Columbus' CAPA Summer Movie Series Premieres Silent Film THE LITTLE AMERICAN Tonight

Christel Schmidt, an OSU alum now a film historian for the Library of Congress, will give a brief introduction to this year's CAPA Summer Movie Series silent film selection, The Little American (1917), starring "America's Sweetheart," Mary Pickford. Schmidt's specialty is the history of silent film with a focus on the life and career of Mary Pickford, and she will provide some insight on the actress, the pre-screening 14-minute fund-raising short for the US' Fourth Liberty Loan Drive in WWI titled One Hundred Percent American (1918) starring Pickford, and the series premiere of this feature film restoration print from the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

The film will be accompanied live on the "Mighty Morton" theatre organ by Clark Wilson, official organist for the CAPA Summer Movie Series, and beginning at 6 pm each night, the Scioto Model 'A' Ford Club will display their antique automobiles (c. 1928-31) in front of the Ohio Theatre.

The 2013 CAPA Summer Movie Series presents silent film The Little American at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.) on Thursday and Friday, August 8 and 9. Doors open at 6:30pm. Screenings begin at 7:30pm daily. Day-of-show tickets are $4 and go on sale one hour prior to show time at the Ohio Theatre kiosk. Senior citizen tickets are $3.50. All tickets are general admission and seating is on a first come, first served basis. Kiosk sales are cash only. The CAPA Summer Movie Series is made possible through the generous support of PNC.

During intermission and after the screening, Schmidt will be signing copies of her most recent book, Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies,which will be on sale in the lobby. Co-published with the Library of Congress, Schmidt was one of the film historians who contributed to this volume of more than 200 illustrations, photographs, and stills from the collections of the Library of Congress and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Together with the text, they paint a fascinating portrait of a key figure in American cinematic history.

SILENT FILM! SERIES PREMIERE!
The Little American (1917)
Tonight & Friday, August 8 & 9, 7:30 pm daily
Mary Pickford, Jack Holt, Raymond Hatton
Restoration print from the UCLA Film & Television Archive

Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, silent screen celebrity Mary Pickford stars as an American woman in love with both a German and a French soldier during World War I.

About Mary Pickford: Beloved as "America's Sweetheart," Mary Pickford was America's first female film superstar and a shrewd businesswoman. She talked herself into jobs with New York impresario David Belasco, who renamed her Mary Pickford (born Gladys Marie Smith), and later with D.W. Griffith at Biograph, where she appeared in dozens of one-reelers. When she was hired at Zukor's Famous Players, she started at $500/week, and by 1916, she was making $10,000/week. In 1919, she co-founded United Artists with Fairbanks, Chaplin, and Griffith and was the business brain behind the enterprise.

About Christel Schmidt: Schmidt is a film historian who co-edited Silent Movies: The Birth of Film and the Triumph of Movie Culture (2007), and she has received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Mary Pickford Foundation and Women Film Pioneers have both made use of her work. Schmidt's fellowships have resulted in Mary Pickford: Queen of the Movies (2012), a book researched at the Library of Congress. She is a 1995 graduate of The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in Women's Studies.

For more information, visit www.capa.com.

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