Ben Model’s blog

  • The 6pm show of The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), plus the 1975 Sunday, Too Far Away was introduced by Paolo Cherchi Usai, of the National Film and Sound Archive in Australia, the archive that restored these films. Paolo told of the efforts to preserve and find the pieces…

  • Cabiria, in a new preservation by Cineteca di Bologna, MoMA et al was screened with live theatre organ accompaniment by me. While the running time listed in the catalog was 180 mins, the picture ran closer to 2 hrs 20 mins at our show; same for the press screening I…

  • Well, it’s happened. MoMA purchased all the necxessary hardware – keyboard, stand, organ pedals – for the Miditzer VTO (virtual theatre organ) this week. What this means is that when I am asked to play for a silent film at MoMA and want to use a theatre organ instead of…

  • On June 1st I begin a rather busy two months of silent film accompaniment, both on piano and on theatre organ. 16 dates in June and 13 in July, several of which have two (or three) shows on the same day. Some of these bookings just came in over the…

  • Well, last night’s show of Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last (1923) was a blast. If you’re within driving distance of the Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill…go see something there. It’s a beautifully restored 1930 Paramount Publix Theater. It originally seated 1500 or thereabout, but several rows had been removed…

  • Shown here (R) is my Miditzer set-up at the New-York Historical Society from Sunday, May 6 at the Silent Clowns Film Series. I used the organ for the concluding program of the SCFS, a show of Lupino Lane comedy shorts, and it was a big hit. I’ll be using it…

  • Played for a film history (a/k/a “cinema studies”) class at NYU, where it all started for me. Teacher was Antonia Lant, and I’ve played for her class once a year for the last few years. Hadn’t played at NYU since ’85 or ’86, and then Antonia turned up at one…

  • Photo at the right is the beautiful console of the organ at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, which I had the great fortune to play in accompaniment to DeMille’s 1927 epic King of Kings on Fri March 23. The organ is a 4/83 Moller, and was restored in…

  • Did a live radio interview on WEBO yesterday morning around 8:15am to promote the Ti-Ahwaga showing of The General on Fri 3/16 (tom’w). The station (1330AM) is a sponsor of the film series, and will be re-running parts of the interview throughout the day or two leading up to the…

  • Have just recorded three scores for an upcoming DVD release by Kino. The films, all shorts directed by Edwin S. Porter for the Thomas Edison Co., are to be extras for the main feature, a doc on Porter’s work. So, here are three more Edison shorts you can add to…