Lost Billy B. Van silent film returns to Newport after a century

A 1919 silent comedy filmed in Newport and Sunapee is set to screen again on Nov. 1 at the Newport Opera House, after being rediscovered in Japan. The return of 'Van-ar-chy' gives audiences a rare look at early filmmaking and everyday life in the Lake Sunapee region.

Why it matters: - "Van-ar-chy" preserves one of the few surviving films from Billy B. Van’s New Hampshire production era, when much of silent cinema was lost. - The film also captures moving images of Newport and Sunapee in 1919, including streets, landscapes, buildings and local residents. - The screening returns a piece of Lake Sunapee history to the communities where it was made.

What happened: - The Newport Historical Society and the Sunapee Historical Society will present "Van-ar-chy Comes Home: Billy B. Van’s Lost Silent Comedies" on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, at 2 p.m. at the Newport Opera House in Newport, N.H. - The program will feature digitally restored versions of "Van-ar-chy" and "Where Are Your Husbands?", two Billy B. Van comedies rediscovered more than a century after they were made. - Bob Merrill will provide piano accompaniment, including a live performance for "Van-ar-chy". - Tickets cost $15 and are available through the Newport Opera House box office at newportoperahouse.com or 603-863-2412. - Proceeds will benefit the Newport Historical Society and the Sunapee Historical Society.

The details: - "Van-ar-chy" was filmed in and around Newport and Sunapee in 1919. - The film was identified after Kohei Okita, a film student in Sendai, Japan, bought antique reels while researching early cinema connected to the word "anarchy". - Okita searched online and found billybvan.com, a site created by film archivist John Tariot to document Van’s career and locate missing films. - Tariot confirmed the reels as "Van-ar-chy", one of the comedies Van made in New Hampshire. - Billy B. Van, a Broadway and vaudeville comedian who lived from 1870 to 1950, created the Equity Motion Picture Company in the Lake Sunapee region. - Van’s studio was at Georges Mills, and the company used nearby communities as filming locations and, at times, as sources of local performers and extras. - Some local people seen in the film have not yet been identified. - "Where Are Your Husbands?" was rediscovered in 2017 in the collections of the Library of Congress. - Bob Merrill also created accompaniment for both films. - A historical introduction will place the films in the context of Van’s New Hampshire filmmaking venture and the rapid growth of the motion-picture industry in the 1910s. - The event will include a cash bar.

Between the lines: - The rediscovery shows how lost film can surface in unexpected places, including private collections and institutional archives far from where the work was made. - The screenings also highlight the historical value of local imagery, since old films can serve as both entertainment and visual records of a community. - John Tariot’s search has now produced two recovered Billy B. Van films, suggesting more missing titles may still exist. - Tariot said the search continues for additional Van films that may be unidentified in archives or private collections.

What's next: - The Newport screening on Nov. 1 will reunite the two rediscovered films with the region where much of Van’s work was produced. - The organizers hope the event will deepen public interest in Billy B. Van’s films and in early New Hampshire filmmaking. - The continued search may turn up more lost Van films.

The bottom line: - A century after it was made, "Van-ar-chy" is returning not just as a film, but as a historical artifact of Newport, Sunapee and an almost vanishing era of American cinema.