22/4/26 INSIDE THE FIREPROOF VAULT HOUSING US MOVIE HISTORY
… Around 1,45,000 film reels from over a century ago are being stored in a specially designed library…
    Back in the golden age of Hollywood, the movies were bigger, the stars brighter and the celluloid they were filmed on was explosive literally. In fact, they were so combustible that the US Library of Congress maintains a fireproof vault near Washington DC to store these films.
    A highly combustible nitrate film was used in cinema from the 1890s until the early 1950s. The medium is volatile but durable, and thanks to the facility’s efforts in digitising these, they can also be safely viewed for the first time in decades.
Chilly vault, warm memories
    At the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, some 1,45,000 film reels are stored in fireproof conditions in a vast, chilly vault. It is crammed with cinematic treasures that rekindle warm memories of an era when movies ruled.
    In all, there are 124 cells –including one dedicated to storing the Disney archive — in floor-to-ceiling cubby holes, said George Willeman, the nitrate film vault’s head. Each cell holds film canisters containing negatives and prints, all arranged meticulously: Packed tight to prevent canisters from opening, but far enough apart to prevent any fire from spreading.
    Since being set up in 2007 in a former US Federal Reserve building, the vault has maintained a perfect no-fire record.
    FAN’S DELIGHT
    Nitrate film is just one part of the Center’s collection of more than six million items of moving images and recorded sound. They also have supporting scripts, posters and photos.
    Willeman, who sports a button badge with an invocation to ‘Experience Nitrate’, said the Library of Congress began preserving the medium in the 1960s, when “it was discovered that so much film was being lost” due to fires and defunct companies throwing negatives away.
    With the American Film Institute, the library began collecting and copying nitrate film, including the holdings of big Hollywood studios: RKO, Warner Brothers, Universal, Columbia and Walt Disney.
They also tapped into the personal collections of film icons such as movie impresario and silent era star Mary Pickford and motion pictures inventor Thomas Edison, whose early studio produced hundreds of films. “We’re some 50 years in, and it (the collection) just keeps growing,” Willeman said.
DIGITAL AGE CHALLENGES
With the arrival media, the mission has expanded beyond preservation — cinema historians say movies actually look better on nitrate footage. “Now we can make them available for everybody, which is just amazing,” Willeman added.
Nitrate film made by early artisans often preserves better than the later safety film, said Courtney Holschuh, a nitrate archive technician.
At a workstation with no light bulbs or exposed batteries — either of which could ignite dust or gas from vintage film– Holschuh recounted how she carefully peeled apart a cache of a 10 vintage reels donated by a retired school teacher.
There were 42 different titles on the reels, of which only 26 have been identified. This even included a lost film, Gugusse and the Automation by French cinema pioneer Georges Melies. “So much of our early film history is still out there for us to see and experience,” Willeman said.

