Inside the Richard Balzer Collection
A collector and a master showman, Richard Balzer (1944–2017) amassed one of the most important assemblages of 19th-century optical prints and devices in the world. In this film, created as a posthumous tribute for an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the collector shares his enthusiasm for the dancing skeletons, sparkling chromatropes, and big-toothed wolves that delighted audiences of the past.
Highlights from the Richard Balzer Collection are currently on display as part of “Path to Cinema” at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles: https://www.academymuseum.org/en/exhibitions/path-to-cinema
For more on the Richard Balzer Collection, visit: https://www.dickbalzer.com/
