Presented a program of comedy shorts at MoMA Sat Feb 3 that featured slapstick teams. We showed Fatty and Mabel Adrift, Big Business and Idle Roomers (Three Stooges, dir. Del Lord). This was #2 of the 3 “Watch This! Films for Tweens” programs I programmed and introduced, working with MoMA’s Liz Margulies of their Ford Family Programs dept. Program was held in the new Bartos Theater; as before, I brought my Kurz keyboard (still no piano in that cinema). Ran it through the house stereo sound system…sounded great. Can’t wait to try the Miditzer in that theater. Program went well. Was especially entertained by the reaction of both kids and adults to the Stooges short. All 3 films went over really well. MoMA’s 35mm of BB is fantastic, and I got a kick out of showing these to kids on a Sat afternoon, the way collectors I knew when I was growing up did for me. Was particularly tickled that MoMA has a Stooges short in its collection (actually there are two (both 16mm’s), but I picked the one dir by Del Lord over the one dir by Jules White).
Next up is DeMille’s The Squaw Man (1914) at MoMA, twice this week. Am considering figuring out a way to make this a video blog; not sure if I can be bothered with the time/effort to do this, esp if no one’s actually checking this blog….