Fully 70 percent of films from silent era are lost, according to Library of Congress report

The vast majority of films from Hollywood's silent era will go unseen as well as unheard, having been lost to history, according to a report released Tuesday (Dec. 3) by the Library of Congress. Fully 70 percent of those feature-length silents made in America have been "completely lost to time and neglect," according to the report, billed as the first comprehensive survey of surviving American silent films.

"The Library of Congress can now authoritatively report that the loss of American silent-era feature films constitutes an alarming and irretrievable loss to our nation's cultural record," Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said in a news release. "We have lost most of the creative record from the era that brought American movies to the pinnacle of world cinematic achievement in the 20th century."...