Sennett in the Kodascope Library

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Hilde D'haeyere
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Joined: Mon Jul 26, 2010 3:31 pm

Sennett in the Kodascope Library

Postby Hilde D'haeyere » Tue Jun 14, 2016 7:32 am

dear slapstick-lovers,
Can anybody please help me with a question I have concerning the presence in the 1936 Kodascope Film Library catalogue of 30 Sennett shorts produced between 1924 and 1929, first released theatrically through Pathé film exchanges? Here is my question: who is the most likely party to have licensed these shorts to the Kodascope Library: Sennett Comedies Studio or Pathé? I am very confused on who owned what rights to release/distribute/license the films once they left the studio. One other element is that the 16mm copies of Bathing Girl comedies originally made in 1927-1928 were printed to 16mm in 1934 - that is post Sennett's bankruptcy in 1933. So in this legal and organizational void - who most likely owned the rights and was in a position to license the existing stock of Sennett films, and who earned the revenues ?
Thanks for all your brainwork!
Hilde

Richard M Roberts
Godfather
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Joined: Sun May 31, 2009 6:30 pm

Re: Sennett in the Kodascope Library

Postby Richard M Roberts » Tue Jun 14, 2016 12:42 pm

Hilde D'haeyere wrote:dear slapstick-lovers,
Can anybody please help me with a question I have concerning the presence in the 1936 Kodascope Film Library catalogue of 30 Sennett shorts produced between 1924 and 1929, first released theatrically through Pathé film exchanges? Here is my question: who is the most likely party to have licensed these shorts to the Kodascope Library: Sennett Comedies Studio or Pathé? I am very confused on who owned what rights to release/distribute/license the films once they left the studio. One other element is that the 16mm copies of Bathing Girl comedies originally made in 1927-1928 were printed to 16mm in 1934 - that is post Sennett's bankruptcy in 1933. So in this legal and organizational void - who most likely owned the rights and was in a position to license the existing stock of Sennett films, and who earned the revenues ?
Thanks for all your brainwork!
Hilde


This is an interesting question, the Sennett films ended up all over the place over time; the Keystones were split up between Sennett and the Aitken Brothers, and both reissued them endlessly in the late teens and twenties, the Keystone-Triangles ended up with the Aitkens, who reissued them themselves through Tri-Stone and sold/leased others to companies like S. A. Lynch for reissue, the Sennett-Paramounts remained with Paramount, who reissued some in the early 20's, then let them all rot in the vaults or destroyed them. The Sennett-First Nationals remained at First National, then became Warner Brothers property when the Warners bought First National, they cut up the negs for those short comedy compilations like HAPPY TIMES AND JOLLY MOMENTS they made in the 30's, 40's and 50's, then Raymond Rohauer may have got his mitts on some of the negs when he was scrounging other silent material from them in the 60's, and what was left ended up in the Warner nitrate holdings at UCLA.

As far as the Sennett-Pathe's were concerned, Pathe' was out of business before Sennett was, being swallowed up by RKO, yet the Sennett's obviously did not end up at RKO. so they either must have been Sennett's property at the time of his break with them, or Pathe had already sold off their negatives. If Kodascope was issuing them in 1934, it is possible Sennett could have licensed them before the bankruptcy in 1933, but they were not on Sennett's asset list at the time he filed for bankruptcy. Before 1933, Kodascope had very few Sennett titles, mostly a handful of Harry Langdons, as Pathe's own home movie distributor Pathegrams had the Sennett and Roach titles, but Pathegrams closed in early 1932, and then suddenly the Kodascope Library started releasing quite a number of Sennett and Roach Pathe' titles, so Kodascope most likely bought negatives from Pathegrams as well.

I do know that both the Sennett and Roach Pathe' 35mm negatives ended up being sold in the 1950's to Onyx Pictures Corp for TV release, and that Onyx merged into National Telepix in the early 60's, which used them in their COMEDY CAPERS series, but have no idea who owned them before that. After that, who knows? They could still be sitting somewhere in storage on the East Coast somewhere.

Just for completeness, the Sennett Educationals ended up with Educational, which meant the negs went up in the Fox East Coast vault fire in 1937, and the surviving materials and rights ended up with Maurice Zouary, who released them to television in the 50's. The 30's Sennett- Paramounts ended up with Paramount, who sold them to UM&M with all their other shorts in the 1950's for television release, and UM&M later became National Telefilm Associates (NTA).

Yet oddly enough, Sennett obviously did hold on to some print or negative materials, because he apparently supplied some material for DOWN MEMORY LANE in 1949, and also had some sort of deal to supply Blackhawk Films with print materials in the 1950's (I have early Blackhawk prints that indicate a licensing deal with Sennett in their copyright notices).


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Hilde D'haeyere
Cugine
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Jul 26, 2010 3:31 pm

Re: Sennett in the Kodascope Library

Postby Hilde D'haeyere » Tue Jun 14, 2016 12:56 pm

Thank you so much Richard for sharing your detailed knowledge! Much appreciated! Hilde

Steve Rydzewski
Associate
Posts: 120
Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 12:12 pm

Re: Sennett in the Kodascope Library

Postby Steve Rydzewski » Tue Jun 14, 2016 6:41 pm

Well said, Richard.

I think the Pathe people blew out their library stock of films to recoup all previous losses. There may be mention of a sale in the pages of the old film journals at Lantern, Hilde. A lot of people saw gold (or silver) in the film and thought it would be a good investment and cherry-picked all the desirable stuff.

But who owned the rights? I'd guess Pathe since Sennett was paid off when he delivered the films to his distributor.

- SteveR


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