Wibbell Productions

PLEASE HELP ME SAVE OUR
CIRCUS AND MUSIC HALL HERITAGE!


I'm making a unique documentary
and preserving our performance history.

But I need YOUR help.

Please watch this video, then read on
to see how YOU can help me make it happen!



Allin Kempthorne
Hi. I'm Allin Kempthorne. And I'm on a mission!

For many years I've been hunting down, discovering and uncovering old vintage films of circus, music hall and variety entertainers from the Victorian and Edwardian years.

The years 1890-1920 saw the first widespread use of film technology, so these are amongst the earliest films ever of circus and variety performers. Films corrode and crumble over time, and the memories they hold become lost for ever! It's a miracle that any of these have survived.

I've been talking to and searching through film archives, private collectors and individuals across Britain, Europe and America, and have so far collected digitised copies of over 80 surviving scraps of film footage, including wonderful and inspiring performances from trapeze artists, jugglers, clowns, dancers, acrobats, magicians and more.
The First Stars of Vaudeville. Introduced by Allin Kempthorne
I trained at circus school myself, and make my living as an entertainer. I feel passionately the historical value of preserving old films and enabling them to be seen by the widest possible of audiences. I hope you've just watched the video above and are sharing my excitement at being able to save, collect and bring to a wider public, so many of these valuable old films.

My original intention was to edit them into a series of four half hour programs and release them on DVD. However it's taken me many years to get this far and in that time the whole DVD market has really fallen apart. So I decided the best way to continue this project was to release the clips on YouTube. (Some of them are already there, put up by other collectors who also scoured the same film archives as me).

But before I do that I'd really love to find just a few more original clips. Something that nobody has seen.



NOW THIS IS WHERE YOU CAN HELP

Do you know anyone who might have some old film of any performers? Maybe a collector of circus or music hall memorabelia, an amateur or professional historians, or just someone who's grandfather left them some old films in the attic?

I'd love to find these films. It takes time and money to clean up and save the film, copy it to digital, research the performer and clear the copyright, so it really is a very lengthy process.


If you think you can help please drop me an email. I'd love to hear from you.

Contact me at info@wibbell.co.uk



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