A long-lost treasure of Tacoma’s past will come bursting to life on the big screen this fall, if enough money can be raised to make it happen.
The silent film, “The Eyes of the Totem,” made in Tacoma between 1925 and 1928, was recently found. A Kickstarter campaign has been launched to bring the film, complete with newly composed music, to Tacoma’s Rialto Theater on September 18.
Back in the late 1920’s, the biggest picture studio outside Hollywood was in Tacoma. H.C. Weaver Productions was located at Titlow Beach.
https://vimeo.com/122159276">Weaver Studios - Mariposa Productions from https://vimeo.com/user4596373">Mick Flaaen on Vimeo. For over 80 years, it was believed that none of the films from the studio survived.
Then, Lauren Hoogkamer, Tacoma Historic Preservation Coordinator, discovered the movie sitting in a vault at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She says the hour long nitrate film is in amazing shape. (Scroll down to see a clip.)
“It looks like it could have been filmed yesterday,” Hoogkamer said.Tacoma based historian Michael Sullivan has seen a DVD copy. “What’s really just riveting is that all of the outdoor stuff was shot at Mt. Rainier and on the streets of Tacoma with familiar recognizable landmarks," Sullivan said.
You can also see snippets of the film on the Kickstarter pagefor the film.
The director of "The Eyes of the Totem" was W.S. Van Dyke, who later went on to direct The Thin Man series in Hollywood. He also directed Tarzan the Ape Man.
Tacoma based composer John Christopher Bayman is creating a new score for film and the plan is to premiere, or should I say re-premiere, “The Eyes of the Totem” at the Rialto Theater in Tacoma September 18. It actually played there back in the 1920’s.
