Weekly View » Eric Grayson

“The Payoff” at Garfield Park

Weekly View — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 05:09:15 +0000

INDIANAPOLIS — Film historian Eric Grayson will screen The Payoff, a 1942 film starring Lee Tracy, a former top Broadway actor, at 7 p.m. on Sat., April 28, at the Garfield Park Arts Center, 2432 Conservatory Drive.
Tracy was known for his role as the fast-talking reporter in The Front Page. He was, by this time, also known for something else: Between the two films, while on location in Mexico to shoot another movie, Tracy, a heavy drinker, was standing on a balcony during a military parade and urinated on the army below. His actions caused an uproar in Mexico, and, according to Grayson, it was a long time before he worked in a big picture again, doing a lot of “slumming,” as in The Payoff, made for PRC, the cheapest studio in Hollywood.
Amazingly, Grayson added, the film is still quite good, despite its very low budget. In the film, he again plays a fast-talking reporter who solves a case before the police can in this “early film noir.”
Admission is $5 and concessions are $1. For more information, visit www.gpacarts.org or call 317-327-7135.

Local Film Historian Screens W.C. Field Films, Shorts in NYC

Weekly View — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 05:09:55 +0000

INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis-based film historian Eric Grayson screened films and shorts starring W.C. Fields at a special invitation-only event honoring Fields at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City on June 22.
Since 2005, Grayson has been working with two of Fields’ grandchildren, Dr. Harriet Fields and Ronald J. Fields, to preserve their grandfather’s films and shorts. A film tribute to Grayson by the grandchildren was shown at a Vintage Movie Night event at Garfield Park Arts Center earlier this year.
The New York event was held one hundred years and one day after Fields made his Broadway debut. While we may think of him as a film actor, he performed for years on the stage. Often, his stage routines were later incorporated into some of his films.
Fields starred in the famed Ziegfeld Follies at the New Amsterdam Theatre, along with other well-known performers, and in many other productions there and at other theatres in New York.
In addition to viewing excerpts from the films and shorts, all in Grayson’s extensive collection, a panel discussed the career and impact of W.C. Fields. In addition to the two grandchildren, the panel included former TV show host Dick Cavett, Arthur Wertheim (author of two books on Fields), and Dana Amendola (Vice President for Operations at the Disney Theatrical Group, the current owner of the New Amsterdam Theatre).

Film Historian Discusses Restoration of Film Serial

Weekly View — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 05:09:01 +0000

INDIANAPOLIS — Eric Grayson, the Indianapolis-based film historian, collector, and preservationist, has been invited to address the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) at its annual convention in November in Richmond, VA.
Grayson will speak about his recent preservation and restoration of Chapter 5 of the 1929 film, King of the Kongo, the first sound film serial, and show the restored chapter.
Eric located the fragile, rare shellac sound discs, painstakingly restored the film itself, and married the sound and the visuals. Grayson has restored and preserved several old films and shorts, but this chapter was his most ambitious effort to date. He first screened it for fellow film historians and the general public at a special gathering hosted by the Library of Congress, and recently presented it at Indiana Landmarks.
Grayson has now obtained the discs for Chapter 10. These have been transferred to a digital format so he can begin the restoration of another chapter of King of the Kongo. These discs are likely the only ones in existence, according to Grayson.
For more information on Grayson, visit www.filmeric.com. To read his popular blog on many aspects of film, visit www.drfilm.net/blog. Join his Dr. Film group on Facebook: www.drfilm.net/facebook.