John Kelso--Film Historian

John Kelso

John K. Kelso
Motion Picture Archivist - Historian - Consultant

Read the Wichita Eagle Interview

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Read John's DVD & Movie Recommendations

Read John's Top 10 Lists

Read 91 Years of Favorite Feature Films

Coming Soon My All-Time Top 1,500 Favorite Movies

A member of the International Buster Keaton Society, Blinking Buzzards - The British Buster Keaton Society, and the Sons of the Desert Laughing Gravy Tent, Wichita Kansas, I fell in love with movies when I was six. Since then, I've viewed more than 17,700 features.

Wichita's Biggest "Phantom Menace Fan!! with 168 Viewings

Want to know something about movies? Ask me.

I've met such celebrities as Mrs. Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Leonard Maltin, James Karen, Kenneth Mars, Gaylord Carter, Edie Adams, and Dan Kamin. Film historians I have met are Kevin Brownlow, Russell Merritt, Bruce Lawton, David Shepard, John C. Tibbetts, and Wichita film notables, J.B. Kaufman and Jim Erickson.
My special interest is the film period 1888-1935. D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) is my favorite film, and I believe that Griffith is the finest director in film history. His Intolerance (1916), Broken Blossoms (1919) and Way Down East (1920) still amaze and thrill audiences today.
I have worked as a production assistant in Kansas on My Name is Legend with Duke Kelly, and watched the Long Beach, California filming of Robert Mitchum's Farewell My Lovely (1975). I have attended all thirteen Keaton Film Festivals in Iola, Kansas, and eight silent film festivals in Topeka, Kansas, plus the Parsons, Kansas ZaSu Pitts Festival in April 1998 and 1999.
I have spent many hours researching film history and am currently looking for work in the film industry.
I am available for film festivals or lectures.
I have given a lecture at Georgetown Retirement Village in Wichita, KS on "The Silent Film: A Lost Art"

What's Wrong With Today's Film