Great news for lovers of vintage comedy shorts in NYC — there are many live screenings coming up in your near future!
It starts today (March 7, 2024, for those of you who don’t look at the dates of what you’re reading) at MOMA with Fleischer Cartoons: The Art and Inventions of Max Fleischer. As I wrote here, Fleischer was my favorite of the vintage cartoon studio, with characters like Popeye, Betty Boop, Koko the Klown, and Superman. They’ll be showing dozens of these vintage shows for one solid week, with presenters like my friend the accompanist Ben Model, and Fleischer’s granddaughter Jane Fleischer Reid, who has been overseeing restorations of these pioneering films. Read all about it here.
This Saturday (March 9) evening you’ll have a decision to make, however. While MOMA is showing its Betty Boop program, friend Nelson Hughes is screening a program of live action comedy shorts at QED in Queens to celebrate the tenth anniversary of his series That Slapstick Show. They are privileging “Pre-Code” in the advertisements, a heads up to those in the know to expect naughty moments of shock, the sort of things that would pop up in movies before the Hays Code was strictly enforced in 1934, which are almost always rewarding. Ten films are in the program, with Edgar Kennedy topping the bill! Tickets are here.
While we’re on the subject of Nelson Hughes, this is a good time and place to alert you that he will be presenting a program of Saturday Morning Cartoons featuring “cameos” by the Marx Brothers in vintage cartoon shorts at Marxfest the morning of Saturday, May 18. Mark your calendars! Please come and stick around — my talk on The Marx Brothers, Vaudeville, Silent Film and Broadway will also be happening at the Lambs Club later that day. More here.
(Travalanche) 
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