8mm Forum: A MUST HAVE BOOK FOR FILM COLLECTORS

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Posted by John W. Black (Member # 1082) on December 09, 2010, 11:15 PM:

Film Collecting,by Gerald McKee is probably the only serious book on the history of film collecting. It came out in 1977 after 100s of reading,it still is fascinating. I mention this because there are a few copies of it at amazon.com.I just ordered a new copy!I bought my first one from Blackhawk.

Posted by Joe McAllister (Member # 825) on December 10, 2010, 03:39 AM:

Gerald wrote a number of other film collecting books which are also well worth looking out. Until his death he was the Editor of "Flickers" magazine the journal of the Vintage Film Circle. This is still published by noted British film collector Pat Moules, who runs the Bring and Buy stall at the BFCC's.I believe Pat may have new copies of some of Geralds books for sale.
Flickers also has a Facebook page!

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on December 10, 2010, 01:06 PM:

I've never seen Gerald's book and I wondered if in addition to obvious companies like Castle, it has anything on the history of Walton, Derann, etc? Considering how much happened after 1977, it would ber interesting to know if he considered producing another edition.

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on December 10, 2010, 02:21 PM:

Gerald McKee did write a second book, A HALF CENTURY OF FILM COLLECTING,self published in 1993,which continued in the same vein, leaning heavily on British and silent French films and 9.5 mm.Copies still do float around.
An earlier, but now forgotten book, is Kalton Lahue's COLLECTING CLASSIC FILMS (1970). Lahue was the eminent film historian whose many books include the seminal CLOWN PRINCES AND COURT JESTERS ( history of the silent comedy shorts) and CONTINUED NEXT WEEK (history of the silent serials).
All three books are worthy,(and as far as I know, the only ones on the subject) and ideally should be read in chronological order, as they reflect the state of their time.

Posted by John W. Black (Member # 1082) on December 11, 2010, 08:14 PM:

He did one on projectors also and I would love to find copies of both of them.

Posted by Dino Everette (Member # 1378) on December 13, 2010, 12:56 AM:

Gerald McKee is one of my absolute heroes and I have all three of his books (the third is called The Home Cinema: Classic Home Movie Projectors 1922 - 1940 , from 1989, and reprinted in 1994)and many of the Flickers issues. I find his book slightly better than Kalton's simply because of my 9.5 and silent film fascinations. ALSO do not forget Kalton's earlier book on silent film serials called Bound and Gagged which in a way is equally as crucial to his other one Continued Next week, because bound and gagged is the one loaded with pictures, while Next Week has all the data like episode lists, etc...

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on December 13, 2010, 08:41 AM:

LaHue was a historian, he pioneered the way so to speak, as silents were being appreciated more, thanks also to Blackhawk. Gerald spoke directly to the collector, he also was a true craftsman - It's a shame LaHue is out of the mainstream now, as he would be a great guest to a film show - Not sure if Gerald McKee is around. If so, wouldn't it be nice to have him as guest signing and talking about his knowledge for us - Shorty

Posted by Mikael Barnard (Member # 1637) on December 13, 2010, 09:11 AM:

Hi Joe. I'm afraid Gerald died a few years ago.

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on December 13, 2010, 12:57 PM:

If I'm not mistaken, Lahue went into writing auto-repair manuals.

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