PRE-CONFERENCE TOUR
CASE RESEARCH LABORATORY

AMIA and The Rick Chace Foundation have arranged a pre-conference tour of the Case Research Laboratory in Auburn, NY, on Tuesday, September 25 th. The Laboratory is the site where movies found their voice and the silent film began its demise.

Theodore Case and his chief assistant, E.I. (Earl) Sponable, first associated their work in making synchronized sound films with Lee DeForest (DeForest Phonofilms) and later developed the commercially successfully Movietone sound-on-film system with William Fox under the auspices of the Fox-Case Corporation. The DeForest System is remembered for recording the first talking footage of a US President, Calvin Coolidge in 1924. The initial Movietone newsreel captured Charles Lindberg’s take-off from Roosevelt Field, NY, on his record breaking solo flight to Paris in 1926.

The Case Research Laboratory is located on the grounds of the Cayuga Museum of History and Art which is located in the Willard-Case home, a mid-nineteenth century mansion. To ensure a quality experience, our small group will be split into two, allowing each group an intimate docent-led tour of the Laboratory while the other tours the Museum. Each participant will also receive a copy of Breaking the Silence on Film by Stephanie Przybylek, the former curator of the Case Collection.

After a lunch-on-your-own in downtown Auburn, the tour will continue to another venue either in Auburn or nearby Geneva, NY. Under consideration are a hard hat tour of the Auburn Schine Theatre, a classic Everson-designed movie house now undergoing restoration, the Willard Memorial Chapel, noted for its Tiffany windows and fixtures, the William Seward House (Seward was the U.S. Secretary of State who purchased Alaska from Russia), or the Smith Opera House in Geneva, a 100+ year old theater that has been restored.

Refreshments featuring the tastes of the New York Finger Lakes Region, will be served during the return to Rochester with the compliments of the Rick Chace Foundation.

The tour will depart from the conference hotel at 10AM and return at about 5:30PM.

Cost: $75/person
Availability: The tour is limited to 18 attendees.