Reviewed by:

• Silent Serial Sensations: The Wharton Brothers and the Magic of Early Cinema by Barbara Tepa Lupack
• J. P. Telotte (bio)

In 1921, famed publisher E. W. Scripps founded Science Service, an organization promoting science and technology in everyday life. This development suggests the background for Barbara Tepa Lupack's Silent Serial Sensations: the Machine Age that touted the "wizardry of science" (p. 94); the emerging technological art of film; and the development of the machine-like serial film. Together with the "new woman" who typically headlined these serials, these are the threads from which Lupack weaves her account of the films of Ted and Leo Wharton, brothers who were writers, directors, producers, and founders of the Wharton Studio (p. 83). Their company operated mainly in Ithaca, New York, producing shorts, features, and serials at a moment of change in the movies, as production was shifting from various east-coast locations to the west coast—a point when many histories of the movies begin.

But that westward shift is not the Whartons' story. They were products of the Machine Age, capitalizing on the period's new mobility to make films in many locations: Chicago, New York, Santa Cruz, and San Antonio. Lupack emphasizes their Ithaca operations, where the Whartons built a studio, and where that modern mobility let them bring actors by train from talent-rich New York and truck their companies to the picturesque areas abounding upstate. From that base, the Whartons also transported students at nearby Cornell University and townsfolk to various locations where they shot elaborate films for international distribution by such companies as Pathé. In fact, their 1914 serial, The Exploits of Elaine, starring one of early cinema's most famous women, Pearl White, became the first American film to gross over $1 million.

Lupack's account is especially adept at placing the Whartons in the context [End Page 1231] of the movie industry's rapid evolution. Thus the opening chapter describes both movie-making and movie-going as technological processes, involving much equipment and technical expertise and an appreciation for technological narratives of the sort the Whartons crafted skillfully—about technology, machines, and scientific gadgetry. Filling an important niche in the typical movie experience, they specialized in a machine-like product, the serial or chapter play, rapidly fashioned in twelve or fifteen episodes that emphasized action (constantly involving trains, trolleys, and cars), had a frantic pace, and culminated in formulaic cliffhanger endings. Their mastery of this form, Lupack argues, brought a reputation as "the most innovative serial producers of their day" (p. 149). While few Wharton efforts still exist due to a 1929 fire that consumed most of their nitrate negatives, Lupack has reconstructed their plots and recaptured some of the serials' appeal. Working from trade papers, reviews, a Library of Congress catalog, advertising materials, and the Wharton Collection at Cornell, she provides almost episode-by-episode summaries that convey the appeal of "the scientific mystery serial" films (p. 88). In these films, "tense situations and the marvelous achievements of science" combine with depictions of the period's new "empowered woman" (p. 99, 90). To support her descriptions, she appends surviving scenarios from: The Mysteries of Myra (1916), Beatrice Fairfax (1916), and The Eagle's Eye (1918). However, her main achievement is not reconstruction, but framing the films within this heady period, colored by the advent of World War I and the age's technological enthusiasms.

Another pleasure of Silent Serial Sensations is encountering the celebrated figures who worked with the Whartons. Their studio attracted the likes of Pearl White, Lionel Barrymore, Oliver Hardy, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Irene Castle—dancer, fashion icon, and "the best known woman in America" (p. 165). Drawing on the Whartons' business records, Lupack also sketches their association with another modern celebrity, William Randolph Hearst, whose International Film Service financed and distributed many Wharton films, including Beatrice Fairfax (1916), The Mysteries of Myra (1916), and the notorious Patria (1917), a work that brought threats of censorship for its Hearst-inspired notion of Japanese and Mexican plots...

审核人：

• 寂静的系列感：沃顿兄弟与早期电影的魔力（Barbara Tepa Lupack）
• JP特洛特（生物）

1921年，著名的出版商EW Scripps创立了Science Service，这是一个促进日常生活中的科学和技术的组织。这一发展为Barbara Tepa Lupack的《寂静的系列感》提供了背景：吹捧“科学怪人”的机器时代（第94页）；电影的新兴技术艺术；以及类似机器的连续胶片的发展。与通常在这些连续剧中头条新闻的“新女性”一起，这些都是Lupack编织她讲述泰德和利奥·沃顿（沃顿工作室的作家，导演，制片人和创始人的兄弟）电影的线索。 83）。他们的公司主要在纽约的伊萨卡（Ithaca）经营，在电影改变的那一刻开始制作短裤，剧本和连续剧，因为制作正从东海岸的各个地方转移到西海岸，这是许多电影历史开始的地方。

但是，这种向西转移并不是沃顿家族的故事。它们是机器时代的产物，利用了这段时期的新移动性，在许多地方制作电影：芝加哥，纽约，圣克鲁斯和圣安东尼奥。Lupack强调他们在伊萨卡岛（Ithaca）的运营，沃顿（Whaltons）在那建立了工作室，现代化的机动性使他们能够从富有才华的纽约乘火车带去演员，并将公司运到风景如画的北部地区。从该基地出发，沃顿夫妇还将附近的康奈尔大学和城镇居民的学生运送到各个地方，在那里他们拍摄了精美的电影，并由Pathé等公司进行国际发行。实际上，他们1914年的系列作品《伊莱恩的漏洞》由早期电影界最著名的女性之一珍珠白（Pearl White）主演，成为美国首部票房收入超过100万美元的电影。

Lupack的专长是将Whartons置于电影行业快速发展的背景下[End Page 1231]。因此，本章的开头将电影制作和电影浏览都描述为技术过程，涉及许多设备和技术专长，并对技术叙事有所了解沃顿（Whaltons）巧妙地制作出的那种东西-关于技术，机器和科学工具。他们在典型的电影体验中占据了重要的位置，他们专门从事类似于机器的产品，即连续剧或章节剧，以十二或十五集强调动作（通常涉及火车，电车和汽车），很快就形成了疯狂的节奏。 ，并以公式化的悬崖结局结束。Lupack认为，他们对这种形式的掌握使“当今最创新的连续生产者”声誉卓著（第149页）。尽管由于1929年的大火烧毁了大部分硝酸盐底片，沃顿商学院仍然很少有努力，但卢派克（Lupack）重建了他们的土地，并重新夺回了一些连环画的吸引力。从贸易文件，评论，国会图书馆目录，广告材料，以及康奈尔大学的沃顿商学院（Wharton Collection），她提供了几乎逐集的摘要，传达了“科学神秘连续剧”电影的魅力（第88页）。在这些电影中，“紧张的局势和科学的非凡成就”与该时期新的“有能力的女人”的描写相结合（第99、90页）。为了支持她的描述，她在以下内容中附加了尚存的方案：迈拉之谜（1916），比阿特丽斯·费尔法克斯（1916）和鹰眼（1918）。但是，她的主要成就不是重建，而是在这个令人振奋的时期内拍摄电影，这是第一次世界大战的来临和那个时代的技术热情所为。

沉默系列感官的另一个乐趣是遇到与沃顿共事的著名人物。他们的工作室吸引了像珍珠白，莱昂内尔·巴里摩尔，奥利弗·哈迪，布法罗·比尔·科迪和艾琳·卡斯丁这样的舞者，时尚偶像和“美国最著名的女人”（第165页）。Lupack借鉴了Whartons的商业记录，还勾画了他们与另一位现代名人William Randolph Hearst的关系，后者的国际电影服务社资助并发行了许多沃顿影片，包括Beatrice Fairfax（1916），Myra Mysteries（1916）和臭名昭著的帕特里亚（Patria）（1917年），这部作品因其灵感源自赫斯特（Hearst）的日本和墨西哥阴谋而受到审查的威胁...