The long journey of 'The Old Homestead' from stage to screen; world 're-premiere' of silent film versions on Saturday, Feb. 7 in Keene, N.H.

An original release poster for the 1922 version of 'The Old Homestead.'

I've been a spectator to 'The Old Homestead' since high school.

The stage play, a phenomenal success as a touring production in the decades around 1900, is based on characters that author Denman Thompson remembered while growing up in Swanzey, N.H.

Thompson, playing the lead role of Uncle Josh, made a fortune from 'The Old Homestead,' eventually return to Swanzey to retire. He died in 1911, with the stage play eventually fading from the national consciousness as the Roaring '20s kicked into high gear.

I wasn't around for any of that, of course. But I was around to attend an annual revival of 'The Old Homestead' in Swanzey, staged by town residents every summer from 1939 all the way up to 2016.  

Swanzey's 'Old Homestead' revival in its early days. Photo courtesy the Historical Society of Cheshire County. 

I first attended the revival as a high school student in the early 1980s with a strong interest in theater. As a kid, I had actually spent summers in a nearby town, but had never heard of 'The Old Homestead.' 

It was my friend Jed Holland's mother who took us there—she'd grown up in the area and still attended the revival as a kind of annual ritual similar in spirit to what drives the many 'Old Home Day' celebrations in this part of the country.

The play's old-fashioned nature, plus the community theater "let's put on a show!" atmosphere, was like catnip to me. 

I responded to it for the same reason I gravitated toward silent films: for the big emotions, the melodrama, the sheer authenticity of the experience. It was so different from, say, 'Dallas' or 'Battle of the Network Stars' or whatever else was on the three channels of network TV back then.

A packed Potash Bowl for Swanzey's annual revival of 'The Old Homestead.' Photo courtesy the Historical Society of Cheshire County.  

At the time, the Potash Bowl—an outdoor amphitheater and the revival's longtime home—would be packed with hundreds of residents and visitors for each performance. 

Like some of the characters in 'The Old Homestead,' I went off to the big city for a time. But after returning to New Hampshire, I resumed attending the revival, bringing new friends (including my future wife) to share in the ritualistic experience. 

For some reason (probably to make time to change the scenery), between acts there was a tradition of singing the Joyce Kilmer's 'Trees' poem as set to music by Oscar Rasch way back in 1922, the Internet tells me.

 "I think that I shall never see..
A poem lovely as a tree..."

Well, in recent years, I thought I'd never see 'The Old Homestead' again. After a 75-year run (take that, 'The Mousetrap' in London!), the revival stopped being revived in 2016.

From what I can tell, the hometown version of 'The Old Homestead' finally succumbed to changing times and tastes. Here's a link to a story in the Keene (N.H.) Sentinel, the local daily paper, about the final performances.

And you'd think that would be it for 'The Old Homestead.' But no. 

Enter Larry Benaquist, a longtime film professor at Keene State College with a knack for rediscovering films from the silent era.

In 2006, Benaquist was instrumental in saving and preserving a collection of 35mm nitrate film prints found in an abandoned barn in a former summer camp in the woods north of Keene.

The movies included the first billed screen appearance by future megastar Mary Pickford, 'The Wishing Seat' (1911), a film that had been thought missing until Benaquist's discovery. 

The world "re-premiere" of 'The Wishing Seat' in 2013 made national headlines, including this report from CBS News. 

The films also included a print of 'When Lincoln Paid' (1913), a half-hour Civil War drama directed by Francis Ford (brother of legendary director John Ford), in which Ford also played Lincoln on scriteen.

The Lincoln film's rescue and restoration made international headlines, such as in this story published in Canada.

But Benaquist, now retired from teaching, wasn't done. 

Aware of the significance of 'The Old Homestead' in local history, he was curious about any early film adaptions. Putting a well-known stage play on screen was a common practice in cinema's early days—it was usually good box office.

A newspaper ad promoting the 1915 version of 'The Old Homestead' released by Paramount Pictures.

It turned out that not one but two versions of 'The Old Homestead' were produced in the silent era, both by Paramount Pictures: the first in 1915, and another in 1922.

But neither were readily available. Since their original release, the films had never been reissued or preserved. No copies had ever circulated, either commercially or in the collector's market. No U.S. archive had copies. 

And, despite Benaquist's earlier good fortune, prints were unlikely to turn up in abandoned area barns.

So Benaquist began looking elsewhere. 

From the earliest days of film, U.S. studios were shipping negatives to Europe, where prints were made in quantity to feed the growing appetite for cinema throughout the silent era.

As will happen, a few prints wound up in collections or repositories—often in state archives, where they were preserved and held as artifacts of cinema's early years.

So a person searching for missing Hollywood films can sometimes find them in foreign archives. That's what Benaquist tried to do, making inquiries—and he hit paydirt, locating not one but both film adaptations of 'The Old Homestead' in Europe.

That was six years ago. It's taken that much time (slowed by the pandemic) to negotiate the repatriation of the films, and to restore them so they can once again be seen as intended: on the big screen, with live music, and with an audience.

And that's what will happen on Saturday, Feb. 7, when both versions will be screened for the first time in more than a century—at the Showroom in Keene, N.H., not far from Denman Thompson's hometown of Swanzey, N.H. 

