Post by Terry Harbin on Jun 13, 2005 14:31:43 GMT -5
Ralph Bonnet
I remember meeting Ralph in July of 1988. It was during Ithaca’s Centennial and I had learned that Ralph had many still pictures that were taken when Ithaca Made Silent Movies, I contacted him by phone and he invited me to his home on Pearsall Place in Ithaca.
I brought my large, bulky heavy yet totally portable video equipment. I had a couple of Lowell lights and a microphone and a Sony port-a-pak 3/4-inch deck. My plans were to videotape his photos, which he had more than a hundred, along with several movie magazines from the period.
I zoomed, I panned, I faded I even just shot them like stills. I was making the images move again.
I asked Ralph where the pictures came from? Why did he have them?
He told me that his father had been a carpenter back when movie-making was popular in Ithaca. His father helped build the sets and then he would help tear them back down. He built stages and did electrical work for the Whartons.
In the late 1950’s Ralph said the family home was on West State Street right were Time Warner Cable now resides. He said Anthony Cerache had purchased the house to start a local TV station, which he did.
They were moving out, I believe because Ralph’s father had died and that is why the property was changing hands. Ralph said he returned one day to see his house as the demolition was about to begin.
Outside he noticed a burn barrel and someone was tossing pictures into the flames and as he approached he saw what was burning it was his fathers’ silent movie pictures!
He stopped them from burning any more and he pulled burning stills from the fire. Many pictures were burned, Ralph said half of the collection had burned. These were the pictures that I was now video-taping. The same ones that had almost been lost in the fire 30 years earlier.
Ralph and his wife were very kind and I enjoyed meeting them both. Ralph saw the documentary that I produced for the Tompkins County Public Library and was pleased with the way I had used his photos. They then donated all the original remaining stills to Ithaca-Made Movies.
In 2004 I was still researching Ithaca movies when I met Judy at the library. I learned that her father was Ralph and that unfortunately he had passed away several years earlier. She said her father had mentioned me and that her mother still recalled my visit.
I decided to call and later visit Judy’s mother who still lived in the same house on Pearsall. She agreed to lend me the photographs again so that I could now scan them and save them in a digital format.
After scanning them I realized that some pictures were missing it seemed like the “Eagles Eye’ photos were gone. Three of the missing images were color-tinted stills. I remember a nice colored title card from the Eagles Eye that I really liked but now it was gone.
The local museum did not have copies of them either! I searched my old 3/4 raw footage and I located several 20-minute tapes from the session at Ralph’s house. The missing stills had appeared in the documentary, and now I can transfer them to digital later this year. And new prints can be made.
They won’t be as good as the original 8 X 10’s but its better than nothing.
Thanks Ralph #1, Now for the second Ralph.
Ralph Bacon.
I met Ralph in the fall of 1999 I had looked up his last name in the phone-book because I had seen the name Levi Bacon on an Ithaca movie The Great White Trail” the name was credited in the film as cinematographer along with Ray June.
I called the June families in the area phonebook but had no luck. Then came the name Bacon, I noticed Ralph Bacon who had two phone numbers listed. One was in Ithaca the other was at a cottage on the West Shore of Cayuga Lake.
I called the cottage and was soon talking with the son of one of the Whartons cameramen. I told him about the film and wondered if he would like to see it. He said of course and gave me directions to the summer cottage.
Once inside I gave Ralph the VHS copy of his father’s work in filming The Great White Trail. Ralph then mentioned that he had a scrapbook stored away that his father had kept his movie pictures in.
So we went into the kitchen and Ralph starting showing me the pictures. They were mostly 8 x 10 B&W original images from 1916-1918. Many pictures included Levi and his friend Ray June who both worked for Wharton Inc.
There was a nice patch that said The Original Movie Capital of the World Ithaca New York on it. This patch Ralph said may have been worn by The Whartons cameramen in 1917. There is another story about the patch!
Because of all the great photos that Ralph decided to give me I was able to find his father in a moving image from the Beatrice Fairfax series. In some of the stills from the scrap book his father appears as an extra.
This was not an uncommon practice, because when an extra was needed for a scene the crew was always available. The two Ralph’s managed to supply me with an extensive collection of photographs.
