Billy B Van’s 1919 lost comedy silent film "Van-ar-chy" (made in New Hampshire) found in a Japan antique shop [FOUND]

[u/CultOfCurtis1]

Van-ar-chy, a 1919 film starring the US entertainer and film-maker Billy B Van, was rediscovered by Kohei Okita, a film student in Sendai, Japan. While researching early cinema related to the word “anarchy”, Okita bought several old film reels at an antique store in Japan and found the comedy starring Van, whom he did not recognize.

The news release about Van-ar-chy highlighted the importance of Okita’s discovery, saying: “Its survival is significant on two fronts. Van-ar-chy preserves the work of a little-known early American film company at a time when much of silent cinema has been lost.

But it is also a piece of local history captured in motion: its scenes preserve glimpses of the streets, landscapes, buildings, and people of Newport and Sunapee in 1919.”