I have the great honor of creating live music for both adaptations: the 1915 version at 3 p.m., and the 1922 version at 7 p.m. 

Larry has been a generous supporter of my work in film music, giving me the opportunity to accompany his earlier restorations at their first screenings, and then elsewhere.  

So I'm thrilled to be working with him again to provide live music for these "world re-premiere" screenings. 

After being an 'Old Homestead' fan and spectator for all these years, it's a great privilege to get to play a small role in the long history of this American classic.

I hope you'll join us: lots more info about 'The Old Homestead' and the Feb. 7 screenings is in the press release below:

*    *    * 

Sheet music published to go along with a silent film release of 'The Old Homestead' (1922).

MONDAY, JAN. 26, 2026 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Rediscovered 'Old Homestead' films to screen on Saturday, Feb. 7 in Keene, N.H.

Unseen for more than a century, two early Hollywood adaptations of N.H. author's famous play to screen with live music at Colonial's Showroom venue

KEENE, N.H.— It was once one of the most popular stage plays in America. But a pair of early film versions of it haven't been seen for more than a century.

That will change when two recently rediscovered adaptations of 'The Old Homestead' are screened with live music on Saturday, Feb. 7 at the Showroom, 20 Commercial St., Keene, N.H.

An adaptation from 1915 will be screened on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 3 p.m., along with a new documentary by Slate Roof Films about 'The Old Homestead' and its author, Denman Thompson, a native of Swanzey, N.H.

Historians Larry Benaquist and Howard Mansfield will lead a discussion following the screening. 

In a separate program at 7 p.m., a longer 1922 version of 'The Homestead' will be screened. 

Live music for both screenings will be provided by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based composer who specializes in accompanying silent films.

Both programs are free and open to the public, but separate advance tickets are required for each screening. For tickets, visit www.showroomkeene.org, click on 'Tickets,' then go to Saturday, Feb. 7 on the online calendar.

Both films were produced by Paramount Pictures; following their initial run, the films were never re-released or reissued. 

Like much of early cinema, copies simply were not available after the silent era ended in the late 1920s; an estimated 75 percent of films made during this time are lost and no longer exist.

But prints of each version of 'The Old Homestead' survived in foreign archives, which led to a six-year effort to have them repatriated to the U.S., restored, and shown once again on the big screen.

"The survival of one of these films would have been unlikely; the survival of both is near-miraculous," said Benaquist, retired Professor of Film Studies at Keene State College, who spearheaded the project.

'The Old Homestead' play was written in 1886 by Denman Thompson (1833-1911), a farmer-turned-actor-turned-playwright who grew up Swanzey, N.H.  

In writing 'The Old Homestead,' Thompson combined the lives of several people that he knew in Swanzey, taking the characteristics of each to make the unique character presented.

The play toured around the country for decades, seen by an estimated 20 million people, and helped to shape the image of the Yankee farmer for an entire nation.  

Thompson himself played the lead character, Uncle Josh, who must search for his son who has fled to New York City after being accused of a crime he did not commit. 

'The Old Homestead,' full of wit, song, and rural humor and pathos, came to the American stage at a time when young people were fleeing the rural life for work in the big cities.

The rural values featured in the play and subsequent filmed versions held a great appeal for the American audiences of the late 19^th century. 

Following a fabulously successful career, Thompson returned to Swanzey, N.H. to live in retirement, a beloved native son, where he died in 1911.

Although Thomson's play eventually faded from the nation's conscience, an annual summertime revival of 'The Old Homestead' ran in Swanzey from 1939 to 2016.

The recently rediscovered silent films were both produced by Paramount Pictures—the 1915 version having been found in Paris and the 1922 version in Belgium.  

The 1922 adaptation was directed by James Cruze, who had worked with silent film comic Fatty Arbuckle just prior to 'The Old Homestead.' 

The next year, Cruze would direct Paramount's 'The Covered Wagon' (1923), a large scale Western and one of the defining epics of the silent era.

In collaboration with the Historical Society of Cheshire County, Benaquist raised the funds needed to return 'The Old Homestead' films to the United States and have them restored.

The restoration of the two versions of 'The Old Homestead' was accomplished in partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Royal Film Archive of Belgium, and the Library of Congress. 

The world "re-premiere" of two film adaptations of Denman Thompson's play 'The Old Homestead' will take place on Saturday, Feb. 7 at the Showroom, 20 Commercial St., Keene, N.H.

• At 3 p.m., the 1915 version of 'The Old Homestead' will be screened, along with a documentary by Slate Roof Films and a discussion about the project with historians Larry Benaquist and Howard Mansfield.

  

• At 7 p.m., the longer 1922 version of 'The Old Homestead' will be screened.

Live music for both presentations will be provided by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film accompanist.

Both programs are free and open to the public, but separate advance tickets are required for each screening. For tickets, visit www.showroomkeene.org, click on 'Tickets,' then go to Saturday, Feb. 7 on the online calendar.

Organized in collaboration with the Historical Society of Cheshire County, this event is generously sponsored by New Hampshire Humanities, Eppes-Jefferson Foundation, NH Charitable Foundation, Kingsbury Fund, Madelaine Von Weber, and the Steadmans.