In the mid-’teens of last century, the short subject grew legs and walked on dry land, becoming the feature length attraction. Shorts continued to be a standard part of the movie program, either in live-action or animated form. While the… Read More »Helping an Audience Enter the Pool at a Silent Film Show
The Raymond Griffith comedy You’d Be Surprised (1926) is not as well-known as his other starring features. That’s not saying much, given that most classic film fans don’t know Raymond Griffith and that most of his films are lost.This one… Read More »Turning The Lights Off and On In a Silent Film
Over the last few years, I’ve gotten myself educated in Marion Davies’ silent films. The two usual suspects, Show People and The Patsy are great and well-loved, mainly because they’re on DVD. I’ve released three of Davies’ 1922 silents, and… Read More »The Other Mirror Routine
We’ve all heard audio feedback, that high-pitched loud noise heard over a sound system. Even if you don’t know it’s called feedback, you know that annoying sound, and that sound people avoid it. The same electronic phenomenon exists with video,… Read More »Ernie Kovacs’ Experimental Video – on Prime Time TV
Sometimes I see motion picture film exhibition referred to as “reel-to-reel”. I get why the term is used, as it conjures up the correct booth image better than “non-digital” does. I got to experience “classic” film projection at Capitolfest this… Read More »Shedding Some Light on Classic 35mm Film Projection
I’ve assembled a few different Ernie Kovacs compilation programs for events this year celebrating his centennial. It hasn’t been easy, because there’s such a wealth of material to cull from. You want to show fans everything, of course, and that’s… Read More »My Attempts At The Best of Ernie Kovacs
When I began accompanying silent films in college, there was very little in the way of resources. I was, however, loaned a copy of a small monograph on the subject written by Charles Hofmann, who had been one of the… Read More »Charles Hofmann – MoMA Film Accompanist, Briefly
A Baby Peggy Rediscovery — or: When “Circus Clowns” Doesn’t Mean “Circus Clowns” I was pretty much set with additional material for the DVD of the Library of Congress’ restoration of The Family Secret. After playing for MoMA’s restoration of… Read More »Finding More of Baby Peggy
The second time I play for a film is my first big chance to make improvements over what I did the first time. If my first bash at the picture was a show where I’d not been able to preview… Read More »From The Horse’s Mouth
“Tidsmaskin” is one of the Norwegian words I’ve managed to retain. Pronounced TEEDS-mah-sheen, it means “time machine”. I’ve found over the years that I have an affinity for being in the places where silent film happened. Props, pieces of costuming,… Read More »Silent Movie Time Machine