I can't express enough just how important that it is that people actually vote on the TCM Movie Data Base for King Vidor's THE BIG PARADE (1925) to be released on commercial DVD. At present this landmark feature frustratingly does not have enough votes to even crack the Top 200 of most requested titles not currently on home video! No wonder Warner's is in no hurry to release the film on DVD. 
We have to start voting people. In-fact the only two Silent films in the 200 are Erich Von Stroheim's GREED which is actually in the Top 30 at number 27 1,967 votes. and William Wellman's WINGS (1927) at number 72 with 1,220 votes. Now compare that to THE BIG PARADE. Presently listed at a vastly disappointing 333 on the list with a meager 268 votes to it's credit! To be frank, that's ridiculous as THE BIG PARADE is a much better film than WINGS, and for my money certainly than GREED! In-fact very few movies rather Silent or Sound are more deserving, and as long over-due for an official DVD release than THE BIG PARADE is! To be honest, I can't think of a single one! 
We are only allowed one vote a piece, but if everyone who has never seen THE BIG PARADE before and is very anxious to, would just take the time to vote the numbers would be way up. If everyone who has seen the film and loves it would vote, that would also be of great help.
Silent Mega-Star John Gilbert is woefully under-represented on DVD. The only one of his Silents to be officially released so far, is Clarence Brown's FLESH AND THE DEVIL (1926). Obviously because of Greta Garbo with little or no thought given to Gilbert. Poor Renee Adoree has none of her films currently out on commercial DVD! And even more astonishing not one of King Vidor's great Silent films has seen a commercial release! Vidor was one of the greatest directors of Classic Hollywood, if his work has started to fade into the shadows this isn't surprising given the sheer lack of exposure his pictures have received in recent years. When I first heard about Vidor's Masterpiece being fully restored back in 2003, a project completed in 2004, I never dreamed that we would still be sitting here heading into 2009 with still no DVD release in sight! A DVD was tentatively announced for the films 80th Anniversary in 2005, for what ever reason, that never happened. 2009 marks the 85th Anniversary of MGM, so one would hope that several of the long awaited MGM Silent's will finally make it to official DVD in the coming year in order to mark the event. To be honest, the lack of a commercial DVD of THE BIG PARADE doesn't bother me nearly as much as the film just not being shown on TCM anymore either. Up until Memorial Day 2004 TCM used to run the Thames Silents version of THE BIG PARADE at least once a year. That was the last time it was broadcast, May of 2004! So the highest grossing film of the entire Silent Era, and MGM's most popular and successful feature produced prior to GONE WITH THE WIND in 1939, has pretty much been out of circulation for the better part of this decade. There have been a few live screening's, but that is about it.
The older Thames Silent's edition produced by Kevin Brownlow, and the late David Gill back in 1983 has been completely dormant. In the pre-DVD days, this version was released on MGM VHS, and Laser-disc back in 1989. While this older transfer of THE BIG PARADE is admittedly a little soft, it certainly looks as good or better than the 1985 Paramount laser-disc of WINGS (The version the TCM presently runs), in my opinion. With far less artifacts. The newer master of THE BIG PARADE though is a fine grain print struck from the original negative, about 20 minutes longer, and is supposed to be a phenomenal improvement pictorially speaking. Or so I am told. What good does it do us though since it is not on DVD, and hasn't been broadcast on TCM at all thus far? Year after year since 2005, I have eagerly awaited the premier of the new restoration, and year after year, I have been completely disillusioned! 
In the Spirit of the Armistice, Believe me, I dearly wanted THE BIG PARADE scheduled for November, when I talked with TCM programmer Charles Tabesh several times back in July. Unfortunately, I was told that TCM is still waiting on, has been holding out for, the newly mastered print to be made available to them in broadcast format. In any event, TCM Programmer would also like to give the restored version a big Prime-time Premier. He doesn't want to take away from that event in any way. So He has resisted running the shorter Thames Silents print in the interim. But unfortunately, He is at the mercy of Warner's, and there apparent maybe we will get around to this, maybe we won't attitude. 
Personally, I see no reason why TCM can't continue to run the older restoration of THE BIG PARADE, until the new version is finally ready to go in broadcast format. Especially, because we have no assurance when that might be. For this reason, I think they need to seriously re-consider that they should still be airing the Thames Silents version. Like many people, I'm plenty anxious to see the new master, I have been waiting over 4 years, but the Thames version is the only one that I know, and I love it! They could re-master the older edition for broadcast in the same way that they did Garbo's FLESH AND THE DEVIL while retaining the great Carl Davis score. 
The new version will not have the Carl Davis score at all. The best we can hope for is a reprisal by Robert Israel of the original 1925 William Axt-David Mendoza score, that He and his orchestra have performed at live screenings. The sad truth is, if this is what what Warner's plans to use, the recording session has yet to take place. I am excited to hear this score, as I have been told it is even better than the Davis one. In any eventual DVD release I would like to see the Thames version likewise included. 
Ampas March of 2005 Screening in Los Angeles