Author: Ben Model

  • Mar 3: The Whirl of Life – Vernon and Irene Castle

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    Ben Model

    Tues, March 3 – played for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910) and The Whirl of Life (1915) at the Bruno Walter Auditorium, where the Donnell programming is now presented. This was part of a series of films curated by Joe Yransky related to the “Curtain Call” exhibit at the Lincoln Center Library. Both films…

  • Mar 2: NYU Cinema Studies – Antonia Lant’s class

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    Ben Model

    Monday, March 2 – I played for a selection of animated shorts and films made by women at Antonia Lant’s film history class at NYU. Antonia came to a Silent Clowns show several years ago and introduced herself, and I’ve played once a year at her class ever since. Antonia’s book (co-editor) Red Velvet Seat:…

  • White Fawn’s Devotion – DVD score

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    Ben Model

    Last Friday I recorded a piano score for the 1910 1-reeler White Fawn’s Devotion which will be an extra on Milestone’s upcoming DVD of The Exiles. White Fawn was recently added to the National Film Registry, and this scoring opportunity gave me the chance to see the film. I missed Young Deer’s Attack of the…

  • Safety Last in Hewlett-Woodmere (Long Island)

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    Ben Model

    Okay, this is a photo of the beautiful 200-seat auditorium at the Hewlett-Woodmere library before everybody showed up for today’s show of Safety Last. If I’d remembered to charge my camera battery there’d be a photo or two of me and Philip Harwood to post here as well. Piano was a beautiful Steinway B which,…

  • Radio City Music Hall Wurlitzer

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    Ben Model
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    Here are some photos taken on Tuesday at Radio City Music Hall. I was there as part of an invited walk-through of RCMH held by SVA’s creative and tech teams for their annual graduation exercises. Last year I played piano for their graduation, improvising 15-or-so pieces of music while graduates came up one-by-one to get…

  • Donnell Media Center – now at Lincoln Center Library

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    Ben Model

    Spent a piece of yesterday screening The Whirl of Life (1915) and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910) at the NYPL for the Performing Arts. The legendary Donnell Media Center and its film and video collection as well as its staff (as of now sans Joe Yransky, who retired in January) were absorbed by the…

  • Buster Keaton in “The General”

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    Ben Model

    Hey, isn’t that Al St. John next to the bone-head commander who thinks the Rock River bridge is strong enough to hold his train? Bruce and Steve were talking about this after the show, pretty certain it’s Al, and so I grabbed this frame from the DVD. Al’s not in the shot of the commander…

  • Will new FilmLinc staff cuts affect “Golden Silents”?

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    Ben Model

    I saw an article online this morning announcing the layoffs of eight staff members at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Sayre Maxfield, who programs the “Golden Silents” series at FilmLinc, is one of the staffers being let go, as is Will McCord who runs the “Young Friends of Film” program there. Click here to…

  • Chaplin undercranking study – boxing

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    Ben Model

    Here’s a clip I just (finally) uploaded to YouTube. It’s one of the studies I did for my talk at the Clown Theater Festival last fall, Undercranking: The Magic Behind the Slapstick. There are a few others I need to record narration for, render and upload. Chaplin seems to be the master of this technique…

  • Stuart Oderman photos

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    Ben Model

    Just got these photos in from my friend, photographer Steve Friedman, who is also a major silent film fan and Buster Keaton maven. These were taken in the lobby near Titus 1, and the posters you see in the background are from the Batiste Madalena poster exhibit. photos by Steve Friedmanwww.stevefriedmanphoto.com