The Tale of the Forgotten Films: An Archival Rescue

Donna Anoskey and Dan Rooney contributed to this post.

Years ago many government agencies, along with Hollywood and independent film makers, stored film productions with the private laboratories that provided their duplication services. In 2001, one of the premier film facilities on the East Coast, in business for over 50 years, went bankrupt, still in possession of tens of thousands of reels of film, including hundreds of titles made by government agencies. The company that purchased the property agreed to try to locate the rightful owners of the films and in 2006 they contacted the National Archives, as well as the Library of Congress, Hollywood studios and others to come identify and reclaim their film.

Almost a year later NARA sent several staff members on an initial visit to identify government films that could be accessioned into our holdings. However, lack of good lighting, poorly identified cans and no access to an inventory made it extremely difficult. During several trips NARA staff were able to identify, segregate, pull, inventory, and prepare for shipment all of the positively identified Federal productions. On the second trip new problems had arisen; leaking roofs and suspension of climate controls in the vaults increased preservation concerns.

Stack at warehouse.

One of the already emptied storage vaults.

1/4″ Film Soundtracks affected by leaky ceilings. Advanced mold growth was evident.

Twenty-two pallets of film and related audio records identified as Federally created were packed and shipped to NARA. Here several pallets bound for Archives II sit on the loading dock waiting to be picked up.

In September 2007 more than 3,000 titles in 5,000 film cans, representing over 30 federal agencies, were shipped to the National Archives. Once they arrived, we started the process of sorting through them, obtaining legal custody from the originating agencies, and preparing them for long-term storage.

The films that came from the abandoned lab were housed in rusty old metal cans that were not suitable for long-term storage.

Archival film cans post-lab inspection.

Stacks at the National Archives.

These rescued films made up the first project I worked on in the Motion Picture Branch. It was fascinating determining what agencies the films had originally come from and whether we had copies of the films in our holdings or if they were new to us. In my head I kept a list of the really cool things I came across, waiting for the opportunity to share them. Here are some of my favorites:

Smokey and the Little Boy (Local Identifier: 16-P-1147/National Archives Identifier: 2151)

This is a very dramatic animated film about the danger of working in oxygen-deficient conditions:

Two Breaths To…. (Local Identifier: 434-GENERAL-865/National Archives Identifier: 4487046)

Willy Whistle Television Spot: Curbs (Local Identifier: 416-PI-5/National Archives Identifier: 4499494)

After the Applause (Local Identifier: 235-WRS-2/National Archives Identifier: 4747978)

Check out more rescued films in this playlist.