So, while not complete, certainly not dreadful. Of course we wish they all survived, but at least what’s left of Moore’s output illustrates a diverse cross-section of her career from her early years, her middle period, and her final years in films. Some stars have entire four or five year blocks of films missing, and given that it wasn’t uncommon for some stars to make 5,6,7 films a year that represents quite a significant portion of their career. For really pathetic survival ratings check out the existing records for such stars as Clara Kimball Young, Corinne Griffith, Elsie Ferguson, or Marguerite Clark just to name a few.

The losses of silent films are lamentable and frustrating and it’s even more heartbreaking to understand that many of the losses could have been prevented. Be that as it may, we really can’t berate these folks too much now for not protecting and preseving these films. That so much is gone is carelessness and negligence on a grand scale to be sure. No question about it.

Unfortunately pop culture(And these films represent the pop culture of their time) is often considered disposable. What’s “hot” one minute is regarded as obsolete the next. This is as true now as it was then. How many times am I riding home on the bus and I overhear kids talking about movies they watched. One will say “I saw such and such last night on DVD”, then instantly another kid will chime in incedulously with “What?? That’s SO old! You watched that?” Only to discover the film in question came out two years ago.

People in 1917 could have had no idea that people 90 years later would be watching and continuing to enjoy the product they produced. And few operated under the notion they were creating anything of lasting value. Movies were only considered to have a value for as long as the film made money. Once that was exhausted they moved onto other things. It’s only now that the films have the added signifigance of historical perspective.

So, all we can really do now is look at the negligence(Intentional or unintentional) from those who came before us and use it as a model and learn from it to make sure that those who come after us will have as complete a cinematic record of our world as possible. Now that we have a better understanding today of the importance of film preservation and how film not only entertains, but has the power to inform us of a time gone by or cultures alien to us, we can better ensure that the mass destruction of film never happens again.

He met Moore in the early 1970s, and just this past weekend he told me that she saw restoring her own films as a “vanity” endeavor. It’s pointless to get into that sort of (lack of) logic now, though according to him she (and Lillian Gish) did help convince Mary Pickford not to destroy her films.