why are almost all films from the silent era and early sound era lost and no more copies of them exist?, why?

Question

like almost all films from the silent era and early sound era are gone, films that we will never see again, it's dissapointing because we won't get to experience masterpieces from the early days of motion picture, like the one lost film I really want to see and sure almost everyone does is "London After Midnight" from 1927 with Lon Chaney. That film is considered the Holy Grail of Lost Films. Anyway, did they not preserve films so much back then or what?

Answer 1

I'm not entirely positive, but I think it was a combination of early film stock being made of nitrocellulose, which tends to be unstable (easily damaged in handling and storage). By the time they figured this out, many films were already beyond salvaging.

Answer 2

Back in those days it was harder to perserve film. After a while it becomes brittle and breaks easily. Also, the film loses its color and the sound is terrible. My all time favorite film "Star Wars" was almost one of those. They decided to save the film at the last moment and almost were not able to, due to the condition of the print. "London After Midnight" unfortunatly will always be lost. They have been able to save a few scenes from the movie but thats about all. Old film has to be remastered and reprinted onto new film and then digatized for DVD's now. There are some of these films still in movie stores. I have Nosfarato and Phantom of the Opera silent versions on VCR tapes. I keep them well protected, but I have seen silent films on DVD's. Since there is not much demand for them they are sometimes hard to find but are out there.

Answer 3

They early films were made out of materials that did not have a long service life so when the stored them for a long period of time, the film would disentagrate. Also they did not have adequate storage facilities like they do today.