Sun Sep 03, 2017 9:43 am
As yet another "Millennial" (right? b. 1989) I remember being frustrated, in my teens, that so few of my peers were into classic movies, and so on... that I couldn't discuss Chaplin at school, so to say. As I've become older, I've come to realize that, in the end, it's only "fair" that today's youngsters, as a general rule, aren't that much into old things. As Maliejandra points out, how many kids of the early 1900s were likely obsessed with the stuff that their grandparents enjoyed? Perhaps there were a few who lamented that movies & radio were killing vaudeville, but not too many, I'd think. Just as I don't expect everyone to appreciate classical music as I do, I won't expect a majority to find similar merit in silents and Old Time Radio.
Also, consider that audiences of the late silent era are reported, at least on occasion, to have more or less groaned at the sight of early silents, when they turned up as reissues...
Having said that, I think it's important to encourage today's youth to check out old stuff (all the more so now, when "everything" can be found within a few clicks), be it music, movies, books or art... if they don't like it, oh well; but some doubtlessly will, and may turn out to be future film historians (or the parent of a future film historian, or... etc).