00:03 - A typewriter is used to authenticate

00:06 - the original manuscript of a Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

00:11 - A neighborhood movie house built in the 1930s

00:14 - survives a challenge from the shopping mall multiplex.

00:19 - A turntable with a needle and a circular

00:22 - sheet of vinyl has one foot in the past and the other in the future,

00:28 - and a museum with artifacts of blood curdling events

00:32 - that may have never happened, maintains a firm grasp

00:37 - on the popular imagination.

00:41 - Pennsylvania neighborhoods visit Doylestown.

00:48 - A Chinese farmers reverence for the land

00:51 - has a direct effect on his harvest and his sense of morality.

00:56 - But when wealth becomes more important,

00:59 - it erodes his values and brings him

01:02 - into conflict with the traditional way he was brought up.

01:06 - This theme is explored in the Pulitzer Prize winning novel

01:09 - The Good Earth, published in 1931.

01:13 - Its author, Pearl S Buck, lived in this Pennsylvania house.

01:19 - She was the

01:20 - first American woman to win both the Pulitzer

01:23 - and Nobel Prize, and kept that title for over 40 years.

01:28 - She won the Nobel Prize in 1938 for her novel The Good Earth,

01:33 - but also her collected works, including the biographies of her parents.

01:38 - She was born in 1892, in West Virginia,

01:42 - to Presbyterian missionary parents, who then took her to China,

01:46 - where she lived the first half of her life until she was about 42 years old,

01:51 - and at that point, due to circumstances

01:54 - of changing politics and,

01:58 - rising violence in China, she moved to the United States.

02:01 - What would be permanently in 1934?

02:04 - Well, what influenced her to write

02:06 - The Good Earth was primarily what she saw growing up in China,

02:10 - but also her experiences with her first husband, John Lawson Buck,

02:15 - who was what they called an agricultural missionary,

02:18 - and his work was to go out in the rural farm communities of China

02:22 - and research the agricultural practices, and his work is still used today

02:27 - by researchers.

02:28 - She followed him on these trips and what she saw

02:31 - in the rural farming communities inspired the book For the Good Earth,

02:35 - which is kind of a multigenerational story of a Chinese farmer

02:40 - and his life with his wife, who was previously enslaved,

02:45 - them having children and subsequently the generations of their family

02:50 - that follow through the end of the Qing dynasty.

02:54 - When Pearl Buck applied what she learned

02:57 - about Chinese culture to the good Earth.

03:00 - She delivered a fresh and controversial

03:03 - perspective on a humble social class

03:06 - that readers in the West usually overlooked.

03:10 - Everyone's reading about the kings, the queens,

03:13 - presidents, you know, the more elite status of people.

03:17 - And in Asian literature, in particular, there were even laws about that.

03:21 - That's what you had to write about.

03:23 - That's what people could read about.

03:24 - And most people couldn't read if they were not part of a higher social class.

03:30 - That's just how things were.

03:31 - And so that's part of it, but also to tell their stories.

03:36 - Unknown stories, but unknown stories to the Western world

03:41 - to teach the Western world about China, in particular in Asia.

03:46 - And that the people are not much different from us.

03:50 - I don't think a lot of people were aware of much

03:53 - of anything going on in China in particular.

03:57 - I don't think they understood much about, you know, the,

04:03 - Chinese culture is very rich culture.

04:06 - And at the central, part of all of it is family.

04:11 - The general public loved it.

04:14 - The critics?

04:16 - Not necessarily that much.

04:18 - Some did, some didn't.

04:20 - It particularly got worse after she won the Nobel Prize, actually.

04:25 - I think it

04:26 - had a lot to do with the fact that she was younger.

04:29 - She was a woman.

04:31 - And there were other people.

04:33 - For example, William Faulkner, that she kind of

04:36 - pushed out of winning in that particular year.

04:40 - In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize for The Good Earth.

04:45 - Pearl Buck was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

04:50 - The award presentation speech praised her

04:52 - for paving the way to a human sympathy

04:56 - that passed over widely separated racial boundaries.

