SHOOT DATES:
Washington, DC –  Monday, December 21
West Orange, NJ and New York, NY – Tuesday, December 22

HAS HISTORY DETECTIVES FOUND A CLIP OF THE FIRST FILM/SOUND RECORDING?

OXFORD, NJ – The next History Detectives investigation may identify a momentous artifact of film history. 
While antiquing in Pennsylvania, a New Jersey man found a rolled strip of film with small images on the right and odd zebra stripes on the left.  Accompanying the clip he found a news article from 1928 with a photo of the film clip and the caption: The first talking picture.  History Detectives put host historian Gwendolyn Wright on the case.
Here are more details about what we’re investigating:

LAUSTE FILM CLIP    
A New Jersey man was antiquing in Pennsylvania when he bought a collection of photos, letters and scrapbooks that belonged to a man named Eugene Lauste.  The seller said Lauste, a relative, played an important role in early filmmaking.  Most compelling in this collection was a rolled strip of film with small images on the right and odd zebra stripes on the left.  In the scrapbook he also found an article from 1928 featuring a photo of a similar film strip with the caption, “The First Talking Picture:  A section of a talking picture made in 1913 by Eugene Lauste.”  Could this film be a piece of the first talking picture?  HISTORY DETECTIVE host Gwendolyn Wright delves into the early world of movie making, consulting with film historians, experts and technicians, to find the answer.

On Monday, December 21, Gwen Wright will visit an archive at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC.  On Tuesday, December 22, she will consult with a film historian at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, NJ, and then will take the clip to the Cineric Film Lab in New York City. 

HISTORY DETECTIVES is a popular PBS series where history investigators crisscross the country, delving into legends, folklore and personal histories to discover potentially extraordinary objects in everyday American homes, cities and small towns. Lion Television (NY) and Oregon Public Broadcasting co-produce the series. Find out more about the series at our website: http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/   Watch HISTORY DETECTIVES on NJN Thursdays at midnight.

If your reporter would like to cover this story, please contact me at pkruis@opb.org or by phone at (503) 293-1933 so I can assist in coordinating access to the shoot. Note:  Shooting at the Smithsonian Annex will be tight quarters.  Press access may be limited. 

#   #   #