Columbus Moving Picture Show May 25-28, 2023
Every Memorial Day weekend, film fans and collectors gather in Columbus, Ohio for The Columbus Moving Picture Show to experience four days of near-continuous 16mm screenings of rare silent and sound films from the first half of the 2oth Century. Tickets are now on sale for the 2023 Columbus Moving Picture Show, taking place at the Renaissance Downtown Columbus Hotel from May 25-28, 2023. It will feature the same mix of 16mm screenings of silent films with live piano accompaniment, classic sound features in black & white and Kodachrome color, cliffhanger serials, and Hal Roach shorts (Laurel & Hardy, Charley Chase). As in the past, there will be a large vendor room, movie introductions by film historians and authors, seminars, and book signings.
One of the best things about this convention is you get the opportunity to watch rare classic movies that you are unlikely to see elsewhere. Several titles screened each year have never received a home video release and most rarely (if ever) air on television. You can access the Full Movie Schedule here.
Some of this year’s highlights for me are the screenings of the Jack Oakie/Jeanette MacDonald Pre-Code musical comedy Let’s Go Native (1930) with an introduction by Maggie McCormick (author of several books on MacDonald), Abbott & Costello’s Keep ‘Em Flying (1941) with an introduction by Nick Santa Maria (actor and co-author of The Annotated Abbott and Costello), Chaplin’s black comedy Monsieur Verdoux (1947) with an introduction by Lisa Stein Haven (author of Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp in America, 1947–77), the W.C. Fields silent So’s Your Old Man (1926), and three Information Please short subjects (filmed excerpts from the old radio quiz show).
Please note that the convention kicks off unofficially on Wednesday, May 24th, with digital screenings of new restorations of Abbott & Costello’s Jack and the Beanstalk (1952) and Robot Monster (1953) in 3-D (introduced by Bob Furmanek of the 3D Film Archive). Those preview screenings will take place at Ohio State’s Wexner Center for the Arts.
If you are interested in attending, the full details can be found on the Columbus Moving Picture Show website.
Hope to see you there!
