May be last year for unique
volunteer society

Chestnut Hill Film Group
begins its 31st year

by LEN LEAR

The Chestnut Hill Film Group (CHFG), the Delaware Valley's only community-based film society that still shows classic movies free of charge, next Tuesday, October 5, will unspool its 31st consecutive year of showing vintage films at the Chestnut Hill Library, 8711 Germantown Ave. CHFG specializes in films that cannot be seen anywhere else, and they are all shown on film, not video.

The season starts with To Catch a Thief (1955), an Alfred Hitchcock "thrillomedy" starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. On October 19, CHFG is offering something that may have never been seen before. They are showing both the silent version (1926) and the talkie version (1939) of Beau Geste, a classic yarn about French Foreign Legion adventurers. The talkie version stars Gary Cooper, Ray Milland and Robert Preston.

Like the bald eagle, leopard and black rhino, however, the Chestnut Hill Film Group has become a member of an endangered species, and this 31st year may very well be its last one.

"It's getting harder and harder to pull this off because of so many obstacles, and right now we just cannot say how much longer we will be able to do this," explained Ralph Hirshorn, owner of the Hirshorn Company, an insurance agency and brokerage firm at 14 E. Highland Ave., and a volunteer with CHFG since its inception.

The most obvious roadblock would seem to be the omnipresent video rental/sales stores (there are two major chains in Chestnut Hill alone), which now enable viewers to choose from thousands of past films to watch in the comfort of their living rooms. This option was not available, of course, when CHFG was founded in 1973.

However, even that may not be the major thorn since many of the films shown by CHFG are still not available in video stores. Another stumbling block is the fact that the film rental libraries CHFG has gotten most of its movies from are also becoming endangered. The biggest one used to be Films, Inc., but it has gone out of business. The Kit Parker firm, which had a great supply of film noir features, also does not exist anymore.

And those that do exist may not be able to supply the best quality prints. "For example," said Hirshorn, "we wanted a Panavision print of Chinatown because of its great cinematography and production design, but a company called Swank, which did have Chinatown, only had a TV format print, which we will not use." In addition, film libraries often do not want to replace prints that have worn out because there are not enough people left who want to rent them."

Also problematic are the technology challenges. Movie projectors are not being made any more, for example, and for the projectors already in existence, parts are often not available. When parts are available, they are very expensive.

For example, a company called Superior Bulbs makes special lights (called Xenon lamps) that produce a very bright image. CHFG was afraid of their lights wearing out, so they had Superior make a new pair for them. Cost, $800 for the pair. To pay for these and other expenses, CHFG does accept donations, and they send out a fundraising letter at the beginning of each season, which has brought in an average of $1,200 in recent years.

CHFG pays about $150 to rent each selection from a film library, but they will pay nothing for the five they get this year from the Yale University Film Library, including Beat the Devil, Little Foxes and Beau Geste, both the silent version and the talkie. Yale charges nothing because they have custody of Ralph Hirshorn's private film collection, about 150 in all.

Hirshorn, in fact, has a strong connection to the film industry. A native of West Mt. Airy, Ralph, 66, attended Chestnut Hill Academy at one point but graduated from Penn Charter in 1956. He then attended Yale University, where he and some friends created the Yale Film Society, showing old movies twice a night.

Hirshorn and his friends even made a short movie that was a Monty Python-esque satire on avant garde films. The film won the prestigious Jesse Lasky Gold Medallion Award and was nominated for an Academy Award in the Short Subject category. As a result, Ralph wound up being offered a contract to work for Columbia Pictures. He accepted the contract and wound up with a variety of jobs, including associate producer and story editor. In the early '60s he was made a vice-president and assistant to the head of production.

Hirshorn appeared to be on his way to an impressive career with Columbia Pictures, but after he worked for four years in Hollywood, Ralph's father died, and he inherited the family insurance business, which had been founded in 1931. Ralph had to decide whether to stay in Hollywood or come back to Philadelphia; he chose the latter. He also has a brother who was with the family business for 10 years but then left.

Because of his work in the film industry, however, Hirshorn was a natural to help out when CHFG was founded in 1963. The prime mover behind CHFG was Martha Repman, former librarian at the Chestnut Hill Library who now works at the Central Branch in center city. Others who contributed greatly to its three-decade history have been Emmy and Harold Starr, Harriet Pattison, Lou and Jean Day, Frank Griswold and Bettie Nancarrow. Other current volunteers are Margaret Brunton, David and Judith Buten, Marianne and Paul Dodge, John and Carolyn Friedman, Jace Gaffney, Al Jordan, David Mallery, Andrew Repasky McElhinney, Paul Sofian and George and Diana Woodward.

In the early years, wooden chairs were set up in the children's section of the library. The movies were shown at 6 and 8:15 p.m. On film night they often had about 100 viewers for each showing. (Remember, this was before the home video revolution.) Acoustics were not very good, and many films were projected against a white wall.

About 15 years ago, an auditorium was built in the back of the library for the films. CHFG also built a projection room so that viewers would not hear the projection sound; they purchased a second amplifier and two "drivers" to cut down on echo. They also created a wide screen for Panavision and Cinemascope films. These days an average audience is about 50 to 60.

All films are shown on Tuesday nights, 7:30, in the rear screening room. Following are the films that will be shown for the rest of 2004 with the directors' names listed: October 5, To Catch a Thief (1955), Alfred Hitchcock; October 12, Midnight (1939), Billy Wilder; October 19, Beau Geste (1939), William Wellman; October 26, Hangover Square (1945), Patrick Hamilton; November 2, no movie (Election Day); November 9, The Passionate Friends (1948), David Lean; November 16, Ride the High Country (1962), Sam Peckinpah; November 23, The Third Man (1949), Carol Reed; November 30, On the Double (1961), Melville Shavelson.

To find out which films will be shown in 2005 (February and March) or for any other information, call 215-248-0977.