8
Tuesday, April 19, 1977
University Daily Kansan
Film preservation a task of dedication
By CHUCK SACK
Reviewer
Robert DEFores is a private investigator who has helped track down some of the most famous names of this century and bring them before the public.
Lon Chaney, Howard Hughes, Duke Ellington and Maureen O'Sullivan are just a few of those whom he has found. Yet you've probably never heard of DeFlores.
A film collector who hunts and restores films that have been thought lost or destroyed, Robert DeFlores is one of those fortunate men who manage to make their hobbies their jobs and the SUA will urge him to create a jizz film that he has been responsible for restoring.
DEFLORES began collecting films when he bought his own copy of a Laurel and Hardy two-reeler. Now 41, he realizes that his interest in films goes back much further.
"I grew up in Hollywood," DeFord says said his friend and the author of pictures with Johnny Weissmuller, my other aunt was a writer at 20th Century Fox, and my mother and father were in the Geneva.
At 18, shortly after buying his first film, DeFlores moved to Kansas City. He attended KU and continued to college in the fall, where he做了 jobs that considered renovating old prints of movies.
"IGOT involved with restoration when I made a trip to Odgenburg, N.Y., and saw all the stuff that's just rotting at the Fox vaults." DeFlores said.
"I also saw an interview with Thomas Edison. I got the idea that someone needed to be interviewed for a job or for nothing else. How many people have heard Thomas Edison? He died in 1931, yet here's a 12-minute interview with him on the porch talking all about his inventions and facts."
Defores said that many films were in danger of being lost because they were made from plastic, and decomposes to powder as it ages. Because many film studios threw out their old footage, many films are being found in the relics of the past by cameramen who kept copies of their work.
DEFLORES TOLD a story about one lady who told him that she had some film in her
"Her grandfather was a projectionist in 1923 and had brought some old cans of film to the studio. It was $3 millimeter nitrate, all 15 rounds of the Jack Dempsey-Thomas Gibbons World Championship Fight in Shelby, Mont. It was the only complete print of that in the collection."
Asked how he finds films, DeFores said, "Like any detective, the first thing that I do is find out which studio made it. Then I call the studio and find out what the status of the film is. Nine times out of 10, the films are missing. You hunt all over the United States collections, or overseas, or in other archives. It's just a long waiting process."
DEFLORES SAID that it was unusual to spend 200 hours on the telephone during a period of years tracking down one film. It is now that you can restore and re-record a short subject.
George Segal & Jane Fonda
NEVERTHELESS, the film was salvaged. With backing from the American Film Institute, the movie is being restored next month at the AFI in Los Angeles.
In the meantime, DeFores continues to search for more film.
Although his primary interest is in newspapers, short subjects and rare performances, DeFores has also recovered from the loss of a longtime friend in the law "a film that stars Len Chanen Sr.
And despite the disappointments and the exhausting research, DeFlores is happy with his work. One of his most prized films, The Faller, directed by Parker, the legendary jazz saxophonist.
IN THE CLIP, Parker and Dizzy Gillespie receive their 1951 Dowbeat Awards, and then perform "Hothouse." DeFlores said that when the film was found on a shelf in East, it was covered with dirt and ready to be reactivated. The sound was recorded and the print required the diligence of DeFlores and the friend who discovered the film.
"Outside the Law" was in a barn in Crystal, Minn., way back in the back with chicken feathers all over it. We pushed the bay aside, and I thought it was junk," she said, and when I opened the can up, it was learning. I couldn't even unwind it."
The Parker film will be shown tonight, along with "Jamming the Blues," a twelve minute short with Lester Young and an all-star group. There will also be a Louis Armstrong some footage from an Armstrong session in Denmark, and a Count Bassi compilation that includes a rare Billie Holiday appearance. The program will be rounded out by a performance of the John Outtune Quartet, which Delores transferred to film from videotape.
"I'm working on a Big Band special at Samuel Goldwyn in California," he said with a sigh. "They don't know who appa-
UNLKE MANY film collectors who find lost films, re-copyright them and distribute them to make money. DeFlores makes movies that are used for fundraising and to raise funds to continue his work.
"FUN WITH DICK AND JANE"
Every Eve at 7:30 & 9:30
Lat, Sun Mat 1:16
"My livelihood is actually to restore films to share with people," DeFlores said. "If it weren't for collectors hanging onto something and cherishing it like a piece of artwork, we wouldn't be seeing half of this. Somebody has to care."
As the high quality of his investigative work indicates, Robert DeFlores cares.
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Belgium, Switzerland, or as well as in the U.S. to work as Peace Corps or VISTA Volunteer. Free trai/health,衣裳 allow, $3000 term, pay end 2 yrs. serv. in PC, $600 end 1 yr. service as VISTA.
allow, $3000 term, pay end 2 yrs. serv. IN RECruitERS ON CAMPUS AT EDUC.
PLACEMENT ON APRIL 27.
NEW PROJECTS IN PEACE CORPS AND
--made for improvements at other branch libraries.
VISTA WANT ELEMENTARY ED GRADS
Entry Fee: 1.00
Heart of America Frisbee Tournament
Saturday, April 23
Registration at SUA office or 9:00 a.m. Saturday at tourney site
Competition will begin at 10 a.m.
HEART OF AMERICA FRISBEE CLUB
Library
Sponsored by SUA, Miller Brewing Co., Rec. Services.
