Long-lost film surfaces to show New Philadelphia as it was 98 years ago – Pottsville Republican Herald

POTTSVILLE — Not many people had access to a movie camera in the 1920s, but Simon J. Flood did.

As manager of Flood’s Theater in New Philadelphia, he had connections to Adams Cinema, a company that had an advanced camera of the type used in Hollywood at the time.

Adams Cinema made a film of New Philadelphia and surrounding cities on 35 millimeter film, the industry standard at the time.

The title page, “SJ Flood Presents: A Scene Review of New Philadelphia,” had all the hallmarks of a professionally made film.

The film was shown in 1926, when Flood’s Theater showed silent film classics such as Erich von Stroheim’s ‘The Merry Widow’ starring John Gilbert and Mae Murray, with uncredited appearances by Clark Gable and Joan Crawford.

Fast forward 98 years, and the film was recently shown to about 100 people at the Schuylkill County Historical Society.

Nearly everyone in the audience had some connection to New Philadelphia. They grew up there, had relatives who lived there and, by the way, still lived in the neighborhood, halfway between Pottsville and Tamaqua.

Thanks to Bill McMullen, who found and preserved the historic film, viewers traveled through a time tunnel to New Philadelphia, inhabited by their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents.

Diana Prosymchak, executive director of the association, introduced the presenters, including McMullen, local historian Helen Sleva Smeltz and technical advisor John DiFilippo.

“The historical society,” Prosymchak said, “is proud to show this film.”

HOW IT SURVIVED

SJ Flood’s film languished in an attic loft at 187 Valley Street in New Philadelphia for about 72 years.

McMullen found the single 35mm reel in 1998 while cleaning up 187 Valley Street, where his grandmother, Elizabeth McMullen, had lived. She had bought Flood’s house.

McMullen, a retired grocer from New Philadelphia with a passion for local history, had difficulty finding a company to transfer the film to a modern format.

Finally, after owning it for about 25 years, he found Masterpiece Multimedia in Malvern, Chester County. The company’s engineers transferred the film to a flash drive, allowing it to be shown on a large screen from a PC.

“I was happy that people could see some of their history,” said McMullen, who retired last year after running McMullen’s Market for 40 years.

McMullen discovered that the 18-minute silent film was produced in 1926 – the year before Al Jolson starred in “The Jazz Singer,” the country’s first talking film.

The Pottsville Republican documented an Adams Cinema crew filming in New Philadelphia and neighboring cities in articles published on April 28 and May 4, 1926.

WHAT IT SHOWS

SJ Flood’s film is more of a documentary than a Hollywood feature film.

It’s a time capsule of sorts and pretty much captures small-town life as it was in the mid-‘Roaring 20s.

Parishioners emerging from Holy Family Catholic Church after Mass were dressed formally. Men wore suits and fedoras, women their Sunday best. The men came out of a door on one side of the church, the women on the other.