A silent comedy shot on the streets of Newport, New Hampshire more than a century ago vanished for decades — until it turned up inside a stack of old film reels bought at an antique shop in Japan. The 1919 slapstick short “Van-Ar-Chy,” starring Vaudeville performer Billy B. Van, will now make its official world premiere at the Newport Opera House on November 1, 2026, at 2 p.m., nearly 100 years after it was presumed lost.
The film was found by Kohei Okita, who was researching films related to anarchy when he came across the reels, according to the New York Post. Okita reached out to film archivist John Tariot, who restored the print and is now preparing to screen it publicly for the first time in a century. Tariot owns Film Video Digital and previously founded FOOTAGE.net, which built digital stock image and video archives for clients including NBC News, Paramount Pictures, and National Geographic.
Kiki Keating, a spokesperson for Tariot, said “Van-Ar-Chy” was presumed lost for nearly a century and that roughly 75 percent of American silent films share that same fate, per the Post's reporting. She said the film is now heading to its official world premiere in New Hampshire. That figure lines up with a landmark 2013 study commissioned by the Library of Congress, which found that only 14 percent of the 10,919 American feature-length silent films made between 1912 and 1929 survive in their original 35mm format, with three-quarters lost entirely.
A Comedy Filmed With the Neighbors as Extras
“Van-Ar-Chy” wasn't shot on a Hollywood backlot. Billy B. Van, born William Webster Van de Grift in 1870 and already a star of Vaudeville and Broadway, built the Equity Motion Picture Company on the shores of Lake Sunapee in Georges Mills — a studio many historians consider Northern New England's first movie studio. According to Wikipedia, the operation, originally called the Van Harbor Casino Movie Co., included a casino, theater, and studio facility. Van cast local residents in his slapstick comedies and filmed them right on the streets of the surrounding New Hampshire towns, meaning natives may spot their great-grandparents or other past relatives as extras on screen when the film finally unspools.
Van had contracted tuberculosis and was associated with New Hampshire, where he raised Guernsey cattle, according to the Newport NH Historical Society. He also established a movie studio in the area.
A Companion Film Rediscovered in a New Hampshire Barn
“Van-Ar-Chy” won't premiere alone. It will screen alongside “Where Are Your Husbands?,” another 1919 Billy B. Van role-reversal farce that was itself rediscovered more than a century later. That film, too, was rediscovered more than a century after it was made.
Newport's Sunshine Town Legacy
Van's imprint on Newport extended well beyond his short-lived film studio. He is credited with coining the town's official nickname, “The Sunshine Town,” with the catchphrase “where the sun shines on both sides of the highway at the same time,” per the Newport NH Historical Society. Around 1927, he founded the Pine Tree Products Company in Newport, which made soaps, shampoos, and bath products.
Van's entertainment career never fully stopped. He remained a veteran Vaudeville monologist who appeared on Broadway in productions including “Sunny Days” in 1928, according to the Internet Broadway Database.
A Homecoming at the Newport Opera House
The Newport Opera House will host the premiere, bringing the film back to the town where Van shot his comedies.
The November 1 screening is co-presented by the Newport Historical Society and the Sunapee Historical Society, and will feature live music, including original piano accompaniment composed and performed by pianist Bob Merrill, according to Arts People.
