Nitrateville Answer Dept: Blackhawk Cassettes
Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 11:46 pm
A nameless one, (Coolcatdaddy) filted:
"I was sorting through some old material the other day and ran into a couple of old time radio show cassettes that Blackhawk Films sold through the catalogue for a brief period back in the day - I wish I'd picked up more of them because the sound quality was excellent. These were branded by Blackhawk.
The reason I'm posting here is that I distinctly recall that Blackhawk also sold audio cassettes of instrumental accompaniment for some of their silent films, aimed at people who had bought silent prints and didn't have a sound projector.
I've never run into any of these cassettes on the used market. Anyone else remember them or am I imagining things? Any idea what titles were offered?"
Then Paul Penna added:
“Can't help with Blackhawk, but I still have this oddity on hand. Can't remember how I got it - though probably via an ad in Movie Collector's World in the 70s - or if I ever actually used it with my Two Tars Blackhawk Super-8 print.”
(attached picture of tape box and label)
What Paul Penna has is an old tape from Essex Film Club/Griggs Moviedrome who offered a number of scores to silent films, both features and shorts, on tape, either recorded live at Essex Film Club meetings, or specially recorded. Most of them were performed by either Stuart Oderman, Paul Norman, or Clark Wallace and were rather good and, for the most part, recorded to be played at the proper speeds. I have a number of these and have used them for years, including the one Paul shows a picture of from TWO TARS. For years, Clark Wallace’s score for DOUBLE WHOOPIE was my generic Laurel and Hardy score for our Movie Nights, it worked with ANY Laurel and Hardy silent comedy.
Blackhawk did indeed offer both record albums of silent film music and later audio cassettes. Two of the best were the old Arthur Kleiner albums, MUSIC FOR SILENT FILMS and MUSIC FOR SILENT COMEDIES, and they had copies of William Perry’s MUSIC FROM “THE SILENT YEARS”. All of these were perfect to run alongside a home silent movie showing, the music was generic, and strangely seemed to fit amazingly well with a large number of silent films.
RICHARD M ROBERTS
"I was sorting through some old material the other day and ran into a couple of old time radio show cassettes that Blackhawk Films sold through the catalogue for a brief period back in the day - I wish I'd picked up more of them because the sound quality was excellent. These were branded by Blackhawk.
The reason I'm posting here is that I distinctly recall that Blackhawk also sold audio cassettes of instrumental accompaniment for some of their silent films, aimed at people who had bought silent prints and didn't have a sound projector.
I've never run into any of these cassettes on the used market. Anyone else remember them or am I imagining things? Any idea what titles were offered?"
Then Paul Penna added:
“Can't help with Blackhawk, but I still have this oddity on hand. Can't remember how I got it - though probably via an ad in Movie Collector's World in the 70s - or if I ever actually used it with my Two Tars Blackhawk Super-8 print.”
(attached picture of tape box and label)
What Paul Penna has is an old tape from Essex Film Club/Griggs Moviedrome who offered a number of scores to silent films, both features and shorts, on tape, either recorded live at Essex Film Club meetings, or specially recorded. Most of them were performed by either Stuart Oderman, Paul Norman, or Clark Wallace and were rather good and, for the most part, recorded to be played at the proper speeds. I have a number of these and have used them for years, including the one Paul shows a picture of from TWO TARS. For years, Clark Wallace’s score for DOUBLE WHOOPIE was my generic Laurel and Hardy score for our Movie Nights, it worked with ANY Laurel and Hardy silent comedy.
Blackhawk did indeed offer both record albums of silent film music and later audio cassettes. Two of the best were the old Arthur Kleiner albums, MUSIC FOR SILENT FILMS and MUSIC FOR SILENT COMEDIES, and they had copies of William Perry’s MUSIC FROM “THE SILENT YEARS”. All of these were perfect to run alongside a home silent movie showing, the music was generic, and strangely seemed to fit amazingly well with a large number of silent films.
RICHARD M ROBERTS