Restored 'The Johnstown Flood' silent film from 1926 to debut at State Theater

Dave Sutor, The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.
·3 min read

May 15—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — A restored version of the 1926 silent film "The Johnstown Flood" will premiere on May 28 in The State Theater of Johnstown, which just so happened to open in that same year.

The event, which is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m., is being held as a fundraiser for the Johnstown Area Heritage Association, which this year is marking the 50th anniversary of the Johnstown Flood Museum.

The cost is $25 per ticket.

Robert Harris and James Mockoski, two prominent figures in cinema restoration, converted the movie from 35mm nitrate film to scanned 4K digital files.

"It's just so cool and just fascinating that they chose 'The Johnstown Flood' to digitize and then to show it here as a benefit for the Johnstown Flood Museum and just Johnstown as a whole," JAHA curator Amy Regan said. "They're giving back to the community that they're working on this movie with."

Mockoski and Harris obtained the film from the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York.

"A major impetus for us was to scan in 4K this original nearly hundred-year-old print, so that audiences today could really see what a film looked like projected in that era, not through dupes, but through an original," said Harris, who has restored numerous movies, including "The Godfather," "My Fair Lady" and "Lawrence of Arabia."

Harris said the movie was a "major special effects film of the era" that will appear "almost precisely as it did in 1926" when shown in its new format.

Mockoski thinks the movie will "still speak to the community after a hundred years."

"What's important to me is to engage with the community, to bring this back to the community that's important to and have that dialog with the people that are in the community," said Mockoski, who, like Harris, plans to attend the premiere.

Copies will be given to several archives, including JAHA, the George Eastman Museum, Library of Congress and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

"By doing that, the film has a very good chance of survival," Harris said.

The plot of the movie weaves together fact and fiction.

On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam broke, resulting in a flood that killed more than 2,000 people. The structure had been neglected by the wealthy magnates from steel and other industries who owned the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club.

That's not exactly what happens in the movie.

"They didn't want to go there because they were still alive, and there could have been, I presume, legal situations," Harris said. "So, in the film, the cause of the flood has been changed from people living up above the dam, this wonderful life, and possibly not being as faithful to those living below as they might to a lumbering community and the need to fulfill a contract, and keep the dam up and the water running to keep the logs going through."

Well-known silent film performers George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor have major roles. Future movie stars Carole Lombard and Clark Gable have uncredited parts.