[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Obituary: James Card



Associated Press 1/18/00 2:02 pm EST

Film Archivist James Card Dies
<snip>
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) -- James Card, a leader in film preservation who built
the George Eastman House museum into a major movie archive and was co-founder
of the Telluride Film Festival, has died at age 84.

Card died Sunday at a hospital in Syracuse after a lengthy illness.

A movie buff since his youth, Card was the first film curator of Eastman
House, the 50-year-old photography museum established in the mansion of
Eastman Kodak Co. founder George Eastman.

During a nearly 30-year career there, he oversaw the growth of the museum's
film collection.
<snip>
<snip>
He was also credited with helping revive interest in the career of silent
film star Louise Brooks, a famous beauty of the '20s who made films in both
Hollywood and Germany. Card persuaded her to move to Rochester in the 1950s,
when she was all but forgotten, and encouraged her to write. By the time she
died in 1985, she was a widely published writer and a cult figure for many
movie fans.
<snip>
<snip>
Card wrote about his life in his 1994 book ``Seductive Cinema: The Art of
Silent Film.''

Card co-founded the Telluride Film Festival in 1974 and served on the board
of directors of the Montreal World Film Festival, Eastman House said. He also
taught film studies at Syracuse University and the University of Rochester.
<snip>
<snip>
Card bought his first movie while studying at the University of Heilderberg
in Germany -- a print of ``The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.'' By the late 1940s,
he had amassed 800 films. He worked at Kodak, then switched to curator of
Eastman House's film department in 1948, the year before the museum opened to
the public. He remained in that post until his retirement in 1977.
<snip>



Peter Kurilecz

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>