Episode 79: 1924 with Marya E. Gates
A podcast about the great movie years.
Nobody we know knows more about silent cinema than film critic, historian, and social media mastermind Marya E. Gates. She joins us to talk about movies from literally a century ago, from the brilliance of Sherlock Jr. to the sexiness of Forbidden Paradise to the surrealism of Ballet Mécanique.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can stream that time-code-burned-in, untranslated-intertitles version of Heart of an Actress on YouTube. And you can also stream that barely-watchable, split-seconds-untranslated-Czech-intertitles version of Forbidden Paradise on YouTube.
He Who Gets Slapped is on Tubi, Plex, and Public Domain Movies. Ballet Mécanique is also on YouTube.
And finally, Sherlock Jr. is on Tubi, Kanopy, Plex, and Watch TCM, is available for digital rental or purchase, though the Cohen Film Collection Blu-ray is probably your best bet.
Show notes stuff! Here is the photo Mike mentioned of farmer Frank Zavistoski plowing his four-acre plot of farmland at the corner of 164th Street and Sherman Avenue (with apartment buildings in the background) in the Bronx on the 4th of November, 1924:
You can watch the film Marya mentioned of Calvin Coolidge on the White House grounds in 1924 here. You can watch Benjamin Christensen’s The Devil’s Circus on the “Danish Silent Films” site Marya mentioned here. If you’d like to hear our discussion of Christensen’s Haxan on our 1922 episode with Monica Castillo, here’s that. And if you’d like to watch Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow, the wonderful Keaton miniseries that Jason mentioned, it’s on YouTube.
You can follow Marya on Twitter, Blusky, Instagram, and Letterboxd. You can follow Jason on Blusky, Instagram, and Letterboxd - where you'll find his lists of all the movies on every episode of the show (including this one). You can follow Mike on Instagram, Blusky and Twitter/X/whatever.
Oh, and if you’d like to make a little donation to support us and the show, you can do that at Ko-fi!