When the silent era continues to speak across a century, it does so not only through flickering nitrate frames and restored orchestral scores, but through the devotion of those who refused to let its voices fade. Among the most respected and deeply loved of those guardians was Donna Hill, an author, collector, and preeminent authority on Rudolph Valentino, whose death in San Francisco on December 27, 2024, marked a profound loss to classic film scholarship and the global silent-film community.

Adam the Woo made going somewhere into a kind of companionship for more than a decade. He didn’t just document places: he accompanied you in them. Rope-drop theme parks, Main Street courthouse squares, roadside curiosities, abandoned movie sets: his camera lent the familiar the thrill of newly-found and the strange the comfort of the familiar. When news arrived that Williams had died at 51, the loss felt like the kind with the particular weight reserved for people who quietly insinuate themselves into your life.

In the world of Hollywood history, where legends are built and forgotten with equal speed, Cari Beauchamp was the rare chronicler who refused to let the voices of the past go silent. Author, historian, journalist, and investigator, she spent her life uncovering the untold stories of the women who helped shape the dream factory — writers, producers, editors, and creators who had once been erased from the credits they helped write.