In the early 1900s, movie companies would regularly destroy all film reels they could reach after a feature had run its course in theaters.
That's why the early age of motion pictures has so many gaps of completely lost movies. And that's intentional because at the time didn't want anything old to exist if new things could get churned out instead.
Most of Monty Python's original work at the BBC was simply taped over to cut costs. The only reason any of it survived is because one of them hoarded a bunch of it in their attic.
In the early 1900s, movie companies would regularly destroy all film reels they could reach after a feature had run its course in theaters.
That's why the early age of motion pictures has so many gaps of completely lost movies. And that's intentional because
at the time didn't want anything old to exist if new things could get churned out instead.
That, and they were incredibly careless with the new technology. Fires burned quite a few of them because they weren’t properly or carefully stored.
Most of Monty Python's original work at the BBC was simply taped over to cut costs. The only reason any of it survived is because one of them hoarded a bunch of it in their attic.