05:01 - That award hurt her career because the critics are like,

05:05 - you know, the Chinese critics in particular,

05:08 - like, well, no one wants to read books about poor farming people.

05:12 - The Good Earth was actually the first paper back pocket book.

05:16 - Those little small books, and it was part of

05:19 - book of the Month Club Affordable Ways to Buy Books.

05:22 - And she always said that she was grateful her books were printed cheap

05:26 - so that everyone had the opportunity to read them.

05:29 - She wrote over 165 books of all genres.

05:35 - And that's just the books.

05:37 - We're still counting, but somewhere over maybe 1500

05:41 - pieces of writing of all genres poetry, film, plays,

05:47 - speeches, essays.

05:49 - A lot of her books were published.

05:51 - Magazines, serials.

05:53 - First newspaper articles, you name it, she wrote it.

05:57 - So the building we're in right now was Pearl's books home?

06:01 - In bucks County, which she purchased with her

06:04 - second husband and her book publisher, Richard Walsh.

06:08 - They lived in this house, the rest of her life,

06:12 - with their children.

06:14 - They adopted six children together.

06:17 - And, was quite a busy place to be.

06:21 - But this house wasn't just a house for her.

06:23 - It was kind of a community hub as well, where primarily

06:28 - the children in the area came for swimming.

06:32 - There was tennis, basketball.

06:34 - They had a baseball field on their property,

06:37 - and anyone was welcome here of any race, social class.

06:42 - The Boy Scouts, the four H, all those groups of children

06:46 - used this property as kind of, their hangout place for decades.

06:52 - When Pearl died, her foundation, the Pearl Foundation,

06:57 - inherited her home property, which is called Green Hills Farm,

07:01 - and they moved their international headquarters here.

07:04 - And that's who's here today, although we're called Pearl Buck international.

07:08 - Now, the House became a museum around 1980

07:12 - when it became a National Historic Landmark.

07:15 - Although Pearl Buck did not, ever envisioned her house being museum.

07:20 - When she died, all the contents of her house were intact.

07:24 - And that's why our collection is

07:27 - literally everything she ever owned.

07:30 - So we have two typewriters, but

07:33 - the one that everyone wants to see is a royal typewriter.

07:39 - The only brand she ever used.

07:41 - Very popular brand, and it was used to type

07:44 - all of her novels in China, including The Good Earth.

07:48 - And so the typewriter is here

07:51 - in our large library, along with the desk that she also used in China.

07:56 - This is the actual typewriter that the good Earth was typed on.

08:01 - I read the book for English class back in high school,

08:04 - so I feel kind of a personal connection to this machine.

08:08 - But the story gets even better.

08:11 - This typewriter was used to crack the case

08:13 - of the missing original manuscript, the manuscript for the Good Earth,

08:18 - which had been reported stolen at Pearl's death.

08:22 - I was missing, stolen. Missing? Who knows?

08:25 - At the time,

08:27 - turned up at auction.

08:28 - And so it was flagged by the FBI and, you know,

08:32 - confiscated stolen property and an investigation was launched.

08:36 - But in order to prove it's the authentic copy,

08:39 - you need the typewriter used to type it.

08:42 - And so the FBI did a typewriter analysis of the, you know, the ribbon

08:47 - and confirm that it was indeed the Jeter's typewriter.

08:52 - And then the manuscript was returned to the Pearl Buck Family Trust.

08:57 - Her humanitarian work really started at the beginning of World War Two.

09:02 - And I mean the very beginning, when the Japanese invaded

09:05 - China in 1937 and 38.

09:08 - And her work will start then with aiding the Chinese during the Japanese invasion.

09:15 - It will move on to supporting,

09:17 - Asian Americans children of mixed race,

09:21 - founding the first adoption agency for mixed race children,

09:25 - and then later the Pearl Buck Foundation to help mixed race children in Asia

09:30 - that were half American receiving education and health care.

09:36 - I understand that her gravesite is here.

09:40 - How was the decision made to put her remains here?

09:44 - Well, it's my understanding.

