VANISHING SHADOWS RESTORATIONS

MISSION STATEMENT

Our goal is to discover, recover, restore and preserve rare and previously “lost” media (feature films, cliffhanger serials, pre-code horror, theatrical dramas, historical books, radio programs and additional items unseen for decades. Our fund raising will be put toward preserving these rare materials and making them accessible to the public and institutions, on physical media, in live presentations, and on a free streaming channel.
Vanishing Shadows Restorations is a new 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to recovering, restoring and preserving rare films from around the world and making them available to the public in high-quality archival editions on physical media and online streaming.

As a nonprofit, we prioritize under-appreciated films that would otherwise be unlikely to receive high-quality archival restorations. Some of our favorite types of films are long-thought-lost silent cinema, the pioneering works of Black filmmakers from the 1920s and 30s, pre-code horror, westerns, and cliffhanger serials, the unseen treasures of global genre film—and far beyond!

Information on our inaugural restoration projects will be posted shortly. Until then, if you want to support our mission of film preservation, you are welcome to make a fully tax-deductible donation at the link below. Your generous donations will contribute to a vibrant and eclectic physical media culture and ensure that rare films will not only be preserved for posterity but can truly find their audience once more--on cinema screens and in your living room.


Board President / Live Program Manager
DANIEL AUFMANN
Daniel is a film historian who specializes in silent-era American cinema. With over ten years of experience working with archival film collections, he is passionate about ensuring that underappreciated works are preserved and made available to the public. Daniel holds an M.A. in Film and Media Studies from Columbia University.

Vice President / Film Archivist
DREW CALDWELL
Drew is a lifelong film and memorabilia collector who has generously provided source material for a variety of film restorations, many of which have been preserved and released by the Serial Squadron Cliffhanger Library.

Content & Restoration Director
ERIC STEDMAN
Comfortable with working on creative projects in any medium, Eric, director of the Serial Squadron Cliffhanger Library for 23 years, has brought many long-thought “lost” serials and features back to life from film originals and made them viewable again, including The Lone Ranger (1938) and Seven Footprints to Satan (1929), as well as the recent restorations of The Galloping Ghost, The Wolf Dog, Mystery Mountain and Holt of the Secret Service, as shown on TCM. He has years of experience in theatre, music and art, wrote the first musical version of Beauty and the Beast, published books and photonovels based on lost silent serials including The Mysteries of Myra, and staged the first production of the 1930 Frankenstein script which was the basis of the 1931 Karloff film. He also provides musical accompaniment for some silent restoration projects in person and on video.

Online Video Advisor
HOLLY ZUELLE
Holly is an actress, writer and the administrator of a video streaming service. She can be seen as a performer in new films and produced “Justice for Jeannette,” a true crime documentary recently for the Disney/Hulu series Crimes of the Paranormal.

Video Archivist
RICHARD DAVENPORT
Richard is a Texas-based cinema archivist with a particular interest in the cliffhanger serial form. He is always seeking out more rare content and will ensure the preservation of all restoration projects produced by the Vanishing Shadows Film Restoration Collective.

Advisor
JOHN R. ELLIS
Filmmaker and special effects director John Ellis, with many years experience in all aspects of genre films, rediscovered and restored the complete Steve Canyon television series and has advised on restorations produced by the Serial Squadron Cliffhanger Library. John is excited to bring his expertise to the Vanishing Shadows Film Restoration Collective.

Content Provider
“MOVIE MIKE” OLSHAN
Mike is a New York-based journalist, editor and photographer. He was formerly editor of the  film/TV production journal Millimeter and of Videoplay Magazine and has curated numerous film festivals on a variety of topics related to global film history. He says “My purpose as a screening host has been to preserve and promote the experience of genuine cinema, which is fundamentally different from watching a film at home on TV. It is a ceremonial experience, where we gather as a community in a darkened room to share a bigger-than-life dream. That huge image provides a quality of grand spectacle, like the theater that Aristotle describes in his Poetics, that speaks directly to the heart!”

We now have our own FREE STREAMING CHANNEL as well: The CLASSIC CINEMA VAULT

One which has a way around use of commercials which is innovative and allows videos to run continuously without interruption. This channel will run new chapters of recently restored serials or series and new presentations of features or other projects completed by the Vanishing Shadows Film Restoration Collective.

To visit the channel and watch now, go to www.cliffhangerchannel.com and sign up as a member of plugr.life. The membership is free and details about yourself you may wish to share with others as the site is interactive are optional.

Once you have signed up, then click the remote on right, then on the remote type 1010 to select the channel. Then click on the little speaker icon to unmute the audio and watch away! The channel plays content in a loop, 24/7 every day.

PROJECTS IN CONSIDERATION
FOR PRODUCTION

Following are some descriptions of projects which we’d like to see happen, some of which are near-complete and we’d like to see finished and made available as soon as possible. With a little more funding & support we might be able to do so.
Here are just some of the projects we’d like to be able to deliver to you, in cooperation with the Library of Congress, BFI, and other Archives and Film Collectors
Many or most titles have already had some work, sometimes a substantial amount of work done on them and/or transfers paid for"

New Discovery!
OVERLAND BOUND with Leo Maloney
The first sound Western, long thought lost, from 35mm.

