[Dixielandjazz] Jack, The Good For Nothing?

[Gary Lawrence Murphy]

http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/G/GoodForNothing1917.html tells us the
film was 5 reels and 4900 feet, and
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0008025/lists the ODJB members as
supporting cast, but yes, scant little can be
found on the film outside of these references, and the brief mis-mention in
The Story Of

On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 8:24 PM, Anton Crouch
<anton.crouch at optusnet.com.au>wrote:

>  Hello Gary
>
> I can't remember the question being asked before on the DJML - it's a
> beauty!
>
> Your fear, that the movie is lost, is probably correct. The American Film
> Institute Catalog lists it but does not record it as having been seen by
> Institute staff. From the plot summary we see that the movie is a "city
> vs country" piece. The cast list given by the AFI does not include the
> members of the ODJB and the only firm data is the release date.  Perhaps
> significantly, the number of reels and copyright details are not given.
>
> Your reference to the "1914 Chaplin film of a similar name" puzzled me,
> until I realised that *The good for nothing* is an alternative title for
> the well-known *His new profession*.
>
> All the best,
> Anton
>
>
> On 31/01/2013 16:16, Gary Lawrence Murphy wrote:
>
>  Forgive my asking what has likely been asked 10,000 times already on this
> list, but I'm late to the party: I was reading the recollections of Nick
> LaRocca in that old 1960's book on the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, and
> arrived at the part about the band's cameo appearance in the 1917 silent
> film "Jack, The Good For Nothing" -- in the book they mistakenly confuse
> this with the 1914 Chaplin film of a similar name, and while I can find the
> Chaplin film all over the internet, to my shock and horror, I can't even
> find a single still frame from the 1917 Carlyle Blackwell film, and indeed
> some sources say "Survival status: unknown"
>
> Is this true? Has not even the twenty-first century located a viewable copy
> of this precious piece of jazz history?
>
> it is a interesting (e)book, some details to be taken with a grain of salt
> I suppose (hiring a drunk to shout "Jass it up!"?) and supports what was
> said here earlier about 4/4 vs cut-time in the context of that 'jazz'
> music, but with a rather different take on the history of the influx of the
> copy-cat bands and the ODJB's subsequent tour of England.
>
>


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