Author Archives: filesofjerryblake

Serial DVD News–The Return of Hermitage Hill

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Hermitage Hill, which put out some excellent serial DVDs back in the day, but which has been out of action for several years, has returned with a new DVD  of The Hurricane Express, the best of John Wayne’s three Mascot serials, from a new 2k film transfer.  The link is below:

http://www.hermitagehillmedia.com/hurricane.html/

Hermitage Hill has also made their DVD of Don Winslow of the Navy available again; this is easily the best print of this serial out there:

http://www.hermitagehillmedia.com/winslow.html/

Here is Hermitage Hill’s revived home page, as well:

http://www.hermitagehillmedia.com/index.html/

Serial Stars Elsewhere–C. Montague Shaw in Shakespearean Repertory

Posted on by under Serial Actors Elsewhere

While using the Australian newspaper archive site Trove to research Rusty Wescoatt’s Australian wrestling tour, I realized that the site would also be a logical resource to retrieve additional information on Australia’s own C. Montague Shaw.  A search on Shaw’s real name of Charles Montague Discombe Sparrow produced several interesting clippings pertaining to Shaw’s years as a Shakespearean actor. Continue reading →

Serial Stars Elsewhere–Rusty Wescoatt on the Athletic Field

Posted on by under Serial Actors Elsewhere

While researching my recent Rusty Wescoatt biography, I turned up an enormous amount of press clippings concerning Rusty’s wrestling days, as well as his football and swimming exploits, through both Newspapers.com (subscription, Ancestry.com, or Facebook account required for full access), and the free Australian newspaper archive site Trove.  I thought I would share some of these through the Elsewhere series. Continue reading →

Serial Stars Elsewhere–Charles Quigley Family Reminiscences

Posted on by under Serial Actors Elsewhere

(Like the Frank Shannon piece below, this was originally attached to the subject actor’s bio page).

Charles N. Quigley, son of serial star Charles Quigley, has kindly permitted me to reproduce here several reminiscences concerning his father’s acting career–reminiscences which he originally sent to me via e-mail, and which are too interesting not to share with other serial buffs. All that follows, save my interjections and comments in bold type, are Mr. Quigley’s own words. Continue reading →

Serial Stars Elsewhere–Frank Shannon on Stage

Posted on by under Serial Actors Elsewhere

I had previously attached these press clippings from Frank Shannon’s distinguished pre-Dr. Zarkov stage career to the biography page on Shannon.  I am starting a new series of blog posts concerning the non-serial activities of serial actors, and figured it would make sense to use these for the inaugural offering; perhaps they will be new to some readers. Continue reading →

The Case of the Silly Pictures: Superman versus Captain Marvel (With Republic in the Middle)

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Much of the information in this article may be old news to many serial buffs, but I thought the following account of Republic’s failed attempt to make a Superman serial, and the tangled legal aftermath, might be of interest to my readers. If nothing else, it gives me a chance to write about my hobby (movie serials) and my profession (law) at the same time. Continue reading →

Serial DVD News–King of the Kongo Restoration Project

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Restorationist Eric Grayson, also known as “Dr. Film,” is working on restoring the 1929 Mascot part-silent/part-sound serial King of the Kongo (starring Walter Miller and Boris Karloff). The serial has long been missing the soundtrack for its talking portions–some of which, however, still exists separately from the film print, having been recorded on disc. Eric is working on reuniting all that remains of the soundtrack with the best possible print; his latest update is here:

Update on King of the Kongo