LOVE STORY
BAUCIS AND PHILEMON
    Ovid is the only source for this story. It shows especially well his love of details and the skillful way he uses them to make a fairy tale seem realistic. The Latin names of the gods are used.
    In the Phrygian hill-country there were once two trees which all the peasants near and far pointed out as a great marvel, and no wonder, for one was an oak and the other a linden, yet they grew from a single trunk. The story of how this came about is a proof of the immeasurable power of gods, and also of the way they reward the humble and the pious.
    Sometimes when Jupiter was tired of eating ambrosia and drinking nectar up in Olympus and even a little weary of listening to Apollo’s lyre and watching the Graces dance, he would come down to the earth, disguise himself as a mortal and go looking for adventures. His favourite companion on these tours was Mercury, the most entertaining of all the gods, the shrewdest and the most resourceful. On this particular trip Jupiter had determined to find out how hospitable the people of Phrygia were. Hospitality was, of course, very important to him, since all guests, all who seek shelter in a strange land, were under his especial protection.
    The two gods, accordingly, took on the appearance of poor wayfarers and wandered through the land, knocking at each lowly hut or great house they came to and asking for food and a place to rest in. Not one would admit them; every time they were dismissed insolently and the door barred against them. They made a trial of hundreds; all treated them in the same way. At last they came upon a little novel of the humblest sort, poorer than any they had yet found, with a roof made only of reeds. But here, when they knocked, the door was opened wide and a cheerful voice bade them enter. They had to stop to pass through the low entrance, but once inside they found themselves in a snug and very clean room, where a kindly-faced old man and woman welcomed them in the friendliest fashion and bustled about to make them comfortable.
    The old man set a bench near the fire and told them to stretch out on it and rest their tired limbs, and the old woman threw a soft covering over it. Her name was Baucis, she told the strangers, and her husband was called Philemon. They had lived in that cottage all their married life and had always been happy. “We are poor folk,” she said, “but poverty isn’t so bad when you’re willing to own up to it, and a contented spirit is a great help, too.” All the while she was talking, she was busy doing things for them. The coals under the ashes on the dark hearth she fanned to life until a cheerful fire was burning. Over this she hung a little kettle full of water and just as it began to boil her husband came in with a fine cabbage he had got from the garden. Into the kettle it went, with a piece of the pork which was hanging from one of the beams. While this cooked Baucis set the table with her trembling old hands. One table-leg was too short, but she propped it up with a bit of dish. One the board she placed olives and radishes and several eggs which she had roasted in the ashes. By this time the cabbage and bacon were done, and the old man pushed two rickety couches up to the table and bade his guests recline to eat.
    Presently he brought them cups of beechwood an earthenware mixing bowl which held some wine very little vinegar, plentifully diluted with water. Philemon, however, was clearly proud and happy at being able to add such cheer to the supper and he kept on the watch to refill each cup as soon as it was emptied. The two old folks were so pleased and excited by the success of their hospitality that only very slowly a strange thing dawned upon them. The mixing bowl kept full. No matter how many cups were poured out from it, the level of the wine stayed the same, up from the brim. As they saw this wonder each looked in terror at the other, and dropping their eyes they prayed silently. Then in quivering voices and trembling all over they begged their guests to pardon the poor refreshments they had offered. “We have a goose,” the old man said, “which we ought to have given your lordships. But if you will only wait, it shall be done at once.” To catch the goose, however, proved beyond their powers. They tried in vain until they were worn out, while Jupiter and Mercury watched them greatly entertained.
    But when both Philemon and Baucis had had to give up the chase panting and exhausted, the gods felt that the time had come for them to take action. They were really very kind, “You have been hosts to gods,” they said, “and you shall have your reward. This wicked country which despises the poor stranger will be bitterly punished, but not you.” They then escorted the two out of the hut and told them to look around them. To their amazement all they saw was water. The whole countryside had disappeared. A great lake surrounded them. Their neighbours had not been good to the old couple; nevertheless standing there they wept for them. But all of a sudden their tears were dried up by an overwhelming wonder. Before their eyes the tiny, lowly hut which had been their home for so long was turned into a stately pillared temple of whitest marble with a golden roof.
“Good people,” Jupiter said, “ask whatever you want and you shall have your wish.” The old people exchanged a hurried whisper, then Philemon spoke. “Let us be your priests, guarding this temple for you –and oh, since we have lived so long together, let neither of us ever have to live alone. Grant that we may die together.”
The gods assented, well pleased with the two. A long time they served in that grand building, and the story does not say whether they ever missed their little cozy room with its cheerful hearth. But one day standing before the marble and golden magnificence they fell to talking about the former life, which had been so hard and yet so happy. By now both were in extreme old age. Suddenly as they exchanged memories each saw the other putting forth leaves. Then bark was growing around them. They had time only to cry, “Farewell, dear companion.” As the words passed their lips they became trees, but still they were together. The linden and the oak grew from one trunk.
From far and wide people came to admire the wonder, and always wreaths of flowers hung on the branches in honour of the pious and faithful pair.

Synopsis of The Longest Journey by E. M. Forster

The Longest Journey is E. M. Forster’s second novel, published in 1907. It follows Rickie Elliot, a sensitive and imaginative young man, as he struggles between his idealistic view of life and the restrictive conventions of English society.

