
Ben Model’s blog
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Ben and Kerr discuss accompaniment Ben’s accompaniment techniques for films he played for toward the end of 2025: Keaton’s “Steamboat Bill, Jr.” at the Barrymore Film Center, Mary Pickford in “Sparrows” at the Library of Congress, and Max Davidson in “Pass the Gravy” at the Silent Clowns Film Series in…
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Episode 72 show notes: The Silent Film Music Podcast
Episode 72 Show Notes: 2025 Year-End Roundup Opening Banter: Kerr talks about the difference of seeing The Bishop’s Wife with sizeable theater audience – the comedy and other values played at a higher level than on television.Ben shares a similar experience with Laurel & Hardy talkies, and with an Our…
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ep. 71: Phantoms and Pipe Organs
Ben and Kerr talk about Ben’s busy Halloween season, underscoring the unmasking scene in “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925) at Angel Nyack, and his encounters with theater ghosts; also covered are Ben’s accompanying “Her Sister From Paris” (1925) with Constance Talmadge at the Silent Clowns Film Series, the differences…
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Episode 71 show notes: The Silent Film Music Podcast
Episode 71 Show Notes: Phantoms and Pipe Organs Sign up for Ben’s regular email here to keep up with all his activities.
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The Time a Pre-Portlandia Fred Armisen Connected With Silent Comedy Film
This Saturday’s Ernie Kovacs Award ceremony will be the second time my work has allowed me to cross paths with Fred Armisen. In January 2009 Armisen and collaborator Carrie Brownstein made a short video for a silent movie event at MoMA called “Silent But Deadly” that was part of the…
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Episode 70 show notes: The Silent Film Music Podcast
Episode 70 Show Notes: Flappers, Roscoe, and Laura LaPlante Sign up for Ben’s regular email here to keep up with all his activities.
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ep. 70: Flappers, Roscoe and Laura LaPlante
Ben and Kerr talk about Ben’s shows at MoMA’s “Silent Movie Week” of “Saxophon Susi” and “Berlin: Symphony of a Great City”, and at the Rubinstein Atrium at Lincoln Center for an early Louise Brooks Paramount feature. Ben discusses adjusting his approach to laying down a recorded score when scoring…
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Alice and Billie Go To Pordenone
I’m pretty sure next month’s screening of Father Was a Loafer (1915) will be the first time Alice Howell’s Cupie-doll face will hit the big screen at the Pordenone Silent film festival. The Pordenone Silent Film Festival (or the Giornate del Cinema Muto) is the premier international silent film festival,…
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Ernie Kovacs on TV: A Standard Formula For Success
When I emerge from the downtown number 1 subway stop at West 50th street while en route to MoMA, I find myself across from the historic Winter Garden Theater, and I’m always struck by two things. One is that I am standing where Buster Keaton did while he was in…
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Why So Pale? Facial Make-up in Silent Movies
Putting on a Good Face…For Silent Film The use of pancake white makeup on the faces of actors in films was common in the silent era. Sometimes it’s less noticeable than others, and in some cases it makes actor’s faces look like they were made of porcelain. There’s a reason…