Chaplin’s “Limelight” and the Music Hall Tradition is a new publication, edited by Frank Scheide and Hooman Mehran. The collection of essays covers Chaplin’s film Limelight (1952) and the history of the English music hall. The book is the second in the ‘Chaplin Review’ series, the first of which – Chaplin: The Dictator and the Tramp – was published by the BFI in 2004. The second book has been published by McFarland, and a third volume is in preparation.
The 1912 catalogue of the films of Alfred J. West, A Synopsis of the Life-Work of Alfred West, has been published online in PDF format by the Wessex Film and Sound Archive. Alfred West (1857-1937) was the man behind ‘Our Navy’ and ‘Our Army’, hugely popular multi-media shows comprising films, photographs, songs and dramas. West was active as a filmmaker from 1897-1912, based at Southsea, Hampshire, UK. His patriotic, militaristic and sentimental shows were popular across Britain and the Empire, and for many who came to see the shows they were their first experience of motion pictures. There is a website dedicated to West which is maintained by his great-grandson, David Clover, who has been instrumental in getting the catalogue published. The original is held in the British Library.
Update (August 2008): The weblink for the document has now changed to http://www3.hants.gov.uk/wfsa/wfsa-collections/navy-marines.htm.
The Bioscope 