Era by Michael R. Pitts
“Early Frank Capra films featured in Berkeley.” examiner.com, January 14, 2010.
— article
“New book on Edison’s Frankenstein.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, January 11, 2010.
— blog piece
“Screen hero Richard Dix celebrated in Niles.” examiner.com, January 8, 2010.
— article
“Considering Abel Gance.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, December 9, 2009.
— blog piece
“When Chang came to town.” San Francisco Silent Film Festival blog, December 3, 2009.
— blog piece; see also “When Chang came to town, part two”
“Stuart Oderman: talking to the piano player.” examiner.com, November 22, 2009.
— article
“Francis X. Bushman – King of the Movies revealed in new book.” examiner.com, November 6, 2009.
— review of King of the Movies: Francis X. Bushman by Lon and Debra Davis
“Sad tale of Oakland comedian told in new book.” examiner.com, October 8, 2009.
— review of biography of Lloyd Hamilton, archived on nitrateville.com
“Six silent film stars in need of a biography.” examiner.com, September 6, 2009.
— this piece was archived on nitrateville.com
“Aftermath of 1906 earthquake depicted in newly available films.” examiner.com, July 7, 2009.
— this piece was archived on nitrateville.com
“From silents to sound – book details tipping point in Hollywood history.” examiner.com, June 16, 2009.
— book review of Silents to Sound: A Biographical Encyclopedia of Performers Who Made the Transition to Talking Pictures, by Roy Liebman
“The Silent Cinema in Song.” examiner.com, May 19, 2009.
— book review of The Silent Cinema in Song, 1896 – 1929, by Ken Wlaschin
“Father of JFK recalled as Hollywood mogul.” examiner.com, April 10, 2009.
— my first piece on examiner.com, a write-up of Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years, by Cari Beauchamp
“Emil Petaja.” Classic Images, October 2000.
— obituary of the noted writer & photoplay collector
“A Window into Old Hollywood: Three Biographies.” Booksense.com, August, 2000.
— book reviews
“The Shocking Miss Pilgrim,” Booksense. August 20, 1999.
— short piece about the memoir by screenwriter Frederica Sagor Maas
“San Francisco Silent Film Festival a Success.” Classic Images, September 1997.
— article on the now annual festival
“Should aging theaters be saved?” State News, October 19, 1984.
— feature story on the Fox Theater in Detroit – published next to another related story I wrote, “State Theatre awaits wrecking ball.”
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