10/08/2026
We have exciting news to share!
In 1938, a film was shot in Murphysboro providing a snapshot of life at the time, the producer of which is unknown. JCHS had the two 16mm film reels crudely converted to VHS a long while back, and eventually made it to a DVD format years later - both versions have been for sale at the Society ever since and the quality deteriorated with each transfer. Below is a screen grab from the "master" VHS copy.
A couple years ago, the Society discovered the original film reels stashed away in its archive, though time had began to get the best of the substrate, rendering it extremely brittle and unwatchable in its current state.
This year, the National Film Preservation Foundation (whose board members include the likes of Zooey Deschanel and Martin Scorsese) awarded JCHS a grant to have the film reels professionally restored to new 4K film and digital copies through Colorlab, whose clients include ESPN, National Geographic and the Library of Congress.
At this time, JCHS is unsure how much of the film, whose initial runtime was over an hour, can be successfully recovered. It will be a lengthy process but we are grateful the film is in good hands to preserve a piece of Murphysboro history.
The 1926 "A Day in Hollywood" production we've posted about before is in the final stages of restoration from an earlier 2K digitization effort from the Library of Congress and we hope to make an announcement soon when it will be available.
The link below shows all films which received preservation grants through the NFPF.
https://www.filmpreservation.org/nfpf-grants/awarded-grants
