Little Screen Players, The

Alternate Name:

The Little Screen Players of Boston

Year Founded:

1923

Location:

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Film Formats:

35mm

Resources:

A detailed review of the club's activity can be found in Amateur Movie Makers 2, no. 7 (1927) on pp. 20-21.: "The Little Screen Players of Boston, an amateur organization founded in May, 1923, with high hopes (which have not yet been deflated), now the proud possessors of two edited films, one already exhibited in 1925 under the title of "IT," the other, a comedy now being titled for release in the Fall; perhaps the first amateur organization to exhibit for commercial audiences ... The Little Screen Players were the outgrowth of years of rumination on the part of Herbert F. Lang, their director, and are directed, cast and staged, and even filmed by a group whose sole claim to moviedom is an inordinate interest in the silver screen and an unbounded faith in its ultimately becoming the debtor of the amateur experimenter, a group now turned so proficient as to rouse fears in the director's mind of possible departure to the ranks of the professionals." (Brownstein 20)
"The picturization of the great metropolis of the future was made possible and an impression of immensity and bizareness gained with only the use of miniature settings. This is a familiar device in the studios, but seldom has it been done so effectively. The amateur might well consider the possibilities of this method, which in amateur production has been so well handled by the Little Screen Players of Boston, one of whose models is shown in this months "Clinic." Recalling our school days it occurs to us that cooperation in this miniature construction might be secured from manual training or vocational departments of your local schools." ("Critical Focusing" 45)

Herbert F. Lang is featured in the section "Finance!" on p. 50 of "News of the Industry" in Amateur Movie Makers 2, no. 11 (1927).

A call for contributors is featured in "News of the Industry," Amateur Movie Makers 2, no. 12 (1927) on p. 69. Brownstein, Mina. "Cinema Democracy: A Review of The Little Screen Players of Boston," Amateur Movie Makers 2, no. 7 (1927): 20:21, 42:43.

Selected references:

"Critical Focusing," Amateur Movie Makers 2, no. 5 (1927): 45:47.

"News of the Industry," Amateur Movie Makers 2, no. 11 (1927): 43:50.

"News of the Industry," Amateur Movie Makers 2, no. 12 (1927): 47:71.

Gale, Arthur L. "Amateur Clubs," Movie Makers 3, no. 7 (1928): 456:457, 482.

Gale, Arthur L. "Amateur Clubs," Movie Makers 4, no. 6 (1929): 372:373, 414:420.

Gale, Arthur L. "Amateur Clubs," Movie Makers 4, no. 8 (1929): 520:521, 536:538.

Gale, Arthur L. "Amateur Clubs," Movie Makers 4, no. 9 (1929): 588, 607:609.

Frequent references thereafter.