Thanhouser Company
Thanhouser Company Film Preservation, Inc.
705 NW Albemarle Terrace
Portland, OR 97210 USA
E-mail: tco@thanhouser.org
Internet: http://www.thanhouser.org
  Trademark     			          Press Contact: Ned Thanhouser (503) 677-7020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thanhouser Films Featured at The Museum of Modern Art
Grandson of Pioneering Silent Film Founders to Speak
PORTLAND, OR – Ned Thanhouser, grandson of silent motion picture pioneers Edwin and Gertrude Thanhouser, will present a program on the Thanhouser film enterprise as part of the Museum of Modern Art film series From Automatic Vaudeville to the Seventh Art: Cinema’s Silent Years, 1893–1928.
The program is scheduled for January 28th, 2000 at 7:00 pm at The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY in the Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2. Film tickets are included with Museum admission on the day of the program or on a pay-as-you-wish basis after 4:30 pm.
From Automatic Vaudeville to the Seventh Art is the most comprehensive survey of silent cinema ever presented from the Museum's collections. This six-month series spans the entire history of the medium from its earliest incarnation as a peepshow parlor attraction–automatic vaudeville–and continues through the years of experimentation and consolidation (1908-1917) to its great maturity in the 1920s.
Thanhouser was one of the pioneering motion picture production companies notable for its role as an important leader in the rebellion of the "Independents" against the Motion Picture Patents Trust associated with Thomas Edison. 
Thanhouser Company, and its successor Mutual’s Thanhouser Film Corporation, was an extraordinarily active and energetic film company that thrived from 1909 to 1918. The company produced and released to worldwide distribution over 1,000 silent films from its headquarters in New Rochelle, NY.
Mr. Thanhouser will present a brief history of the Thanhouser film enterprise followed by the showing of three Thanhouser films from the Museum's collection. Stuart Oderman will provide live musical accompaniment.
•	Get Rich Quick (1911) – a one-reel moral tale of a young married couple who become rich with ill gotten gains only to become poor again to find the happiness they sought.
•	The Cry of the Children (1912) – a critically acclaimed two-reel tragedy that deals frankly with the issue of child labor abuse. Based on the poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
•	A Dog's Love (1914) - an appealing one-reel film about a loyal dog who remains faithful to his child playmate after her tragic death. 
Of the over 1,000 films produced by Thanhouser, only 182 prints have been found and most have been preserved. The Museum of Modern Art holds eight important films in its collection. New Thanhouser films are discovered each year with over a dozen Thanhouser nitrate films currently awaiting preservation.
Thanhouser Company Film Preservation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation established for the research, preservation and publication of educational materials related to early silent era, with a specific focus on Thanhouser. The company has produced a three-volume video collector's set with 13 Thanhouser films and a CD-ROM, Thanhouser Films: An Encyclopedia and History by noted historian Q. David Bowers. 
Additional information on Thanhouser can be found at www.thanhouser.org; information on From Automatic Vaudeville to the Seventh Art can be found at http://www.moma.org/filmvideo.
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