Help Digitize a 1916 Film Treasure Featuring Angels Flight

UPDATE (12/29/24): GOAL ACHIEVED! DONATIONS CLOSED! Thank you to all who donated. I never imagined it would happen so quickly and am simply floored by the response. I've already placed a request to the Library of Congress for the digitized file and look forward to sharing it.

Hello and thanks for visiting. My name is Will Campbell, and for the last couple of years I've been a part-time operator at the historic Angels Flight Railway in downtown Los Angeles.

In that time I've developed an appetite for the history of the 123-year-old funicular and that includes building a list of the films, television shows (even the occasional music video) in which Angels Flight has appeared, going all the way back to 1914. To date, I've cataloged more than fifty and accumulated a growing companion collection of film clips.

One of the earliest motion pictures was a 1916 one-reel silent film called "Good Night, Nurse." It starred Neal Burns and Billie Rhodes, and because of the lack of availability of any clips or still images on the internet, I feared it had been lost to time -- until now.

I just discovered that a 35mm print of the film is alive and well and in the care and collection of the Library of Congress. That was the good news. The bad news is that to digitize a copy carries a pricetag of $400, which I just can't rationalize spending on my own at the present.

So I'm turning to GoFundMe and through it to you. Whether you're a fan of Angels Flight, or of film, or both, please consider contributing to the dream of taking this piece of early movie history and early Angels Flight history out of the Library Congress and making it accessible to the world.

Thank you.