Nitrateville Correction Dept:could silents survive in a mutoscope?

[Richard M Roberts]

So, apparently nobody at Nitrateville can even be bothered to do a little Googling to answer their own question:

https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=35380

Once again, we'll give you the actual facts: yes is the answer to the thread's question, Mutoscopes were an early invention to exhibit short motion pictures, patented in 1895 and manufactured and sold by the American Mutoscope (later "and Biograph) Company from 1895 to 1909. They were popular in penny arcades and sold quite well, and arcades continued to use them years after the end of their manufacture.

Due to that still popular demand for the machines, in the 1920's, the patent was purchased by William Rabkin who manufactured and sold new machines to penny arcades and amusement parks through his company, The International Mutoscope Reel Company from 1926 to 1949, also creating and selling new Mutoscope reels the entire time. After that, there were and apparently still are collectors and boutique companies that sell, repair, restore and trade both Mutoscopes and the reels, including making new ones.

I have seen Mutoscope reels that are clips from not only 1920's films, but even 1930's talkies, especially B-western clips. There are also quite a few later vintage pornographic reels for the less family-oriented Arcades.

So it is indeed quite possible that a short clip from a lost silent film from the 1920's could be preserved on a Mutoscope reel.

RICHARD M ROBERTS