The UC San Diego Library is proud to partner with the La Jolla Historical Society to explore early 1900s films and cinematic novelties during a vintage multimedia exhibit this summer.
A La Jolla resident of the early twentieth-century had many cinematic opportunities, whether enjoying a nightly toy magic lantern slide show at home, walking to a silent film premiere blocks away, or taking the trolley to a downtown San Diego movie palace. Photographs were a staple of depicting people, places and events of interest, but motion pictures, special-effects-laden slide shows, and 3D imagery engaged beyond a static photo.
This exhibition explores these silent films, magic lanterns and stereoscopic novelties. Using an early 1900s vintage multimedia approach, the project features a study of the silent melodrama films of La Jolla Cinema League (a well-equipped 1920’s film club in La Jolla who were trained members of the Amateur Cinema League), magic lantern-style slide presentations of La Jolla Historical Society archival holdings, stereoscopically-enhanced views of the past (using vintage tools and current technology), a survey of the old movie palaces of La Jolla, silent film secrets of San Diego County, surprising multimedia tools of the past with a look to the virtual reality future, and revelations from vintage La Jolla home movies (from underwater films to underground Warhol sightings). Curated by the Library’s very own Scott Paulson.
Open: Wednesday – Sunday, Noon to 4 p.m.
Contact:
Scott Paulson, spaulson@ucsd.edu, (858) 822-5758