On paper, when you look at it, the word “accompanist” is easy to read. And yet, half the time or maybe more, when I am introduced at a show, the word comes out with an extra syllable. It probably happens… Read More »Is Accompanist a Five-Syllable Word?
When I meet people from other parts of the country and tell them I’m a silent film accompanist , they are often surprised when I tell them there are (currently) no theater organs in Manhattan. There are instruments around the… Read More »The Sounds of the Silents — Theatre Organ Accompaniment in NYC, part 3
I usually avoid recognizable music if I can help it, as it’s a distraction to the viewer unless there’s someone playing a record or piece of sheet music shown in a close-up. With this particular 1905 film, I needed to… Read More »The Spirit of ’76 Circa 1905
When I began playing for silent films while at NYU film school I made a point of meeting all the accompanists in NYC. It was at the Carnegie Hall Cinema that I met theatre organist and composer Lee Erwin. I… Read More »The Sounds of the Silents — Theatre Organ Accompaniment in NYC, part 2
The sound of the theatre pipe organ as live accompaniment to silent films was part of the musical landscape in NYC during the peak years of what I think of as silent film’s first renaissance. Lee Erwin played a silent… Read More »The Sounds of the Silents — Theatre Organ Accompaniment in NYC, part 1
The crowdfunding phase of my Douglas MacLean DVD project just concluded. I like to refer to the process as “fan-funding”. It’s not so much a crowd that’s funding these projects, to me — it’s a loyal, enthusiastic and interested consortium… Read More »Fan-Funding Douglas MacLean
I should know if Harry Watson, Jr. and Marion Davies appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies together (alas, for the moment, I don’t). If they didn’t, Watson was certainly on Davies’ radar as he has supporting character roles in two of… Read More »Musty Boxes Wolheim to Save Harrison Ford’s Bacon
Something occurred to me during a screening of Chaplin’s The Immigrant (1917) that I was accompanying for a school group several years ago. I knew the scene at the beginning where the boat is rocking was shot with the camera… Read More »Charlie Chaplin and a Stationary Horizon
Several decades before Netflix offered home viewers of Hollywood films the opportunity to order-rent them by mail on DVD, the same opportunity existed. 16mm versions of movies shown in theaters were offered in the 1920s and 1930s by the Kodascope… Read More »Mail-Order Netflix – in 1912
A Silent Film Cue Played on a Wurlitzer Gets Sampled On A Rap Record Lee Erwin’s silent film scores are not that easy to find and listen to. Luckily the tracks he recorded for several Buster Keaton features are on… Read More »Lee Erwin And…Nas?