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Author
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Topic: Buffalo Bills Wild West Show! Blackhawk.
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted March 22, 2007 04:48 PM
The "Great Train Robbery" has inspired me to write about some true history on Super 8, released by Blackhawk, entitled,
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show
This is almost amatuer film-making, but then again, everybody was pretty new to this medium, and so, you don't expect, "Gone With The Wind".
A Good deal of the footage deals with a parade down the main street, with Buffalo Bill himself directing the parade, waving his hat about to the applause of the crowd, with periodic titles by Blackhawk, giving commentary.
There was also some footage of the actual wild west show.
These were shot between the years of 1895 and 1908, (approximately), and the very fact that this footage still exists to this day is amazing! This is an actual piece of
real history itself! This wasn't an actor, (well, B BIll did ham it up a lot but that was his job.) and he had started this in the 1880's I believe, a good deal of time before the Wild west itself was dead. Already, as of the 1890's the Old West that we read about, was already close to gone. The Bufallo was close to extinct about that time, (having come back to an extant these days) and the indian fighters were nearly out of a job by then. Buffalo Bill would go to the largely metropolitan areas that were highly civilized by this time and would bring them a taste of the Old West.
As to be expected, with film this old, there a lot of jerky moments and embarassing cuts in the film. The film looks beautiful however. Blackhawk has a wonderful print of this that, while it doesn't come up for sale all that often, still appears on ebay. It has been awhile since I last saw it.
If you get a chance to catch this on standard 8mm or Super 8, buy it!
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Joe Caruso
Film God
Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted March 24, 2007 04:15 PM
Just scnning through an old Blackhawk Bulletin clearly shows how well-versed they were in historical, western, dramatic, specialty and pioneer film efforts - THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR is one, have a Std 8 Silent, this is the earliest recorded war on film - Only part missing is the main Blackhawk title and I'll gladly swap it for one that has - FROM THE FIRST AIRMAIL TO THE JETS, another aviation beauty, also RAILROADING IN THE EAST (1897-1906), no other company ever did release anything remotely like these and many others - And when it comes to shorts, especially comedies, Blackhawk was unsurpassed - I know - Shorty
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