A Sandburg Stumper

[Rob Wick]

You are correct Gene (I thought it would last longer than that, however).

It was produced in 12 reels by brothers Al and Ray Rockett, and, sadly, is presumed to be lost. According to a silent film website:

"The film is presumed lost : Incomplete prints exist in the National Film and Sound Archive film archive (Vivienne Kost collection) [incomplete 35mm color-tinted and color-toned nitrate positive (approximately two reels, 48051-1), incomplete 35mm preservation duplicate negative (approximately two reels, 48051-2), incomplete 35mm access positive (approximately two reels, 48051-3), incomplete 16mm reduction access positive (approximately two 35mm reels, 48051-4)]; and in the Library of Congress film archive [fragmentary 35mm positive]."

It was originally called The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln at its New York premiere, but in general release was simply called Abraham Lincoln.

For those interested, there are two books related to Sandburg's film reviews. The first is The Movies Are: Carl Sandburg's Film Reviews and Essays, 1920-1928 edited by Arnie Bernstein and Carl Sandburg at the Movies: A Poet in the Silent Era 1920-1927 edited by Dale and Doug Fetherling. The Fetherling book is difficult to find (or at least it was for me when I looked for it. I paid about $30 for my copy and that was used).

Good job Gene! You win a free bucket of popcorn. See your local theater to collect your prize.

[Rob Wick]

"What gives portent and an atmosphere of tension throughout [book title deleted] is its timing, its intimations constantly of that strange hush preceding a hurricane."

What book was Sandburg discussing?

Best
Rob

[Thomas Thorne]

Dear Rob
Re "The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln" I deduce you got yr info from silentera.com, a truly wonderful web site. I see that Frances Marion perhaps the greatest silent era screenwriter who won 2 screenwriting Oscars during the sound period wrote the scenario.

Please tell us what Sandburg thought of the film? Perhaps someone should contact Steven Spielberg and request he finance a restoration of the parts that are left. I fear that some of the fragments may have already turned to a gluey substance which is the fate of all neglected films.
Tom

[Rob Wick]

Tom,

Be glad to.

In his review, written on December 29, 1924, Sandburg wrote the following:

"Lincoln the man not Lincoln the myth," was the central idea that animated Al and Ray Rockett when they set out on their three-year job of filming the life of Abraham Lincoln. These brothers had read or knew the contents of almost all of the 5,000 odd books that have been written about Lincoln and were dissected with the attempts of 90 percent of these to make Lincoln into a god-like wraith, something far-off and mystical. They felt that history had been trying to make Lincoln's memory into a statue, towering into the clouds and remote from all human activity.

To make their film Abraham Lincoln show the real and human man as he was they spent three years, infinite pains and all their money. How well their picture does this may be guessed by the furor it has caused in New York where it has been shown and may be determined accurately at the Roosevelt Theater.

Abraham Lincoln, the picture, trails with remarkable fidelity Lincoln from birth to death with special emphasis upon his loves, his romance and his married life, all phases which biographers have dealt lightly with. Al and Ray Rockett show in detail and with fine poetic feeling Lincoln's rustic love affair with Anne Rutledge, his grief at her death, his courtship of the high-spirited Mary Todd, his married life with her, a life so often sensationalized in the gossip of a nation and so minimized in written biographies.

The great incidents in Lincoln's life, his use of humor to steady the nerves of a war-crazed country, his boyhood struggles, his griefs in the presidency, his family life with his two little boys, his quick turn to them for relief from the harassments of political life, his quaint, gentle and profound mental life are all shown with one aim, to tell the truth about this greatest of Americans so that America today will appreciate him as a human being like themselves rather than as the nebulous myth."

(Source: The Movies Are: Carl Sandburg's Film Reviews and Essays pgs. 237-8) I should also note that there were a number of essays that Sandburg wrote using the film as a jumping off point.

Best
Rob

[Rob Wick]

Clue #1.

This originally ran as a serial. It is not Tarbell's series, by the way.

Best
Rob

[Rob Wick]

Clue #2

It ran in the 1880s.

Best
Rob

[Rob Wick]

Clue # 3

Its author is very well hidden.

Best
Rob

[RJNorton]

Rob, your last clue makes me think The Diary of a Public Man.

[Rob Wick]

Figured that might give it away, Roger. You are correct. In 1946 Sandburg wrote the foreword to the book which had prefatory notes by F. Lauriston Bullard. Given that neither man liked the other (Sandburg called him a "fuddy-duddy") I found it surprising they would work together.

James G. Randall actually wrote an article in which he gave his idea of who wrote the diary, but never published it because he wasn't sure enough to suit himself that he was right.

You win your own diary, but it has no lock on it, so be careful where you leave it.

Best
Rob

[LincolnMan]

What famous comedian was a friend with Carl Sandburg?

[Bill Richter]

Very wild guess--Jack Benny

[LincolnMan]

Bill: good guess but not correct. I know the field of options is endless...

Clue: this famous comedian also formed a friendship with Alice Cooper.

[Rob Wick]

Bill,

Groucho Marx.

Best
Rob

[LincolnMan]

Ah Rob, you bet your life!

[LincolnMan]

And speaking of the great Groucho Marx, who, among others things, was famous for his ad-lib quips- who said:

"I can never be satisfied with anyone who would be block-head enough to have me"
It is a Groucho-like statement if I ever heard one!