Rickie is a Cambridge student who loves literature and philosophy. He marries Agnes Pembroke, a conventional and practical woman, partly because he believes marriage will give him stability. However, their relationship is unhappy because Rickie’s emotional and intellectual nature conflicts with Agnes’s conventional outlook.

Rickie later discovers that Stephen Wonham, a young man living a rough rural life, is actually his half-brother. Stephen represents everything Rickie lacks—physical vitality, spontaneity, honesty, and a close connection with nature. Rickie becomes deeply attached to him, but Agnes and her family regard Stephen as socially inferior and try to keep the brothers apart.

Rickie’s relationship with Stephen gradually exposes the emptiness of the respectable social world in which he has been living. His friendship with Stephen and his encounters with people such as Mr. Ansell force him to question conventional ideas about marriage, morality, education, and social class.

The tragedy of the novel is that Rickie fails to completely break away from these conventions. His attempts to reconcile his intellectual life with his natural and emotional instincts ultimately lead to suffering and loss. Stephen survives, but Rickie dies, making the title The Longest Journey symbolic of Rickie’s difficult journey toward self-knowledge and authenticity.

Major themes

• Conflict between nature and society
• Individuality versus social convention
• The limitations of marriage
• The importance of friendship and brotherhood
• Intellectual life versus instinct and emotion
• Class and social prejudice
• The search for truth and self-realization

In essence: The Longest Journey is the story of a sensitive young man who struggles to live authentically in a society that values respectability and conformity. Forster contrasts the artificiality of conventional society with the vitality and freedom represented by Stephen and nature.

