Blackhawk Films
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Blackhawk Films, from the 1950s through the early 1980s, marketed motion pictures on
16mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 mm and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, ...
, 8mm and Super 8 film. Most were vintage one- or two-reel
short subject A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film or ...
s, usually comedies starring
Laurel and Hardy Laurel and Hardy were a British-American double act, comedy duo during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957) ...
,
Our Gang ''Our Gang'' (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' or ''Hal Roach's Rascals'') is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, who also pr ...
,
Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...
,
Buster Keaton Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent films during the 1920s, in which he performed physical comedy and inventive stunts. He frequently ...
, and other famous comedy series of the past. Blackhawk also offered newsreels,
documentaries A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". The American author and media analyst Bill ...
, and silent feature films. With the rise of the
video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...
market in the early 1980s, Blackhawk began producing video versions of many of their titles in 1981 and within a few years no longer manufactured film copies. The company was later purchased by
Republic Pictures Republic Pictures is currently an acquisition-only label owned by Paramount Pictures. Its history dates back to Republic Pictures Corporation, an American film studio that originally operated from 1935 to 1967, based in Los Angeles, California ...
in 1985, and the film elements still later by archivist David Shepard.


History of Blackhawk Films

The company was founded in 1927 as Eastin Pictures by Kent D. Eastin, who made movie ads for merchants, filmed local news events for theater
newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news, news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a Movie theater, cinema, newsreels were a source of cu ...
s and sold independent 35 mm theatrical film prints for home projectors of the day. Eastin worked from his parents’ home in
Galesburg, Illinois Galesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois, United States. The city is northwest of Peoria, Illinois, Peoria. At the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, its population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County and the principal cit ...
. With the advent of 16mm sound film in 1932, Eastin moved his company to
Davenport, Iowa Davenport ( ) is a city in Scott County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. It is situated along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state. Davenport had a population of 101,724 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 cen ...
, operating a rental library until 1957 when business slowed due to television. Davenport was also home to the Victor Animatograph Corporation, a pioneer motion picture equipment manufacturer. With a background in direct mail and management, Martin D. Phelan left
Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a mail-order business and later a department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001; its common nickname was "Monkey Wards". ...
to become Eastin's business partner in 1947. The Blackhawk name was first used for a secondary business, liquidating stocks of used 16mm prints from British Information Services, Mills Panoram Soundies, and other libraries and producers. Blackhawk began publishing monthly catalogs in 1949. More than 2,500,000 used films were sold by mail order before this business was discontinued in 1981. In 1952, Blackhawk introduced its own releases in both 8mm and 16mm. Included in this "Collector Series" were
Laurel and Hardy Laurel and Hardy were a British-American double act, comedy duo during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957) ...
silents from Hal Roach Studios, authorized editions of Keystone comedies licensed by Sennett’s original backer, Roy Aitken, and a group of railroad films (Eastin was a lifelong rail fan). Consumer interest grew, and soon Blackhawk was offering a wide variety of vintage comedies, dramas, westerns, musicals, documentaries, serials, and cartoons. Unlike the home-movie dealers Castle Films and Official Films, which offered brief excerpts from longer films, Blackhawk released complete subjects as they were shown in theaters. Blackhawk continued to cater to dyed-in-the-wool silent-film enthusiasts; Art Acord, Theda Bara, Charles Hutchinson, Lige Conley, Lloyd Hamilton, Alice Howell, and Richard Talmadge were just some of the silent-era personalities whose work had almost totally vanished until Blackhawk brought some representative reels to light. The company issued a tabloid-sized catalog, the "Blackhawk Bulletin," which heralded the latest releases and sales promotions each month. Boasting up to 18 new releases every month, an in-house film restoration facility as good as any owned by film archives, and more than 90 employees working in a picturesque, century-old building of roughly , Blackhawk grew to dominate the home-movie field with a base of 125,000 customers. Fox
Movietone News Movietone News was a newsreel that ran from December 1927 to 1963 in the United States. Under the name British Movietone News, it also ran in the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1986, in France also produced by Fox-Europa, in Spain in the early 1930s a ...
, silent-film revivalist Paul Killiam, and
National Telefilm Associates National Telefilm Associates (NTA) was a distribution company primarily concerned with the syndication of American film libraries to television, including the Republic Pictures film library. It was successful enough on cable television between 19 ...
joined Hal Roach as important sources for Blackhawk's releases. Other rare finds were offered to Eastin by private collectors, for reprinting in the home-movie gauges. Since the late 1960s, David Shepard of the
American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...
had been working closely with Kent Eastin to ensure permanent preservation of Blackhawk’s unique original films at the Library of Congress. Shepard joined the Blackhawk Films staff in 1973, and spearheaded the ambitious restoration of
Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...
's twelve Mutual comedies of 1916-17. Shepard later became vice president of Blackhawk Films. In 1975, with business booming in the Super 8 and 16mm film formats, Eastin and Phelan sold Blackhawk to Lee Enterprises, a successful newspaper and broadcasting conglomerate also based in Davenport. The rapid rise in the price of silver (essential to black-and-white film processing) caused home-movie retail prices to skyrocket, and many collectors abandoned film in favor of then-new home video. Lee Enterprises' decision to emphasize mail-order sales instead of a unique product line, and heavy investments in the
Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, and stylized as the Greek letter Beta, β in its logo) is a discontinued consumer analog Videotape, video cassette recording format developed by Sony. It was one of the main competitors in the videotape format war ag ...
and CED ( RCA's mechanical video disc) formats, proved very costly. Lee Enterprises sold the company to its Blackhawk management team, who continued until 1985 when
Republic Pictures Republic Pictures is currently an acquisition-only label owned by Paramount Pictures. Its history dates back to Republic Pictures Corporation, an American film studio that originally operated from 1935 to 1967, based in Los Angeles, California ...
bought the company. Republic discontinued film sales and closed the Davenport facility in 1987. Shepard owned Film Preservation Associates, specializing in restoration of silent film classics. He started FPA with the purchase of the Blackhawk film library. Although the film-sales business had slowed dramatically, Shepard continued to serve serious hobbyists by selling new 16mm prints of Blackhawk subjects, made to order. In July 2007 he announced that Blackhawk Films would discontinue the 16mm business. Shepard then devoted his energies to video restorations of classic motion pictures, until his death in 2017. The Blackhawk Films/Film Preservation Associates Collection is now held at the Academy Film Archive and owned by Paris-based Lobster Films.


Catalogs of Blackhawk Films

Hundreds of catalogs have been published over the years. Most of them have been digitized and made accessible online by USC Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive


References

{{Reflist


External links


Official website1935-1995 Blackhawk Films/FPA catalogs online
listing, May 2004

by Mark Roth
"Georges Méliès titles from the Blackhawk Films anthologies"
by Spencer Sundell Film distributors of the United States Mass media companies established in 1927 1927 establishments in Illinois Mass media companies disestablished in 1967 1967 disestablishments in Iowa