#658) Bert Williams Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913)

#658) Bert Williams Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913)

Other notes 

• “Lime Kiln Club” came to be thanks to Klaw and Erlanger, a theatrical management company that, among many accomplishments, produced the Ziegfeld Follies. Looking to expand their enterprise beyond the stage, Klaw and Erlanger entered a production deal with Biograph around 1913, with “Lime Kiln Club” chosen as a vehicle for Bert Williams, one of their biggest stars. The film’s co-directors were also part of this deal: Edwin Middleton was from Biograph, and T. Hayes Hunter from Klaw and Erlanger.
• In the interest of preserving as much of this footage as possible for presentation, MoMA’s reconstruction includes each take in its full, uncut form, with no editing or crosscutting. This means almost every take begins with someone holding up the marker indicating which number take this is (no need for a slate, these are silent films after all), and we get brief glimpses of the actors out-of-character, standing around before a take or talking with the directors. In addition, this version limits itself to two takes per scene, enough for an audience to see the subtle differences in each take, but not enough to be too repetitive or boring.
• Based on the available footage (including the outtakes), it appears that there were no more than four takes done for any scene. That would explain how these silent films were cranked out so quickly; it only needs to look good, not sound good.
• Watching the full version of “Lime Kiln Club” was a fascinating experience. The most surprising aspect for me was that Bert Williams is the only person in the film wearing Blackface or doing the exaggerated Black stereotyping we associate with silent films. All the other Black performers are acting and behaving quite naturally (aside from the occasional over-acting, but hey, it was 1913). Oddly enough, this helps make Bert’s acting more palatable. Still cringe-inducing, but at least its not commentary on an entire race of people.
• Shoutout to Odessa Warren Grey as the leading lady. Warren Grey started out as a performer, but by 1913 she was focused primarily on her millenary business and was known as quite the fashionable socialite. Warren Grey had performed alongside Bert Williams roughly 10 years prior to this film, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she acted in “Lime Kiln Club” as a favor to her old co-star. And it goes without saying Odessa looks incredible in the stylish outfits she wears throughout the film.
• One interesting takeaway from the film’s unedited presentation: We get an uncut take of Odessa opening her window and looking down at her three suitors, followed by her mother (Abbie Mitchell) pouring a bucket of water out the same window. This is followed by an uncut take of her suitors on the ground floor, with Bert getting the water poured on his head. Obviously, it wouldn’t have been cut this way in the final film, but the extended delay between set-up and punchline made it funnier to me.
• The “field day” of the title consists of a parade, followed by a picnic in the park, with plenty of food and even a few carnival-type rides. Most of this footage is club members participating in games, including a regrettably stereotypical watermelon eating contest. Somebody please invent the bouncy castle!
• The Criterion presentation of “Lime Kiln Club” includes two different soundtracks composed by, respectively, Donald Sosin and Trevor Mathison. The Sosin score is a traditional silent movie soundtrack akin to what an audience in 1913 would have heard, while the Mathison score is more an electronic soundscape unrelated to the on-screen action. In other words, Sosin’s score makes you view this footage as a narrative film, while Mathison’s score makes you view the footage as an art installation. Two very different but equally important ways to approach “Lime Kiln Club” over a century after its creation.
• The final scene of Bert walking Odessa to her house is noteworthy in that we get three variations on the same ending. After an hour of watching multiple takes that unfold roughly the same way each time, it was interesting seeing that the filmmakers were still figuring out what exactly they wanted for the ending. Also noteworthy is that all three include a kiss between Bert and Odessa, one of the rare recordings of affection between two Black people at the time. The third variation is a close-up kiss that goes on for so long it puts that couple from “Something Good” to shame.

Legacy 

• As “Lime Kiln” was nearing completion, Klaw and Erlanger’s deal with Biograph fell through, and Biograph retained the rights to all the films made under the agreement. While Biograph did release a few of their Klaw and Erlanger films, they did not release “Lime Kiln Club” due to – you guessed it – “concerns” about releasing a film with an all-Black cast in Southern theaters, and the film was abandoned.
• In 1939, the long-defunct Biograph studio closed its film vault for good and planned on destroying all of its surviving film reels. Thankfully, the Museum of Modern Art’s first film curator Iris Barry learned of this, and was able to save over 900 cans of film. Among those cans were the original negatives of the abandoned “Lime Kiln Club” footage. The first positive print was made from these negatives in 1976, and the first public screening at MoMA was in October 2014 (two months before it made the NFR).

• Bert Williams continued performing with Ziegfeld until 1919, around the same time that Klaw and Erlanger dissolved their partnership. While he was able to headline his own stage shows, Williams faced diminishing returns, which led to his steep decline into alcoholism and depression. After a brief bout of pneumonia, Bert Williams died in 1922 at age 47.
• Most of Bert William’s songs from his stage act have been covered over the years, though mostly by White artists. The most recognizable tribute to Williams is in the Kander & Ebb musical “Chicago”, in which the character of Amos performs “Mr. Cellophane”, composed in the style of a Bert Williams number.