The generosity of both Ralph’s is why I am still doing my research in 2005.
I remember meeting Ralph in July of 1988. It was during Ithaca’s Centennial and I had learned that Ralph had many still pictures that were taken when Ithaca Made Silent Movies, I contacted him by phone and he invited me to his home on Pearsall Place in Ithaca.
I brought my large, bulky heavy yet totally portable video equipment. I had a couple of Lowell lights and a microphone and a Sony port-a-pak 3/4-inch deck. My plans were to videotape his photos, which he had more than a hundred, along with several movie magazines from the period.
I zoomed, I panned, I faded I even just shot them like stills. I was making the images move again.
I asked Ralph where the pictures came from? Why did he have them?
He told me that his father had been a carpenter back when movie-making was popular in Ithaca. His father helped build the sets and then he would help tear them back down. He built stages and did electrical work for the Whartons.
In the late 1950’s Ralph said the family home was on West State Street right were Time Warner Cable now resides. He said Anthony Cerache had purchased the house to start a local TV station, which he did.
They were moving out, I believe because Ralph’s father had died and that is why the property was changing hands. Ralph said he returned one day to see his house as the demolition was about to begin.
Outside he noticed a burn barrel and someone was tossing pictures into the flames and as he approached he saw what was burning it was his fathers’ silent movie pictures!
He stopped them from burning any more and he pulled burning stills from the fire. Many pictures were burned, Ralph said half of the collection had burned. These were the pictures that I was now video-taping. The same ones that had almost been lost in the fire 30 years earlier.
Ralph and his wife were very kind and I enjoyed meeting them both. Ralph saw the documentary that I produced for the Tompkins County Public Library and was pleased with the way I had used his photos. They then donated all the original remaining stills to Ithaca-Made Movies.
In 2004 I was still researching Ithaca movies when I met Judy at the library. I learned that her father was Ralph and that unfortunately he had passed away several years earlier. She said her father had mentioned me and that her mother still recalled my visit.
I decided to call and later visit Judy’s mother who still lived in the same house on Pearsall. She agreed to lend me the photographs again so that I could now scan them and save them in a digital format.
After scanning them I realized that some pictures were missing it seemed like the “Eagles Eye’ photos were gone. Three of the missing images were color-tinted stills. I remember a nice colored title card from the Eagles Eye that I really liked but now it was gone.
The local museum did not have copies of them either! I searched my old 3/4 raw footage and I located several 20-minute tapes from the session at Ralph’s house. The missing stills had appeared in the documentary, and now I can transfer them to digital later this year. And new prints can be made.
They won’t be as good as the original 8 X 10’s but its better than nothing.
Thanks Ralph #1, Now for the second Ralph.
Ralph Bacon.
I met Ralph in the fall of 1999 I had looked up his last name in the phone-book because I had seen the name Levi Bacon on an Ithaca movie The Great White Trail” the name was credited in the film as cinematographer along with Ray June.
I called the June families in the area phonebook but had no luck. Then came the name Bacon, I noticed Ralph Bacon who had two phone numbers listed. One was in Ithaca the other was at a cottage on the West Shore of Cayuga Lake.
I called the cottage and was soon talking with the son of one of the Whartons cameramen. I told him about the film and wondered if he would like to see it. He said of course and gave me directions to the summer cottage.
Once inside I gave Ralph the VHS copy of his father’s work in filming The Great White Trail. Ralph then mentioned that he had a scrapbook stored away that his father had kept his movie pictures in.
So we went into the kitchen and Ralph starting showing me the pictures. They were mostly 8 x 10 B&W original images from 1916-1918. Many pictures included Levi and his friend Ray June who both worked for Wharton Inc.
There was a nice patch that said The Original Movie Capital of the World Ithaca New York on it. This patch Ralph said may have been worn by The Whartons cameramen in 1917. There is another story about the patch!
Because of all the great photos that Ralph decided to give me I was able to find his father in a moving image from the Beatrice Fairfax series. In some of the stills from the scrap book his father appears as an extra.
This was not an uncommon practice, because when an extra was needed for a scene the crew was always available. The two Ralph’s managed to supply me with an extensive collection of photographs.
The generosity of both Ralph’s is why I am still doing my research in 2005.