09:46 - It was always her wish, but there was some sort of, issue with the township.

09:52 - Like you could imagine. It was 1973.

09:55 - It was not a common thing to be buried on one's property,

09:58 - but they got some sort of special permit, and she was able to be buried

10:03 - here under her Chinese name, per her wishes.

10:07 - And then when her daughter Janice passed,

10:10 - her ashes were interred here as well.

10:13 - And so for me, you know,

10:16 - I like people to know what she did and why she was important.

10:20 - But also that she's just a person like everyone else,

10:24 - because that's what makes her special, too.

10:27 - You can still be a highly accomplished,

10:30 - world renowned author and humanitarian, but still have flaws as a human being.

10:36 - And that's okay.

10:37 - I think that's something in the history community that's kind of

10:42 - gotten lost that we're

10:43 - trying to come back to.

10:47 - Lots of neighborhood

10:49 - movie theaters didn't make it through economic difficulties.

10:52 - That brought them into a phase of serious neglect

10:55 - in the 1970s, and many of them closed permanently.

11:00 - But some theaters held on and survived even thrived.

11:04 - The county theater here in Doylestown made it through tough times,

11:08 - not only by expanding, but by reinventing itself

11:12 - with movies like Star Wars

11:15 - and Jaws, movies that made this incredible amount of money.

11:19 - That really people didn't see in quite the, way before.

11:23 - And that's really served to transform

11:27 - how the, movie business operates.

11:30 - In terms of relying on these big blockbusters or tentpoles,

11:35 - those really had

11:37 - a way of incentivizing, people who were in the movie business

11:42 - to try to cram

11:45 - as many movies into a screen, onto a screen as possible,

11:49 - to get as many screenings of a popular movie and as possible.

11:53 - And that's why that really benefited the proliferation of,

11:57 - malls and multiplexes, places that could actually sustain that kind of movie model.

12:04 - And that's something that kind of for these smaller, small town

12:08 - theaters, made it a little bit tougher to, compete.

12:12 - The main thing that we are committed to as a nonprofit, movie theater,

12:18 - where we don't necessarily have to,

12:21 - count on box office dollars to determine

12:24 - our programing, is we love to focus on,

12:28 - on more artistic minded, films

12:31 - so that, is along the lines of arthouse movies, may be movies that,

12:36 - not a lot of people would see, or they would have to drive an hour down

12:40 - to Philadelphia to go see, or a major metropolitan area.

12:45 - We provide an opportunity to show those smaller movies,

12:50 - we meet on a weekly basis, and we sit down, we,

12:53 - we review how our movies performed, and then we just, hash it out.

12:58 - We talk about

12:59 - what are some movies that are coming up, what seems to be really popular right

13:02 - now, either in New York and L.A., the larger movie markets, the,

13:07 - with what smaller movies are really garnering the attention,

13:11 - which movies have awards potential, and which movies?

13:15 - We're personally just very excited to see as well.

13:17 - There is an element of personal taste that comes into how we decide movies.

13:22 - So it is not just about box office potential.

13:26 - It's not just about awards potential.

13:28 - It's about curation as well.

13:32 - If you missed a movie at the County theater in the 1930s,

13:36 - you may have blown your one and only chance to see it.

13:41 - Now, of course, you can watch a movie on television,

13:44 - your computer, or your smartphone

13:47 - over and over again if you feel like it.

13:50 - Well, with all this competition, the County theater

13:54 - had to work on making itself a more appealing entertainment option.

13:59 - We wanted to give this,

14:01 - this building, this beautiful historic building,

14:04 - a much needed facelift.

14:07 - But while still retaining that

14:10 - Art Deco style, look.

14:13 - But we also wanted to add a third screen as well.

14:16 - And to make it, larger, to make it modernize, to have that

14:20 - sort of stadium style, seating, get better seats in there,

14:24 - get a brand new digital projector in there,

14:28 - a laser projector, which is, state of the art, and,

14:32 - and to have a much bigger screen as well

14:36 - for all the competition that we have with,

14:39 - with TV and multiplexes and mega malls all the way to today

14:43 - when we have streaming, we have, smartphones,

14:48 - we have people deciding what to watch based on algorithms.

