What's the oldest piece of telly/film you own?

[stuartdg]

I'm on a bit of a telly nostalgia fest at present and this got me to thinkin...

Mine are Quatermass and the Pit and Watch With Mother on BBC VHS which date back to 1952

I think my earliest film is Walt Disneys Bambi...

What about you?

[Ralph]

I've got this 1922 film called Nosferatu on shiny disc....

[Pip Madeley]

Ditto! Although whenever I watch it, I can't help thinking of Paul Whitehouse's 'Monster Monster' character from The Fast Show

[Wayne]

It's Nosferatu 1922 for me as well.

[Logo Polish]

I've got a Charlie Chaplin short film which was recorded in 1916.

[Milky Tears]

The Great Train Robbery and Alice In Wonderland (well, what's left of it) from 1903.

[Pip Madeley]

I knew James would beat everyone.

Actually... I might be able to go further back than 1922 - does anyone know which silent film these clips are taken from? I'd like to know. The music's awesome too, check it out.

[Ralph]

On a slight tangent for a moment in regard to old films I wish they'd put those 20 minute Laurel & Hardy shorts back on TV.

[Milky Tears]

I was a bit cheeky as The Great Train Robbery is only a 12 minute effort. The oldest films I've got after that would probably be The Mustketeers of Pig Alley (D.W. Griffith short from 1912), The Birth of A Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916). They last two run for about 3 hours each!!

Baynes might be able to top that.



Oldest TV would be The Quatermass Experiment (1953)

What a sad git!

[Andrew Curnow]

Well, all that makes our 1939 Wizard of Oz seem positively modern!!

[Logo Polish]

On a slight tangent for a moment in regard to old films I wish they'd put those 20 minute Laurel & Hardy shorts back on TV.

They do still show them in the mornings or around dinnertime occasionally on BBC2, and they've tended to show quite a few around the Christmas and New Year holidays, although not usually the silent ones admittedly.

[Ralph]

They do still show them in the mornings or around dinnertime occasionally on BBC2, and they've tended to show quite a few around the Christmas and New Year holidays, although not usually the silent ones admittedly.

Thanks Iain I'll keep an eye open for those - I love those pickles they get themselves into and that guy that threatens to have their heads facing North and bodies South.

[Captain Tancredi]

TV- The Quatermass Experiment (1953)

Film- The 39 Steps (1935)

[Carol Baynes]

I do have George Melies' Le Voyage Dans La Lune (1902) downloaded. It's only 14 minutes long. My next oldest is The birth of a nation (1915), so it's debatable as to whether James has beaten me there...a draw!?

[Milky Tears]

I bow down before Carol. She's the biggest buff on here.

Unless you want to see who can manage to make it through The Birth of a Nation three times in a row. Once is pushing it!!

[Captain Tancredi]

Yes, but if you get through three times you qualify for a free pointy hat.

[Alex]

It might be cheating a little, but I've got The Sausage Machine (1895) on video, it's shown in full in a history of cinema documentary thing I taped years ago. But, er, well, yeah, that is kind of cheating a bit as it's a very short short, as it were. Gotta say the original's the best though, the remake they did in 1897 is rubbish!

Other than that, the oldest film I've got is Battleship Potemkin, but that's 1925 and so years off James and Carol.

[Carol Baynes]

I have to admit that I've never watched "The birth of a nation" in one three hour sitting, and I've only seen it once!

[Pip Madeley]

It might be cheating a little, but I've got The Sausage Machine (1895) on video

Sounds like the first ever rude film.

[Jonno]

I guess The Quatermass Experiment (1953) counts TV wise, bearing in mind that only a third of it exists! Otherwise, I think I've got the BBC version of 1984 on video somewhere - from 1954? And the complete Quatermass II from 1955.

Film-wise, I doubt I've got anything older than the Wizard of Oz (1939) - though the film seems so timeless, it's hard to believe it's approaching 70 years of age!

[Dirk Gently]

I'v got some Laurel & Hardy films that date from 1939 & some Will Hay DVD's which were made from 1935 - 1942. That's about it.