An Old Look at the Old Oneonta Theatre (1928)

I love this old photo.  I like the way they employed every cheesy way of hyping a movie that was showing:  flags flying, posters on the street, flashing lights, etc.  Imagine having to change this after every movie!

The film is "The Barker" starring Milton Sills.  Apparently he was quite a star!  In 1927 he joined with his friends Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Harold Loyd and 33 others to form the Academy of Motions Pictures Arts and Science, the organization which still gives us the Oscars every year.  He was a big star of the silent films and, deemed to have had "an excellent voice," he even made two "talkies."  You can see in the photo above that you could "see and hear" him in this early movie.

He became an international celebrity and was fluent in French, Russian, Italian and German

Sills died in 1930 while playing tennis with his wife.  He was 48.

I am sure he was proud that his move "The Barker" played right here in Oneonta (on the Vitaphone no less!)