Ben Model’s blog

  • photo of our Nov 19th class with guest speaker Eileen Bowser, MoMA senior film curator emerita. L to R: Eileen Bowser, Ron Magliozzi, Steve Massa, Ben Model Last night was our third class session for Cruel and Unusual Comedy at MoMA. The class is going really well, and we’ve got…

  • Yesterday was the Silent Clowns program of shorts released by E.W. Hammons’ Educational Pictures. We’d planned 5 shorts, but then I turned up a lost one-reeler starring Wallace Lupino on eBay a couple weeks ago, and we threw it into the program. So, our audience was the first to see…

  • October is wrapping up, and I’ve just wrapped up a slew of shadowy, creepy silent films: Barrymoore’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Sun 10/26 @ Silent Clowns, on piano), the Chaney/Browning West of Zanzibar (Tues 10/28 @ C.A.C., on Miditzer VTPO), Lon Chaney in Phantom of the Opera (Weds 10/29…

  • I played at a press screening yesterday for the new poster exhibit at MoMA organized by Ron Magliozzi and Jenny He. The posters are all one-of-a-kind hand-painted posters from the Eastman Theater in Rochester. George Eastman didn’t care for the posters the studios were sending out…so he hired Rochester artist…

  • Had a great Charley Chase show at the Silent Clowns this afternoon. I have digested and recovered (mentally) from my 3-day trip to L.A. for the Ernie Kovacs project, and don’t have to get on a plane or pack for quite some time. Have just finally had a moment to…

  • My concert band score for Charlie Chaplin’s “The Adventurer” will be performed this week by the Hot Springs High School Band and Community band in the town’s original 1920’s movie theater. The school’s conductor, Truman Savery, found me online just as I was finishing up the concert band (re-)arrangement of…

  • Flight slightly delayed (weather conditions in NYC) so it turns out I have a moment or two while still in Canton/Akron to upload and post these photos… The Lions Lincoln Theatre in downtown Massillon. Wish I’d gotten a night shot because the marquee is beautiful. (search for my entry from…

  • Am posting from the Canton/Akron airport, where I’ve arrived at the gate with plenty of time to spare, courtesy of Philip Carli and his merry Oldsmobile. Nice to see the airport has complimentary wi-fi (ya hear that, LGA & EWR?!)… Saw a lot of great film, missed a few good…

  • Okay, okay, I know the image at right is for the 1930 talkie remake of the 1923 silent, but you get the idea. I played for a double-header at MoMA last night (Sat 9/20): John Barrymore in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (gorgeous new 35mm print from Eastman House) and…

  • Well, I’ve now screened both part 1 and 2 of Lang’s Die Nibelungen on DVD in prep for my playing for these two at the Burns Film Center on Weds and Thurs. Got these out of the NYPL; I don’t own DVD’s of silents, just reserve ’em and check ’em…