MONDAY MOVIE MATINEE: The High Sign (1921) and Sherlock, Jr. (1924)

219 South 6th Street,Philadelphia PA 19106

27 September, 2021

Description

Free film screening and discussion with film critic Carrie Rickey, in person at The Athenaeum of Philadelphia The High Sign (1921, 24 minutes) A drifter cons his way into working at an amusement park. But he soon finds himself hired as a hit man by both a criminal gang and the man they want to kill. Sherlock, Jr. (1924, 56 minutes) A kindly movie projectionist longs to be a detective. When his fiancée is robbed by a local thief , the poor projectionist is framed for the crime. Using his amateur detective skills, the projectionist follows the thief to the train station -- only to find himself locked in a train car. Disheartened, he returns to his movie theater, where he falls asleep and dreams that he is the great Sherlock Holmes. Movies will be shown in their entirety, followed by a discussion. The Athenaeum will update attendees on any Covid protocols they need to be aware of before the event. About Carrie Rickey: Carrie Rickey was born in Los Angeles during the widescreen era of movies and bagged a couple degrees from the University of California, San Diego in the years surfers traded longboards for short. She moved to New York just in time to read the headline Ford to City: Drop Dead and decamped as tabloids thus immortalized the passing of Andy Warhol: Platinum Prince of Pop Dies. During her New York years she wrote art criticism for Artforum and Art in America, film criticism for the Village Voice and Film Comment and was a columnist for Mademoiselle. For 25 years she was film critic of The Philadelphia Inquirer where she reviewed everything from Room With a View to Shame, interviewed celebrities from Lillian Gish to Will Smith, and reported on technological breakthroughs from the rise of video to the introduction of movies on-demand. She has taught at various institutions including School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania, is a popular speaker and has appeared frequently on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, MSNBC and CNN. The Athenaeum was established in 1814 as a subscription library, at a time when the free public library system did not exist and collections of books, available for reading or research, were still mostly limited to institutions, schools or colleges. The Athenaeum of Philadelphia nurtures curiosity in members and neighbors, strengthening community through learning and discourse. The Athenaeum of Philadelphia is one of 16 membership libraries that collaborate through the Membership Libraries Group. Some, like the Charleston (est. 1748), New York Society (est. 1754), and Newport (est. 1741) libraries, date from the 18th Century.