Long before there was “City Lights,” Atlanta’s arts and culture show on WABE, there was “City Lights,” the marvelous silent movie featuring Charlie Chaplin. Sept. 29 marks National Silent Film Day, a rare opportunity for moviegoers to experience screenings of classic silent motion pictures, accompanied by live music.
The Strand Theatre in Marietta will offer a full schedule of screenings with live musical accompaniment by Atlanta’s best theater organists. Organist Ken Double joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom along with Andy Gaines, the Strand Theatre’s general manager, and Christopher Escobar, owner of the Plaza Theatre, to talk about their shared admiration for films of the silent era and the music that brings them to life.
Interview highlights:
On the silent shorts and features screening at the Strand:
“We are so lucky that we are gonna have five different shorts that will be played before the main feature of ‘Safety Last!,'” said Gaines. “We’ve got a Laurel and Hardy, we’ve got two Buster Keatons, we’ve got two Harold Lloyds in addition to ‘Safety Last!,’ and we’re going to bring organists from all around the American Theater Organ Society’s Atlanta chapter to come and play, and all of them are very familiar with playing at the Strand. We love our silent films, which aren’t really silent, and they also come and play before our main shows at the Strand Theatre. So every time someone walks in, they get a little bit of that silent era.”
“Phantom of the Opera” at the Plaza Theatre, with music by Ken Double:
“It’s a great film and it is part horror, but it’s really a love story. And if people have seen the Broadway show, they get the gist of the story,” said Double. “What’s the most fun is, while you’re playing, you can sense the reaction of the audience. And so if the silent film player is doing his job, first and foremost, we hope the audience gets completely engrossed in the film and they forget you are even there. If that happens, you have done your job. The greatest compliment we ever get playing silent film is, ‘My God, I never heard the music.'”
Live accompaniment, a balancing act of scripted and improvised music:
“There are a few original scores dating back to the late teens and 1920s that still exist, and so there are a few players who have tackled that task. But for the most part … the way I was taught the art form, and in discussing with people like Gaylord Carter and Lee Irwin, who were magnificent players that dated back to the ’20s and ’30s, it was, find major scenes and find major characters, and create themes that match those scenes and characters,” explained Double. “And then there is a certain level of improvisation as you then transition through the film … Augment what’s happening. Don’t overplay what’s happening on the screen.”
“What I also want to just point out, also, is the incredible mind-blowing level of musicianship that is involved that the organist and, in this case, Ken has to have, and the amount of familiarity they have to have with this film,” said Escobar. “It’s not just sound and orchestration. It’s also serving as sound effect, serving as so many things … The nice thing is that they can, as Ken was saying, respond to the energy of the audience, and there is that ‘liveness’ quality.'”
The Plaza Theatre’s fantastic digital theater organ:
“My history as the president of the American Theater Organ Society for 10 years, the international organization, put me in touch with a lot of people, including a person who had a 3-manual Allen digital theater organ that he needed to find a new home for, and he was willing to make the donation. So it came to our chapter, and we acquired it,” said Double. “It was a little bit of kismet. ‘Where can we find a place to put this where it can be heard and enjoyed by the public and enjoyed by our chapter here in Atlanta?’ And there was Chris Escobar, the son-in-law of the great Hector Olivera, with a great theater that we could place this electronic organ. And it sounds magnificent in the space.”
The Strand Theatre’s slate of screenings for National Silent Film Day takes place Sept. 29. Tickets and more information are available here.
Tickets for the Plaza Theatre’s Sept. 29 showing of “The Phantom of the Opera” with live organ accompaniment are available here.
