Manka Bros. Film Library
The World's Largest Film Library
1907 - 1919
Cattle Drive (Silent Short - 1912) - One in a series of very popular single-reel comedies starring 'The Clownboys' (formerly the 'Karnobat Klowns') - a Bulgarian comedy troupe]. [This was a dangerous film shoot, using real stampeding bulls and no stunt doubles. However, only one of 'The Clownboys' died. The others were injured but recovered to make hundreds of other shorts.]
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The Regatta (Silent Short - 1913) - Starring The Fireboys (formerly the Yambol Yucksters, a comedy troupe from Bulgaria). The Fireboys must put out a fire at the Annual President's Regatta in Newport, Rhode Island. [The movie was actually shot at Pyramid Lake, north of Los Angeles, and the crew set fire to a boat with people on it to make it look more real.]
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Graduation Glory (Silent Short - 1914) - The Fireboys must put out a fire at an elite prep school graduation ceremony. [Most of the footage was shot from an actual fire during a Graduation Ceremony at a local southern California high school. Ironically, the only surviving film prints suffered major damage in a storage facility fire and only a few stills from the production survived.]
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General Cluck Cluck: Ottoman Slayer - Before Warner Bros. made millions on the Rin Tin Tin movies in the 1920s (starring the hero dog from World War 1), Manka Bros. began a less successful series of films set during The Balkan Wars featuring ‘General Cluck Cluck - The Bulgarian Chicken Who Crushed The Ottoman Empire.’
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