New York-based Ford and silent film fans! Francis Ford returns to NYC with screenings of restored versions of The Craving (1918) and The Post Telegrapher (1912). I will be at MoMA to introduce. yay!

Francis Ford's 1919 psycholigical/alcohol-induced nightmare film "The Craving" will be screened at MOMA on Jan 14. Here is a big ad Universal created to promote what had been an independently-produced film....

Francis Ford (mysterious older brother of John Ford) loved mixing his real life into his films. In this jewel thief caper (1913, 1917 reissue), the detectives caught him by matching his ring to his monographed cane. Ford's grandson has the ring.

now, my freshmen, new to the SEC, thought that maybe the smaller creature was Moo Deng the celebrity hippo

one of the earliest mentions of Jack Ford, in Moving Picture Weekly, early 1917, as he tentatively starts his own career separate from brother Francis Ford, PERFORMING in his own short films (which he would later deny, but here is evidence haha)

a terrific new archival find, an article about Francis Ford, from Photoplay magazine Feb 1914, which discusses his three years of directing experience. yay!

Dumont television impacts the late 1940s nuclear family, one of the scariest ads I have ever seen......

I screened some Francis Ford silent films on campus, my students were kind to come out to see them. (I'm co-produder of the set). Rumor is that Francis will be at the Save and Project MOMA festival in January. Yay! I will be there to introduce and cheer him on.

Jack Benny researcher extraordinaire Garth Johnson found this cute cartoon of Benny and Woods from the Cedar Rapids newspaper in 1916