Lost 1919 New Hampshire silent comedy found in Japan to screen at home
A 1919 silent comedy filmed in New Hampshire and lost for more than a century has turned up in an antique shop in Japan.
The film is Van-ar-chy, a silent comedy starring Billy B Van, made in Newport and Sunapee, according to The Guardian. It was rediscovered by Kohei Okita, a film student in Sendai, who had bought several old reels at an antique store while researching early cinema linked to the word "anarchy".
Okita did not recognise Van when he first watched the reels. Internet searching then connected him with John Tariot, an archivist of Van's work, who identified the find as Van-ar-chy.
Van, who lived from 1870 to 1950, began on Broadway and in vaudeville — live variety entertainment — before turning to film-making. He founded the Equity Motion Picture Company and opened a studio in Georges Mills, New Hampshire, where his company made silent comedies around the Lake Sunapee area.
That local history is bringing the film home. Van-ar-chy is scheduled to be shown on 1 November at the Newport Opera House in a programme organised by the historical societies of Newport and Sunapee, according to The Guardian. The programme is titled "Van-ar-chy Comes Home: Billy B. Van's Lost Silent Comedies" and will present the film in a digitally restored version, according to a press release carried by The Tennessean. The screening is set for Sunday, 1 November 2026, starting at 2:00 p.m., according to syndicated listings via the Kitsap Sun.
The bill will also include Where Are Your Husbands?, another Van comedy. That short was rediscovered in 2017 in the collections of the Library of Congress.
What makes this stand out is the distance travelled. A few reels bought out of curiosity crossed an ocean, an archive and a century before reaching the town where they were shot.
