Happpppy Birthday...to US!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Today Forget the Talkies is one year old! Considering I've barely ever kept at anything in my life beyond the Spice Girls well...this is fantastic. Especially considering the great things we've done in the past year. Happy highlights:

*Proved Anna May Wong was not buried in an unmarked grave (thanks to a reader!)

*Put John Bunny back in the spotlight with the help of Anthony

*Got a Valentino month scheduled at the Silent Movie Theatre (which kicked off Sheik Week here)

*Put Miriam Cooper on the web

*Debunked both volumes of Hollywood Babylon (one of our finest moments)

*Solved a few Olive Thomas mysteries (though there are so many to go!)

*Our Silents Talk series proved that the talkie myth never happened, and that most every silent film star had a fine voice


What else have we done? Well this website hasn't been updated much this month at all. But with good reasons (besides strep throat...that's a bad reason). I've been volunteering a lot here in LA for silent matters and more of that will be postable soon. But for now some MAYJAH news:

*With the help of the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles, The Egyptian, and Laura Petersen Balogh there will be a major Karl Dane event later this year. Obviously details to come (added note: there are some great 100 years of film celebrations scheduled as well...also to come!)

*The Silent Film Wiki is in the process of being majorly updated into a format I am sure will be much more agreeable to authors. I am really excited for this as its looking very nice.

....and....

*I am currently writing and researching Mabel Normand: The Keystone Queen. Honestly it's going to be fantastic as you all know what a stickler I am about biographies. Mabel is an extremely complicated figure in film history...and honestly I can see why the last attempt was the one and only 1981 book. But its a journey I'm willing to take. And its also a journey that might cut down on posting output. However don't worry...I'm still here and FTT is not going anywhere! We have a lot of legacies to restore!

I'm very very excited about our second year. Obviously the Griffith site and Valentino Fest will be coming into play, alongside the book release. A lot of people have asked me if I ever plan to do the Olive bio (what June never existed?) I do...but if Mabel is obscure her drinking buddy is even MORE so. I did start research on both subjects awhile back, but had to put it on hold. Maybe that will be year three's release?


So Happy Birthday to our site! Can you ever imagine a day we weren't here making snarky comments and mewing over how gorgeous Valentino is? I thought not.