About Marriage

Marriage has changed more in the past 30 thirty years than in the previous 3,500, or so claims scholar Stephanie Coontz (listen to her lecture from the link below). To help remember the changes and to celebrate wedding season, the Archive tosses this bouquet of films:

• Marriage is a Partnership (1951) Meet newlyweds Dotty and Pete and learn about their struggles to form a partnership.

  

• Who’s Right? (1951) Partnership eludes brooding newlyweds Honey and Frank in this oddly disturbing film narrated by their, um, wedding ring.
• The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (2006) Scholar and author Stephanie Coontz delivers a lively lecture about the historical changes in marriage that includes many surprising facts.



• Bride for Henry (1937) To punish her tardy groom, a bride marries her lawyer instead not knowing that he secretly loves her. This very funny film is directed by William Nigh.
• Are You Ready for Marriage (2004) A real-life couple remixed Prelinger Archive films (including Are You Ready for Marriage (1950) and This Charming Couple (1950)) to help create this hilarious video to celebrate their wedding.



• Justly Married (2004) Footage from San Francisco City Hall on February 15, 2004, the day many same-sex couples were married.

– Renata

Story Time

Let’s all put our heads on our desks and listen to a story from The Story Lady. Afterwards, we’ll have apple juice and some graham crackers with peanut butter.

My personal favorites are below, but there are plenty more to explore:

• Romeo and Juliet
• Rumplestilskin
• The Emperor’s New Clothes
• Hansel and Gretel

– Alexis

Creepy Crawlies

As part of my aversion therapy regimen, I thought it would be “fun” to put together an entire post about spiders.

• Thiodina sylvana : An academically oriented video of a jumping spider
• Spider trapping a large bug
• Spider Engineers : click one of the stream links in the box on the left
  
• Little Miss Spider : animated spider
• Spider in the House : a children’s song
• The Life of the Spider : an 1887 book about spiders
• A Noiseless Patient Spider : a reading of the Walt Whitman poem
• Horrors of Spider Island : a feature film where a mutant spider bite turns someone into a monter
• The wonderful stories of Fuz-Buz the fly and Mother Grabem the spider : an illustrated tale

– Alexis

The Wonderful Writer of Oz (& Other Stories)

Today is the birthday of Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 - May 6, 1919). To celebrate we’re highlighting his works available on the Archive. Thanks to our partners LibriVox, Project Gutenberg, and the University of California Libraries you can read or listen to quite a few books by the wizard of children’s literature:

Oz Books

• Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz Text Audio
• Glinda of Oz Text
• Little Wizard of Oz Stories Audio
• Ozma of Oz Text Audio
• Rinkitink in Oz Text
• The Emerald City of Oz Text Audio
• The Lost Princess of Oz Text Audio
• The Magic of Oz Text
• The Marvelous Land of Oz Text Audio
• The Patchwork Girl of Oz Text
• The Road to Oz Text Audio
• The Scarecrow of Oz Text
• The Tin Woodman of Oz Text
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Text Audio
• Tik-Tok of Oz Text

Other Stories

• A Kidnapped Santa Claus Text
• American Fairy Tales Text
• Aunt Jane’s Nieces Text
• John Dough and the Cherub Text
• Life and Adventures of Santa Claus Text
• Mary Louise Text
• Mother Goose in Prose Text Audio
• Sky Island: Being the Further Exciting Adventures of Trot and Cap’n Bill After Their Visit to the Sea Fairies Text Audio
• Tamawaca Folks: A Summer Comedy Text
• The Enchanted Island of Yew Text Audio
• The Fate of a Crown Text
• The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus Text
• The Master Key : an Electrical Fairy Tale, Founded Upon the Mysteries of Electricity and the Optimism of its Devotees Text Audio
• The Sea Fairies Text
• The Surprising Adventures of the Magical Monarch of Mo and His People Text

– Renata

Bad Behavior?

Not much can surprise us here at the Archive, not even this handful of videos documenting public displays of, er, creative behavior. Is this political commentary? Free expression? A fun way to party? Or just bad behavior?

• Pie Fight (1969): See pies fly as independent filmmakers attack the opening gala of the San Francisco Film Festival. (Click the DivX link in the left-hand column of the page to view.)
• Mud People (1989): People caked in mud descend upon San Francisco’s Financial District to create a bit of “merry mayhem”.
• Art Attack (1999): The San Francisco Department of Public Art manages to shut down a block of the Financial District.
• Naked Man Dancing (2002): A man dances naked on the beach.
• Santacon (2006): Finally, an instance of creative behavior outside the San Francisco Bay Area: 1500 drunken Santas descend on New York City.

– Renata