Art film
Although 20th Century-Fox officials at the time remarked that "only old films" were destroyed, the fire is now understood as a significant loss of American film heritage. Motion picture historian Anthony Slide called the destruction of the Fox vault "the most tragic" American nitrate fire. The highest-quality examples of every Fox film produced prior to 1932 were destroyed; all known copies of many movies had been stored in the facility. Films lost to the fire include pictures starring Theda Bara, Shirley Mason, William Farnum, and many others. Tom Mix made 85 pictures with Fox, most of which were archived exclusively at Little Ferry. The grandfather of director Blake Edwards, J. Gordon Edwards, had directed all the highest-grossing epics for Fox and all the masters for his films were lost (though a few survive as low-quality prints, which were housed elsewhere). For some actors, such as Valeska Suratt, none of their films survived; "there are entire careers that don't exist because of [the fire]," according to Museum of Modern Art film curator Dave Kehr. Because some copies were located elsewhere, some of Fox's silent films survive as lower-quality printsor fragmentsbut more than 75% of Fox's feature films from before 1930 are completely lost.