14:53 - What the what the, you know, what the,

14:56 - computer tells us what you should watch.

14:59 - I saw a place that really cared about

15:03 - what it means to love movies, to see a movie, to experience a movie

15:08 - with a larger community, laugh and cry

15:12 - with folks, and then to come out and talk about the movie afterwards.

15:15 - Just, talk about what you liked about it, what you hated about it.

15:38 - Back in the 90s, when music on compact disc

15:42 - was dominating sales, I put my vinyl record player into storage.

15:47 - Now, before I closed the box, I made one investment in the future.

15:52 - I installed a new needle on the toner,

15:55 - so I was ready for vinyl records to make a big comeback.

16:00 - That day has arrived, and not just for the old records

16:04 - collecting dust in my closet, but for brand new music as well.

16:09 - This is Siren Records in Doylestown.

16:13 - We're a record store.

16:14 - We specialize in selling, vinyl records, new and used,

16:20 - but we also sell a ton of CDs.

16:23 - We saw some DVDs and T-shirts and other things as well,

16:27 - but it's mainly a record store, so we we sell new and used vinyl records.

16:33 - Why the emphasis on vinyl records?

16:36 - Well, I guess maybe

16:38 - about 15 years ago the store was more balanced,

16:43 - like we had vinyl records, but we mostly sold CDs.

16:48 - And over that period of time,

16:52 - the vinyl sales really started

16:56 - increasing and the CD sales started decreasing.

17:00 - So we kept stocking more and more vinyl

17:04 - and the, the percentages just kind of shifted.

17:07 - So we started selling 70% and vinyl

17:12 - and maybe 20, 30% CD.

17:17 - You know, I think records and CDs kind of sound

17:20 - about the same at this point.

17:23 - I love the sound of a vinyl.

17:25 - It is warmer, but CD sound great.

17:29 - Streaming to me sounds terrible.

17:33 - The compression,

17:35 - you know, kind of overwhelms the

17:38 - the space of the sound.

17:41 - You know, when you listen to a CD in a car,

17:43 - the sound used to would come from all around you.

17:47 - Next time you

17:48 - hear someone complain about their music stream

17:51 - sounding too compressed, think of it this way.

17:55 - Imagine a narrow pipeline that can't handle

17:59 - thousands of gallons of water being pushed through it at high pressure.

18:04 - Something's got to give.

18:06 - In order to send out that information

18:09 - into the ether, they have to narrow down the

18:13 - the width of information that they can provide.

18:17 - So, you know, stuff's coming out so you lose low and you lose high

18:23 - and you lose bits of the information that you have

18:28 - when you listen to a, you know, a record.

18:33 - Neil Young is famous for not listening to his album

18:38 - streaming because he can hear what's missing.

18:42 - A vinyl record collection can spend years in the attic

18:46 - or basement simply because it's too inconvenient to move.

18:51 - But when a collector takes the big plunge and gets rid of it,

18:55 - sometimes the feeling like remorse creeps into their mind.

19:01 - A lot of older customers

19:04 - who have been customers for many years, and then we have older

19:07 - customers who come in and they realize that they got rid of their,

19:10 - you know, their vinyl records. At a certain point,

19:13 - many of them

19:14 - start rebuilding their collection plain.

19:17 - A record is a very physical experience, and it starts here in the store.

19:21 - When you pick up the record and you see the artwork and it's a certain

19:25 - size, we're we're sort of moving past the point

19:29 - when young people don't know what a record is, because

19:34 - some of the bigger artists, like Taylor Swift,

19:37 - have made a point of

19:41 - pressing their stuff on vinyl and talking about the vinyl

19:45 - and sending their fans into either

19:50 - buying a directly or sending their fans into record stores like this.

19:54 - Did you ever have a vinyl record of your own?

19:56 - Blair, where it was so old in your collection for such a long time

20:00 - that you knew where the pops in the cracks were on that record?