Jeffrey Archer has passed away aged 86, bringing to an end one of the most colourful, controversial and extraordinary lives in modern British public life.
The bestselling novelist, former Conservative politician and peer experienced spectacular success, devastating scandal, enormous wealth and even imprisonment during a career that often appeared more dramatic than the plots of his books.
Archer was a man who repeatedly reached the top, suffered extraordinary falls from grace and somehow managed to rebuild his life.
Born Jeffrey Howard Archer in north London on 15 April 1940, he grew up in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. His mother, Lola, worked as a journalist, while the story Archer later presented about his father, William, was considerably grander than the reality. Archer claimed his father had been a decorated First World War hero, but accounts later revealed a troubled past that included a conviction for fraud.
Archer was not an outstanding academic, leaving school with three O-levels, but athletics became one of his strengths. After several early jobs, including a brief period with the Metropolitan Police and work as a physical training instructor, he eventually studied at Oxford, where he won a Blue for athletics.
Oxford also introduced him to people who would later occupy influential positions in politics, finance and the media. It was during this period that he met chemistry student Mary Weeden, whom he married.
“It was love at first sight for me,” Archer later recalled, “but I don’t think it was for her.”
His ability to make connections was already becoming apparent. Archer persuaded The Beatles to support a major fundraising campaign for Oxfam before pursuing his growing political ambitions.
After serving as a Conservative councillor in London, he entered Parliament as MP for Louth following a by-election victory in 1969.
His first parliamentary career lasted only five years.
A disastrous investment in a Canadian company left Archer facing financial ruin. Having borrowed heavily to finance the investment, he resigned his parliamentary seat in 1974 while threatened with bankruptcy.
That crisis unexpectedly provided the foundations for another career.
Archer began writing and published his first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, in 1976. It was followed by Kane and Abel and First Among Equals.
Literary critics were not always impressed, but readers certainly were. His fast-moving stories of ambition, wealth, rivalry and dramatic reversals of fortune became hugely successful, turning Archer into one of Britain’s best-known commercial novelists.
Yet politics continued to draw him back.
Margaret Thatcher appointed Archer Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party in 1985, but the position lasted only around a year.
Following newspaper allegations involving sex worker Monica Coghlan, Archer resigned and subsequently sued the Daily Star for libel.
He won the case in 1987 and received £500,000 in damages.
The proceedings also produced an infamous remark from trial judge Mr Justice Caulfield. Referring to Archer’s wife Mary, he questioned whether Archer would have sought “cold, unloving, rubber-insulated sex” in “a seedy hotel round about quarter to one on a Tuesday morning after an evening at the Caprice?”
For a while, Archer appeared to have survived another potentially career-ending scandal.
He returned to public life and was awarded a peerage by Conservative Prime Minister John Major in 1992. By the end of the decade, he was preparing for another major political comeback after being selected as the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London.
Then everything unravelled again.
A former friend alleged that Archer had lied under oath during his successful 1987 libel action. Archer withdrew from the mayoral race and Conservative leader William Hague publicly declared: “This is the end of politics for Jeffrey Archer. I will not tolerate such behaviour in my party.”
This time, the consequences went far beyond losing a political career.
Archer was charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice. In 2001, he was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison.
Yet even a prison sentence became material for another chapter of his writing career.
After spending time in Belmarsh and Weyland prisons, Archer documented his experiences in the three-volume My Prison Diary. He was eventually released after serving half his sentence.
“I learned a lot from it,” Archer later said. “The British people are very forgiving.”
His political ambitions were effectively finished, but his extraordinary productivity as an author continued.
Archer published books well into his eighties, including volumes of The Clifton Chronicles and seven novels following fictional Metropolitan Police officer William Warwick.
He also retained his place in the House of Lords for many years after his conviction, eventually formally retiring in 2024.
In January 2026, aged 85, Archer announced that his forthcoming novel, Adam and Eve, would be his last.
Even as his career approached its conclusion, the competitive spirit of the athlete he had once been remained evident.
“Everyone would like to run their last 100m at the Olympics and win the gold medal,” Archer told BBC Breakfast in September 2026.
Now Jeffrey Archer has died aged 86, leaving behind a legacy that is exceptionally difficult to separate from the controversies that accompanied him.
His supporters will remember a phenomenally successful storyteller whose novels kept generations of readers turning the pages. His critics will remember the exaggerations, scandals and lies that repeatedly damaged his reputation.
Few public figures experienced so many dramatic reversals.
Financial disaster helped create a bestselling novelist. Political disgrace was followed by a peerage. A celebrated victory in a libel trial ultimately became part of the story that sent him to prison. Even incarceration was transformed into another series of books.
Jeffrey Archer spent decades writing about ambition, fortunes won and lost, betrayal, power and extraordinary comebacks.
In the end, his own life contained all of them.

Copyright@shravancharitymission

Summary of Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster

Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) is a novel by E. M. Forster about the conflict between English social conventions and the freer, more passionate way of life found in Italy.

The story begins when Lilia Herriton, a young English widow, travels to Italy. Her relatives, especially her sister-in-law Caroline Abbott and brother-in-law Philip Herriton, worry that Lilia will behave irresponsibly. In Italy, however, Lilia falls in love with Gino Carella, a much younger Italian man, and marries him.

After Lilia dies while giving birth to a son, her English relatives become concerned about the child’s future. They believe that the boy should be brought to England and raised according to their family’s values. Philip travels to Italy with Caroline to take the child away from Gino.

Their attempt creates a tragic conflict. The English characters see themselves as acting for the child’s benefit, but they fail to understand Gino’s feelings as a father and the importance of his relationship with his son. The situation eventually leads to the accidental death of the child, leaving the characters devastated.

The novel ends with Philip and Caroline confronting the consequences of their actions and recognizing the limitations of their rigid English attitudes.

Major themes

• English society vs. Italian culture: Forster contrasts English restraint and social convention with Italian spontaneity and emotional freedom.
• Love and family: The novel questions who has the right to decide what is best for a child.
• Class and social prejudice: The Herritons judge Gino partly because he is Italian and socially different from them.
• Hypocrisy and convention: Forster criticizes people who follow social rules without considering their human consequences.
• Life and spontaneity: Italy represents a more passionate and instinctive approach to life, challenging the controlled world of the English characters.

In essence: the novel shows how attempts to impose rigid social values on human relationships can produce unintended and tragic consequences.