Trying to trick Ma (Lydia Knott) and Mary Winters (Allene Ray) into selling their rundown ranch, which will be in the path of a future railroad, Underwood (Charles K.French) hires Keno Creager (Albert Smith) to impersonate Jimmy Winters, not seen by his mother and sister for many years. Lucky Lorimer (Leo Maloney), a horsetrading drifter, and Larry Withers, a waiter (Jack Perrin) in the saloon of Boss Wheeler (William Dyer), discover the plot. Larry reveals he is Jimmy, and they both head for the Winters' ranch. They find Creager already there but Lucky, via a fake murder charge on Jimmy Winters, tricks Creager into denying he is Jimmy.

New Discovery!
PIONEERS OF THE WEST featuring Tom Tyler
One of several other long-unseen Tyler Western features, from 35mm


THE RETURN OF CHANDU
Serial Restoration by Eric Stedman with Commentary by author Leonard J. Kohl -- just completed

New Discovery!
GHOST OF ZORRO
Full Serial Restoration of the Clayton Moore serial from original Republic print discovered in Europe

New Discovery!
KING OF THE MOUNTIES
Serial restoration upgrade -- now including the complete Chapter 3 from 35mm.

Never before on video!
ADVENTURES OF TARZAN
Serial Restoration from 35mm originals, Feature version. Transfers all complete, in assembly stage

Never before on video!
THE MYSTERY OF DR. FU MANCHU
Restoration of 1927 British serial licensed by the BFI; Additional content by writer/advisor William Maynard. Awaiting final contract & green light for project permission and distribution.


MASCOT SERIALS TRANSFERRED
FROM ORIGINAL NEGATIVES
(Titles to be announced)



SPECIAL PROJECTS

Never before on video!

THE EVIL EYE
1920s serial featuring boxer Benny Leonard vs. the fiendish and hideous “Money Spider,” played by a British Lon Chaney-style makeup master. May cost $2000-5000 for transfer
THE GREEN ARCHER
featuring Walter Miller and Allene Ray in the silent serial with the greatest reputation ever. From 35mm. Cost for transfer: $25,000
CLANCY OF THE MOUNTED
featuring Tom Tyler
THE FLAME FIGHTER
featuring Herbert Rawlinson


New Discovery!
THE COMPLETE HOUDINI SERIAL PROJECT It does exist complete. Transfer cost not yet available.

VIDEO SERIES

THE DAUGHTERS OF DARING

Multi-part series presenting rare and previously unseen footage from cliffhanger serials featuring their original action heroes -- all female. From Mary Fuller in WHAT HAPPENED TO MARY, to the “railroad girl” Helen Holmes, star of THE HAZARDS OF HELEN and additional serials, the “mystery women,” Mollie King, Neva Gerber, Jean Sothern, and Grace Darmond of THE HOPE DIAMOND MYSTERY, the “investigators,” Ruth Roland, Grace Darling and Ann Little, the crime-serial stars Cleo Madison and Grace Cunard, the ubiquitous Pearl White, star of THE PERILS OF PAULINE, Juanita Hansen and others who fought desperate super-villains, and world adventurers including Kathlyn Williams and Marie Walcamp, star of THE RED ACE -- surviving footage of which is presented for the first time in this series. With a celebrity narrator and others included giving reactions and reviews. This project includes a restoration of:

BRENDA STARR, REPORTER
Blu-Ray
Featuring JOAN WOODBURY
and KANE "SPY SMASHER" RICHMOND

This spunky and entertaining serial which includes GANG BUSTERS-style action and lots of snappy dialogue did not survive complete, and was missing some reels of audio and one or two of picture as well. New techniques are being used to replace, clean up, stabilize, restore and re-create missing content so the serial will feel complete again.

MOVIE MIKE’S RARITIES:

SABU Retrospective, POLITICALLY INCORRECT FILM FESTIVAL: IDEOLOGICAL KITSCH, MISSION TO MONGO with Commentary, HORROR STARS INCOGNITO

FILMED STAGE PLAYS

FRANKENSTEIN (1930),
the play upon which the Karloff film was based



LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT [Revisited]



SERIAL-RELATED BOOKS
THE SQUADRON GUIDE TO MOVIE SERIALS
THE REPUBLIC SERIALS
THE ROCKETMAN ARCHIVE
An amazing, comprehensive collection of hundreds of stills from the Rocketman/Commando Cody serials
SECRET ORIGINS OF THE SUPERHEROES
CAPTAIN MARVEL IN THE COMICS AND THE MOVIES
THE COMPLETE PERILS OF PAULINE
ALL 20 episodes, narrative and photos; not just the few that are in the video or common novelization.

FICTION / COMICS / VIDEO COMICS
ADVENTURES OF TARZAN Novel
ROCKETMAN RETURNS
DEFENDERS OF THE UNIVERSE
THE BLACK CIRCLE

AUDIO DRAMAS
THE MAGIC [LOST PRINCESS] OF OZ
ADVENTURES OF HARRY HOUDINI
WOW COMICS ON THE AIR
THE BLUE BEETLE

THE VOICE FROM THE SKY
Existing footage and Audio Re-creation (already recorded). Need to pay another $2000 or so for cleaning and transfer of 2 more reels.

THE MYSTERY MIND
Audio serial re-creation featuring (the real) Adrian Booth in her final serial appearance.

GENERAL DONATIONS
Please Donate to the PRODUCTION FUND
for RESTORATION WORK
FILM ACQUISITIONS
DIGITAL STORAGE
PHYSICAL FILM STORAGE
CHANNEL VIDEO POSTING
SHIPPING
NEW FILM TRANSFERS

YOUR DONATIONS WILL HELP KEEP THE NEW VANISHING SHADOWS NON-PROFIT, THE SQUADRON AND THE NEW FREE CHANNEL GOING

Your donations will be tax deductible