20:03 - Oh for sure, yeah, and that's part of the experience.

20:08 - Some people

20:09 - need to have their records be totally quiet.

20:13 - It's nice for a symphony, right?

20:15 - And some people and classical vinyl was always pressed very well, but,

20:20 - some people actually find comfort

20:23 - in the little pops and cracks that happen

20:28 - while you listen to a record, so they don't need it to be perfect.

20:31 - The most rewarding aspect is just seeing

20:34 - the joy that, you know, people

20:39 - experience coming into the store,

20:42 - digging through the racks, picking out stuff to buy,

20:46 - coming back to, you know, start their collections or add to,

20:51 - collections already existing.

20:54 - There is a lot of joy in it.

20:55 - We feel very much a part of the community.

20:58 - We, this is the best location we've we've had.

21:02 - It's very much right in the center of town.

21:05 - We can take part in events that might be happening.

21:08 - Street fairs

21:09 - or whatever is happening in town, but just being across from the theater.

21:13 - Well, the county we're very often show,

21:18 - older films that are music related.

21:21 - So they'll come to us and see if we want to sponsor,

21:25 - you know, help promote or just be have our name attached

21:29 - to one of the films that they're showing,

21:32 - which is always fun.

21:43 - The curator of the Vampire and Paranormal Museum

21:46 - says interest in vampires ramped up in the 1500s in Europe,

21:51 - when one third of its population was wiped out by the bubonic plague.

21:57 - Here at this Doylestown Museum,

22:00 - among artifacts dating back to the Middle Ages,

22:04 - you'll find wooden stakes, crucifixes

22:07 - and containers for holy water.

22:10 - Were they made with a sincere belief in vampires

22:14 - or for a more mercenary purpose?

22:19 - The answer to that question is, in the imagination of the visitor,

22:24 - this is vampire.

22:25 - It stands for vampire Art

22:26 - Museum and Paranormal Activity well located in Doylestown, Pennsylvania,

22:31 - and it's a museum that highlights the battle between good and evil.

22:36 - Well, we have, a huge selection

22:39 - of vampire killing sets and implements.

22:42 - They basically show the testimony to the belief in vampires.

22:46 - I don't necessarily believe in vampires in the Bram Stroker concept,

22:50 - because that's really fiction.

22:51 - But I believe in more of a demonic concept crucifixes, wooden stakes,

22:56 - bottles of holy water, garlic you would have sold.

22:59 - Vampires were known to have a form of OCD, so you would have the salt in front and

23:04 - would have to count every morsel of salt before they walked over.

23:08 - But they can't really fast.

23:09 - And that's how Sesame Place got the concept of Count Dracula.

23:13 - I had no idea, but there's a lot of implements in it.

23:16 - You would have usually a Bible to build the edification

23:19 - of the vampire hunter, and obviously all the different implements.

23:24 - You sometimes have axes in them.

23:25 - You would have swords and and of course, you know,

23:28 - the killing implements like the hammers and the daggers.

23:31 - Well, everyone loves vampires.

23:33 - It's immortality, it's eroticism.

23:36 - It's a romantic concept.

23:38 - So people really like that.

23:40 - And each culture has a different connection towards the idea of vampires.

23:45 - So as a kid, I was watching a lot of different movies

23:48 - and got fascinated by that. I really liked the movie.

23:52 - That would

23:53 - show the battling of the vampires.

23:56 - My, grandfather's brother and uncle, are from Sicily in Italy.

24:01 - They were priests and they were full time exorcist.

24:05 - So hearing the stories growing up and reading about all the different

24:08 - literature got me fascinated by the paranormal and supernatural.

24:13 - Inspired by his relatives experiences and stories, Edmundo

24:18 - attended a conference on exorcism in Rome, sanctioned by the Catholic Church.

24:24 - For the priests that participated.

24:27 - It was a training session for identifying and dealing with demonic possession.

24:33 - It was amazing.

24:34 - I was with about 250 exorcists and another 100 exorcists candidates.

24:39 - There were people from all around the world.