Trophies awarded in all events.
Schools, which accredits universities, Shankel said.
Everyone Welcome!
IN ITS REPORT, the association said, "We are concerned that the library is a major problem at the University of Kansas and that solutions to problems of library space may be difficult to overcome if we maintain high quality undergraduate and graduate programs."
From nage one
KU is "at or near the bottom" of the Big Eight schools in the amount of library space, Ranz said, with 252,500 square feet. The University of Iowa, for example, has 480,000 square feet and the University of Colorado has 350,000.
But Shankel said a proposal to remodel Watson Library to improve facilities and increase space would probably be at the top of capital improvements in the fiscal 1979.
ALSO TO BE REQUESTed, although lower on the list, will be a new building to house a science and technology library, Shankel said.
He predicted that the remodeling of Watson should be completed by 1981 or 1982. A new library possibly would be built several years later.
A question on the survey on whether a "through-going remodeling of the interior of Watson Library" would make it an adequate facility received 109 'no' responses, 65 'yes' responses and nine "would help" responses.
ONE OF THE most common responses in the survey was a criticism of the branch facilities of the library, particularly in Marvin Hall, Johnson said. Problems with branch libraries should be solved with the building of a new library, he said.
Johnson said, however, that he thought most respondents to the questionnaire didn't know exactly how the library would be set up or whether it would hold any more books.
Meanwhile, Shankel said, the University has made plans for temporary expansion of library space. There will be library space in the Malott Hall addition, on which construction will begin this summer. Shankel he hoped that arrangements could be
Other recent improvements, Shankel said, are new library staff positions added this year and last year and the addition of a new accounting system costing $7,000 a year.
--and competency of the library staff. Johnson said,
ON THE POSITIVE side, the survey indicated a satisfaction with the helpfulness
Over two hours of rare jazz films from the collection of Bob de Flores. With host Dick Wright. Featuring Lua Armstrong, Charlie Parker, and Rory Lopez. Lester Young, Joe Jones and others. Tuesday. 19. April 7. 3:30 p.m. $1.25
RARE JAZZ FILMS
FILMS
HANDS UP!
Dir. Clarence Badger with Raymond Griffin, Classical Film Series.
Wed., April 20, 7:30 p.m. 75c
ECSTACY (1933)
Dir. Gustav Machaty, with Hedy Lamarr. Complete, uncut, uncensored. plus
Johnson expressed concern about what he said he considered a general apathy toward learning.
Dir. Howard Hughes with Jane Russell, Walter Huston, Film Society.
THE OUTLAW (1943)
THE STORY OF ADELE H.
Thurs., April 21, 7:30 p.m., 75c
MIDNIGHT COWBOY
Popular Films Series.
Fri., April 22 & Sat., April 23, 3:30,
7:30 & 9:30 o.m., $1
Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight plus
PAGE MISS GLORY
Woodruff Auditorium Kansas Union
Art Deco cartoon by Tex Avery.
Midnight Movies.
Fri, April 22 & Sat, April 23, 12:00
midnight, $1
NAZI HOLOCAUST
Edward Alexander, Professor of English at the University of Washington and recent recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship to prepare a book on "Literature of the Holocaust," will speak on "THE INCREDIBILITY OF THE HOLOCAUST." Dr. Alexander will examine the causes and the consequences, historical and immediate, of the Jews' inability to lend credence to the threat and actuality of the "final solution." His talk will touch on some of the older Yiddish writers, on Franz Kafka, on Elie Wiesel, on some of the Warsaw Ghetto diaries, and on Hannah Arendt.
sponsored jointly by the Department of English, the Department of History, and Hillel
THURSDAY, APRIL 21st, 8:00 p.m.
919 Mass. • 841-2995
Lawrence
FORUM ROOM of the KANSAS UNION
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"The University of Kansas, to a large extent, is the library, as far as we are a high quality education institution," Johnson wrote. "We work together to improve the facilities."
H.Watson's
April 18-24
Live: "Millionaire at Midnight"
ONLY FROM 25TH DECEMBER
All televised KC Royals baseball games can be seen on our 7" TV screen.
Laides Night—Disco 8:12:15
On our 7' TV—Frank Sinatra
Special
Rock & Roll with Roxtar, 9:12-15
Come watch all games on our 7'
TV Free 12 noon to 7 p.m.
Live: "Millionaire at Midnight"
1. 12:15, 11. 25, 9. 20 Cover
Peanut Gallery—NBA Playoffs,
10:30 p.m.
Free Disco for everyone 8-12:15
7' TV open 7:00 p.m.
Ladies Night—Disco 8-12:15
Specials on beer throughout the night '7 TV open 7:00 p.m.
Lawrence's Newest 18 Club
Another trip to the Bahamas!
Disc 18-2,15. Cover $1.50
Peanut Gallery—Reds vs.
Dodgers
Peanut Gallery open 1-10 p.m. for your sports enjoyment
Specials on beer throughout the night
inurance's Newport 18 C
Hillcrest
Shopping Center
9th & Iowa
DUPLICATE BRIDGE
TOURNAMENT sponsored by KU BRIDGE CLUB
April 24, Sunday, at 2:30 p.m. in
Parlors A and B of Student Union
Admission $1.00
Sign up in SUA office For further info. SUA office 864-3477 Everyone Welcome
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