"cliff-hanger"

[Christopher Philippo]

On Mar 23, 2014, at 12:40 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
> Perhaps why the original prints and negatives of P. of P. are now "lost" -- they were pitting.

There’s lots of reasons for that - as a popular film serial, prints would have been used a lot and could have become too damaged by scratches and splices to screen.  Prints of that era would probably have been nitrate.  They can decompose and are highly flammable.  Many were destroyed for their silver content and/or due to their danger and lack of interest in silent films when sound arrived.  Organizations like the Association of Moving Image Archivists http://www.amianet.org could provide more information and perhaps speculate as to why some reels of PoP survive and others don’t - just by chance, I’d guess.  There’s always some chance more parts of the serial will turn up, though the odds aren’t especially good.

Christopher K. Philippo.

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