Joe Lauro, of the Historic Films Archive in Greenport, holds...

Joe Lauro, of the Historic Films Archive in Greenport, holds the only surviving print of a 1915 silent film about Abraham Lincoln. Credit: Randee Daddona

The cold, climate-controlled stacks at the Historic Films Archive in Greenport made the ideal place for film student Dan Martin to spend last summer as an intern: in a basement out of the heat, immersed in a catalog of old reels.

Martin was tasked with sifting through a trove of titles owner Joe Lauro has amassed; many discarded from universities, as the showing of film reels in classrooms became obsolete.

Some footage was set aside to be digitized, joining the 50,000 hours of stock material Lauro licenses to filmmakers as part of his business on Third Street. Other reels went back into storage. But inside six rusty cans, Martin discovered a 16-millimeter print — and the only known copy — of a more than century-old film about Abraham Lincoln.

“The Heart of Lincoln” is a 65-minute silent film made in 1915 and recut in 1922, according to Lauro, 69, of Sag Harbor.

Film historians previously thought the title was lost to time, and it had been listed in a Library of Congress database of lost American silent films. The film sheds light on early 20th century depictions of the Civil War and the revered 16th president, whose birthday is Feb. 12.

'Like a missing puzzle piece'

Martin, 26, a Jamesport resident who studies film preservation at Toronto Metropolitan University, didn’t initially think much of the title.

“A lot of the films down in that basement are coming from colleges,” Martin recalled. “Old educational films are kind of dry.”

But he rolled the film, which Lauro described as a “love letter” to Lincoln that depicts how the Civil War tore families apart, and recognized a familiar name in the credits: Francis Ford.

The director and lead actor that portrayed Lincoln in the film, Ford is the older brother and mentor of acclaimed director John Ford, who is remembered for his Westerns and won several Academy Awards for directing, including for the 1940 film “The Grapes of Wrath.”

“The [Ford] brothers were almost obsessed with Lincoln as this emancipating messiah figure in American history,” Martin, a big John Ford fan, said. “This was like a missing puzzle piece to the whole myth around these guys.”

Scores of silent films from that era were lost because they were printed on nitrate film stock, an unstable and highly flammable material.

“It deteriorated, and also back then the studios weren’t that concerned with preserving it,” Lauro said. “Film was ephemera.”

Lauro said that he ultimately plans to pass the film along...

Lauro said that he ultimately plans to pass the film along to the Library of Congress. Credit: Randee Daddona

Research into copyright registrations show there were about 11,000 feature films released during the silent era, according to Steve Leggett, a program coordinator for the National Film Preservation Board at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Of those, about 3,000 survived and around 7,200 are considered to be lost.

“They were still learning how to tell stories; people were experimenting,” Leggett said in an interview. “That was good detective work, to recognize that it was important.”

Film as historical record

Finding, identifying and saving lost films plays a role in documenting American history. As the 50th anniversary of the Civil War was commemorated in the 1910s, the conflict and Lincoln became popular topics in media, according to Virginia film historian David Pierce.

Pierce, a retired archivist from the Library of Congress, said often these rediscovered silent films are preserved more for their sociological value than their cinematic merit.

“Researchers today aren't necessarily coming in because they want to see movie stars,” he said in an interview.

Instead, the films provide clues into broader historical topics, like how the South and racial prejudices were portrayed, to the mundane: how people dressed and decorated.

“Because so few films from that period survive, every title that is rediscovered is important because it fills a missing piece,” Pierce said. “The National Archives documents the government's activities, but the library really documents American culture.”

Lauro has since cleaned the film, digitized it in 4K and placed it in a protective can. He hopes to have it professionally restored and said he’d love to write a musical score with a bandmate — Lauro plays bass in a band called the HooDoo Loungers — before screening the film.

Ultimately, Lauro said, he plans to pass the film along to the Library of Congress to preserve.

Martin, who is in the midst of completing his master’s thesis, said the discovery was “pretty much the coolest thing” to happen to a film student and Ford buff.

It’s also underscored why he’s studying film preservation in the first place.

“The big takeaway is that film history isn’t totally written yet,” he said. “ ... It’s interesting that there’s films out there that are still completely unwritten into the general history of film.” 

'The Heart of Lincoln'

The 65-minute silent film was made in 1915 and recut in 1922, according to Joe Lauro of Historic Films Archive in Greenport.

It had been listed in a Library of Congress database of lost American silent films.

Film student Dan Martin, of Jamesport, discovered the only known copy of the film in the Greenport archive.

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