8MM-16MM FORUM WORLDWIDE

I recently enjoyed a pleasant trip out to Kansas to visit my soon to be married daughter, Elizabeth. Growing up in a household of endless projector light, she shares my movie collecting enthusiasm and is well aware of my fondness for all things cinematic. Heck, I even bought a nice LPP print of Gone With the Wind, her favorite film, to screen when she visits home. Well, seeing as how she lives just about 25 miles from Lawrence, Kansas, she surprised me and arranged a tour for us of the old Centron Studios. Centron (CENtral United States and elecTRONic)was the brainchild of two Kansas University grads, Russell Mosser and Art Wolf and they produced hundreds of educational and industrial shorts from 1947-1990s. In 1955, they outgrew the back of their downtown Lawrence camera shop they were using for film production and moved into brand new facilities at 1621 W. Ninth Street. After the company was dissolved in 1990, a KU law professor, Charles Oldfather, and his wife Hortense, donated money to KU for purchase of the facilties. I am a complete CENTRON nut, collecting many many of their 16mm educational gems. (Has there ever been a better movie defining America than "A Day of Thanksgiving"?) Wow--thanks to Elizabeth and the kindness of the KU Film Department, I was actually going to walk through the building where these old shorts were filmed!!
It was a hectic Friday morning of travel to even get to Kansas--driving through a MONSTER of a thunderstorm to arrive at Philadelphia International then getting in a line that had about 900-1000 people ahead of me at airport TSA screening at 5:10AM--not my idea of holiday fun . Despite a flight delay and a near missed connecting flight in Chicago, I happily arrived in Kansas City at 10AM., greeted by Elizabeth. (Yes, there ARE signs in the KC airport indicating "Tornado Shelters"-- this IS Wizard of Oz Land...) After a quick stop at her home for some refreshment, we set off for Lawrence. Lawrence is a university town, Kansas University, almost geographic dead center USA, beautiful, neat and clean (you'd be hard pressed to find a cigarette butt or straw wrapper anywhere on the street--99.9% litter free.) Unfortunately, the heat was unbearable with indexes of 113 degrees farenheit, so without benefit of SPF 2,000,000, we limited our sidewalk strolling to locating a brewpub for some lunch nourishment. After that, it was off to the Centron Studios.
Centron, or, accurately, what WAS Centron, was easy to find: I researched it using Google street view and recognized the neighborhood before we even arrived at our destination. The studio building, as is much of Lawrence, KS, is a step back into 1950s America--lots of brick and burnished aluminum and crisp angles. We pulled into the parking lot at the same time as an elderly gentleman, and the three of us, myself, Elizabeth and the elderly stranger, made our way to the receptionist's desk where we were warmly greeted.
Our "tour guide" promptly appeared, faculty Professor Matt Jacobson. I expected a 10-15 minute tour, but, hey, I was in Kansas, and things, and people and thoughts move a bit slower. The elderly gentlemen who arrived at the same time we did was a Professor Emeritus of the KU film school and just happened to drop by to see "how things were going". Minutes later, another faculty member, Chuck Berg, joined us.
For the next hour and 15 minutes we were treated to a slow wander through the facility where cinematic history was made....
MORE TO COME

Chris, great post! I can smell the film just looking at the pic of the lobby. Did they find that snipe you carried in your boxers when you went through TSA.

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Everything was legal, Dan! (Don't get me started on TSA). Here are a few more snaps of the building interior. I would bet 99% of the interior is original to the 1955 opening day--ceiling tiles, 6"x6" floor tiles, the massive acres of soundproofing grid mats on the soundstage walls. Most rooms continue to be used for their intended purpose: offices, editing rooms, sound mixing, etc. The old "animation studio" still had the original bench for titles and animated footage, but the room was used strictly as a computer classroom lab. MORE TO COME including HERK HARVEY and the Centron/ Lawrence, Kansas connection to CARNIVAL OF SOULS

This place looks squeaky clean and well cared for. Very impressive indeed. If I had a set up like that I could rule the world. Muhahahahahahah!

I really am enjoying this post, Chris. Can't wait to see more pix.

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The actual "tour" was fascinating enough, but the presence of THREE generations of Lawrence, Kansas filmakers as my guides ensured plenty of anecdote, from the 50s to the modern day. All remarked upon the legendary Herk Harvey, one of the premier Centron directors and framed posters acknowledged his single commercial venture, CARNIVAL OF SOULS. As you see, the soundstage is named in his honor. MORE TO COME

Finally getting around to wrapping up this thread on my summer trip to Lawrence, Kansas. Following the fantastic tour of the Centron Studios, and discussions of Herk Harvey with the tour guide film professors, I took the advice of my host Matt Jacobson and tracked down the Criterion dvd release of Carnival of Souls. I watched the film for the first time at my daughter's home in Overland Park the next day... Carnival of Souls is certainly one of the creepiest films ever made--kind of like watching a long and very gloomy Twilight Zone episode. The photography, direction and acting are all top-shelf stuff despite the amazing low budget three-week shoot. It's easy to see how certain original elements of Herk Harvey's film influenced later films like Apocalypse Now and Night of the Living Dead. The Criterion release is a fun 2-disc set containing both the original theatrical feature release as well as a "director's cut". Other segments include video of a 1990s cast reunion of the film ..an original theatrical trailer...a history of the genuinely odd "Saltair" resort in Salt Lake City (the films other location)...and "The Carnival Tour", a tv video on the actual Lawrence, Kansas area filming locations. I plan to track down and document
as many Lawrence area locations as I can find on my next trip out there. Also, I learned that The University of Kansas has a collection of every Centron release as well as a huge archive of Centron papers. When I told my English professor son this news, he immediately volunteered to write a grant request for me: would I live in Lawrence for a year and do research on the Centron history?? In a heartbeat. If you haven't done so, I recommend you watch Carnival of Souls, and ANY Centron film you might come across (CofS and many Centron shorts are available free on the web.) It was most certainly an exciting experience to walk through the studios where this stuff was filmed.

Here are a few links of similar interest. Here is a good review of the Criterion dvd release:
http://criterioncollection.blogspot.com ... chive.html

Here is a transcript of a KTWU tv program on Centron Films, featuring founder Russell Mosser, cameraman Norm Stuwe and KU Professor Chuck Berg (one my tour hosts):
http://ktwu.washburn.edu/journeys/scrip ... 1606c.html

A followup to all this fun: I am returning to Kansas for a brief visit in 2 weeks. There are THREE reasons: FIRST, to see my daughter one last time before she marries in October. Second, she is a program director at a historic site and arranged a DRIVE-IN TIE-IN with her workplace, Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop ( a stop along the Oregon Trail). The local drive-in (BOULEVARD DRIVE-IN 1051 Merriam Lane, Kansas City, Kansas) is showing a JOHN WAYNE DOUBLE-FEATURE and she will bring a real stagecoach to the theatre, there will be cowboys, roping, country music, bull riding and it should be a fun Western night--stop by if you're in the area!! The third reason is to wander around Lawrence, Kansas for a day or so and match up a few location scenes for Carnival of Souls

My return to Lawrence, Kansas is soon!

We're waiting with baited breath. A car load of dollars to see A Fist Full Of Dollars.

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A carload of dollars is right, Dan!! (I remember the $2.00 a carload nights!) I am hoping I can sneak into the drive-in in the stagecoach