24:42 - It wasn't just a Roman Catholic.

24:44 - We had Greek Orthodox.

24:45 - We had we actually had speakers from Islam.

24:48 - We had people from all around the world

24:49 - talk about the concept of exorcism, watching films that were amazing.

24:54 - It was very, very educational.

24:57 - It wasn't like something that was showing things that weren't true.

25:02 - We saw

25:03 - things were actually were true real films and some films I can't even talk about.

25:07 - I made a pledge that I can't discuss Hmhmm now, some films, of course you can't.

25:12 - Especially these days that you can't believe everything you say.

25:14 - Well, you know what?

25:15 - The people that were there, they were well-educated.

25:19 - They it wasn't mass hysteria.

25:22 - They had no reason to make up stories.

25:24 - It is true. It's hard to imagine now.

25:26 - My grandparents, my family were involved in exorcisms.

25:30 - I go to the conference regarding exorcism.

25:33 - I've actually have

25:35 - been doing prayers of liberation, and I've been involved in some exorcisms.

25:39 - And I'll still drive my car some days on site.

25:41 - Now, this can't be true. It's hard to imagine.

25:44 - I think it brought my faith really stronger.

25:47 - I think that it took away fears.

25:50 - I always say that if the Archangel Michael was fighting

25:53 - the devil and the devil was so strong, why did the devil lose?

25:56 - So it made me feel that it made me feel the goodness of humanity,

26:01 - made me feel that good will always conquer over evil.

26:05 - I learned a lot.

26:06 - It's interesting because I even representing the museum

26:10 - I have and explained how our museum tries to showcase items

26:14 - and how one of the nuns actually made a remark that the fact that I have certain

26:19 - things like the Ouija boards or talking boards,

26:22 - I'm keeping them out of the hands of other people.

26:24 - So she considered that a good thing, because I sometimes that's a little

26:27 - like crossing the line, especially with, Catholicism.

26:31 - An exhibit at the museum that has nothing to do with vanquishing

26:36 - demons and vampires is confined to a small space.

26:43 - If the doll room

26:45 - doesn't send a chill down your spine,

26:49 - you probably have nerves of steel.

26:52 - At Mondo, says dolls and Paranormal Activity go together.

26:58 - It's a lot of times entity spirit will go into a doll

27:02 - because it's a human form, so they like to attach.

27:06 - We have a couple of pieces, especially one tall, a doll which is from Burma

27:09 - that does have a lot of strong paranormal energy.

27:14 - When Edmundo bought the property that would eventually be the home

27:18 - for his museum, the deal he made went

27:21 - beyond a transfer of real estate.

27:25 - You could say it went to the beyond.

27:30 - We also, on the property, have a spirit by the name of Abigail.

27:34 - She's an eight year old girl who came with the property here.

27:38 - This was an old dairy farm and she is not nefarious at all.

27:41 - She's very sweet and she likes to help people.

27:44 - So having the dolls there would also having the spirit of Abigail here

27:48 - is an interesting concept.

27:50 - It sounds like you personally have witnessed Abigail manifested in some way.

27:55 - My children have seen her.

27:57 - I have had this farm for 35 years, so they grew up here.

27:59 - They've seen her.

28:00 - My employees have felt her.

28:03 - There were some paranormal investigators that actually gave her the name Abigail.

28:07 - I just saw her three months ago for the first time.

28:10 - She's, has blond hair.

28:12 - She's probably around eight years old, very friendly.

28:16 - She actually waved to me and gave me a nice little smile.

28:20 - There's no fear I have from her, you know, it seems is very calming.

28:24 - And a lot of people have felt her presence and actually

28:27 - have felt calmed by feel her presence, but they don't see her.

28:30 - No, people have seen and heard her especially heard it.

28:33 - If you go on our Instagram account,

28:34 - this testimony of people that actually have heard her speak.

28:37 - I am an ordained minister and our ministry is non-denominational

28:42 - and it's all about love, charity and compassion.

28:46 - And I like for people to come here and feel better.

28:48 - Not scared, but actually feel empowered by good over evil.