deadendkid Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Has anyone here ever seen the Penrod and Sam shorts made in the early 30's by Vitaphone? I think it's Vitaphone anyway. They were made between 1931-1932. I can't seem to locate much info on them and would love to get my hands on them. My sons love the feature length films with the Mauch twins and I'll bet they'd enjoy these too. Any info would be very much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill_McCrary Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 I don't know about shorts, but last November they showed the original "Penrod and Sam" movie (they had shown it also a year or so earlier), then the later ones. Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Factotum Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 TCM has no interest in showing any more Vitaphone short titles than they already have made prints of, and shown. There are scores of them, whole series of them, but they've decided they have enough. There's even ones they showed back in the late 1980's/early 90's on TNT that haven't been run again. So they may be showing even less than they did! With so many shorts unseen, that they *do* have access to, can only mean they have something against them. There's some reason that makes them want to fill the time with things everybody's seen a million times instead of keeping it fresh with new-old material. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadendkid Posted August 3, 2008 Author Share Posted August 3, 2008 Well that's too bad. We do have the Mauch films and the 1931 version with Leon Janney and Jr Coghlan. I'd like to see the silent version as well. Would you know if the shorts are available anywhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadendkid Posted April 4, 2009 Author Share Posted April 4, 2009 Hey musicalnovelty, check your mail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicalnovelty Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Nuthin' there since March 31... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyesKid Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 I have them on video, but the quality is not good. My dad plays Penrod. How did you find out about them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicalnovelty Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 HeyesKid said... I have them on video, but the quality is not good. My dad plays Penrod. ********************************************* Hey that's great - your Dad is Billy Hayes! - We also can see him in the Roscoe Arbuckle short HEY POP (1932), recently released in great quality on DVD by Warner Archives. About the Vitaphone "Penrod" shorts, I've always known about them, being a fan & collector of all things Vitaphone and Dead End Kids & related series (as I'm sure you know, Bobby Jordan and David Gorcey appear in most of the Penrod shorts, years before most people think their film careers started) bit it had been hard to find copies. About ten years ago a friend acquired 16mm prints of all seven of the Penrod shorts from a film rental company that was selling off some of its stuff. He transferred them to video and made them available to some friends. He then moved to Florida and (I believe) sold the prints. Copies of his videos may be floating around, but the films have never been officially released on video or DVD, nor shown on TV since the 1950's (if even then) or on TCM. There's a bit of "political incorrectness" in many of the shorts, so that unfortunately may keep them from being seen again. Too bad, as they're fun kids stories, not anything that should be banned or censored or locked away. In fact, some interesting actors appear, including Ray Collins as Penrod's dad, ten years before his more famous feature film debut in that Orson Welles movie about a sled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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