PS--a few minutes with Google or the American Memory section of the Library of Congress website should help you find plenty of silent movie footage from the era.
One thing to watch out for (or perhaps take notes on--you could use it for your costuming choices) is the fact that the filmmakers were already making use of costume as cultural shorthand. For example, you can always pick out the female heroine/ingenue by her frilly white dress made of soft, semi-sheer fabric, and often by the fact that her hair isn't up (signalling youth). The evil soul-sucking vamp female wears dark fabrics, often of expensive-looking heavy or shiny silks, and more flashy accessories and jewelry (because if she's a vamp, she's also a gold-digger, see). The frumpy old woman might show up in Victorian clothing. Just like today we'd immediately be able to identify an aged-out hippie or a nerd from the clothing, this would have immediately conveyed the character's traits. To get the imagery down, you might have fun at: http://www.silentladies.com/Ladies.html It's not terribly easy to find people there by date, but there were plenty of stars (such as Mary Pickford, Lillian & Dorothy Gish, Blanche Sweet, Florence Lawrence, Mabel Normand, Alice Joyce, Clara Kimball Young, Pearl White, and more) who are on here that were already famous 1914-18. By the way, Lucile (Lady Duff Gordon) was a very popular film costume designer at the time. -E House, devoted Harold Lloyd fan... http://www.haroldlloyd.com/ _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
