Black Diamond Comedies Blog

By Jill Patton A hundred years ago, the United States Motion Picture Corporation (USMPC) lugged its bulky filming equipment to Hillside Farms in Shavertown, about five miles outside of Wilkes-Barre. Their mission: record actress Leatrice Joy, who played Sue in Her...

The Wyoming Valley was once home to a motion picture studio, and folks this weekend will have an opportunity to watch one of the silent films made here, along with a Hollywood classic. Families for Forty Fort Park will present the 1917 film “Susie Slips One Over” at...

On October 17, 2014, at 5:00 pm, Noreen O’Connor of the King’s College Department of English will present "Women Who Run Away (to Wilkes-Barre): “Susie” and the Image of Transgression in the First Paramount Silent Comedies" at the Black Bear Film Festival Salon....

On a bright early summer day in 1917, people stopped to stare as a big man ran pell-mell along a busy street in downtown Wilkes-Barre. It wasn't the man they were staring at - it was the camera crew filming him. In the 1910s, when the New York-New Jersey region was...

By Kellie LoGrande History can be found anywhere, even in one's own backyard. Run-down buildings, remains of landmarks, forgotten paths, and plots of land often have a story. All you need to do is find those forgotten things, and then maybe you can find the story...

By Tyler Biscontini The United States Motion Picture Corporation (USMPC) was one of the first silent film producers in the nation. More importantly to this post, it was located here in Wilkes-Barre and Forty Fort. Most people who live in this area don’t seem to...

By Shannon Rowan Like most college students my age, I had never seen a silent film prior to watching Flesh and Spirit for the film screening.  When I learned that we would be watching and screening a silent film, I didn’t know what to expect.  I had always just...

As I walked down North River Street with friends on the day that I first arrived in Wilkes-Barre, I came across a massive decrepit building. I looked up and thought to myself, "How someone could let such an amazing building become so worn is astonishing." I enquired...

By Christopher Cozillio When I first began the silent film portion of my Writing for New Media course, my mind instantly went to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.  After taking a film course my senior year of high school, I took an extreme interest in film.  We...