Silent Movie Month Celebration

1910-1920, 1920-1930, Beautiful Things, Ithacans, Publicity, Special Events, Windows

Petrune is happy to be celebrating Silent Movie Month this October in Ithaca and you’re invited to a reception for the Ithaca Motion Picture Project to celebrate a month of exhibits, events and screenings focused on the silent movie era and Ithaca’s own Wharton Inc motion picture studio. We were inspired to do a window display of one of Ithaca’s own Silent Film actresses Grace Darlington, the star of Beatrice Fairfax serials.

Grace Darlington

Grace Darlington, Silent Beauty, 1893-1963

Hope you will stop by Petrune on The Commons on Gallery Night, October 5th from 5pm-8pm! Please respond, and invite others through our Facebook Event!

A Tribute to Downton

1900-1910, 1910-1920, Windows

Our Petrune guilty pleasure is obviously a good period piece drama. Currently we are obsessing over Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Classic. For the past two seasons, we have fallen in love with Lady Violet’s quick-wit  and the tumultuous relationship between Mary and Matthew. Mostly though we have been gushing about early 20th century fashion, so we thought the best way to share our joy was in a window display!

These Victorian and early 20th century pieces are some of our favorites of all time. The Victorian Riding Jacket can be found on our Etsy shop.

What will happen on the season finale on Sunday? Will Bates be convicted? Will Lady Mary marry Richard? More importantly…. What stunning frocks will we see?!?! We simply cannot wait to find out! Be sure to stop by to check out this window display in person, and tune into Downton Abbey.

Romance, Exploits, Peril, and our New Window!

1910-1920, 1920-1930, Special Events

Ithaca’s rich film history and status as a “Hollywood of the Northeast” has has left its mark on the town in a myriad of wonderful ways. There’s no doubt that the city’s population has a flair for the beautifully theatric, and productions of both stage and screen have emerged from every corner of Ithaca for as long as living memory. Our new window display pays homage to Irene Castle, Ithaca resident, starlet of the silver screen, and wife to Ithaca’s Robert Treman.

Castle in the 1917 film Patria, the image we used as inspiration for our window.

Castle moved to Ithaca to work as a silent film star, after a whirlwind career as a ballroom dancer with her former husband. Settling down in the newly-constructed Cayuga Heights in the 1920s, Castle quickly became a darling of the booming film scene in Ithaca. Hob-nobbing with Warner Oland and other stars on their lakefront properties, Castle’s bobbed haircut and short (knee length, ooo!) skirts made her a trendsetter of 20’s fashion in the Northeast and beyond.

Beautiful beaded bodice.

Dancing shoes!

Fabulous fans, skirts of scandalous lengths!

Our Irene Castle display is part of the Ithaca Motion Picture Project’s most recent exhibit Romance, Exploits & Peril, an 8 piece multimedia exhibit commemorating the period, almost 100 years ago, that the Wharton Brothers made Ithaca a bastion of the silver screen. The flagship installation is a 90 ft sculptural timeline of the period at the Tompkins County Public Library, and other exhibits scatter the city at Gimme, the State Theater, GIAC, Petrune, and more! For more details, check out their site at www.ithacamotionpictureproject.org