Sunday, May 3: Keaton's 'The Cameraman' in 35mm at Somerville Theatre in Davis Square

Buster's 'The Cameraman' (1928) will be screened in 35mm on Sunday, May 3 at 2 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre.

Wow! After following a frantic pace for the first four months of 2015, I find myself looking at a calendar that's far less packed with silent film screenings, at least for now.

I do a couple shows this weekend, then a small gig on Tuesday, May 5. And then, after that, nothing for 10 whole days!

That's the longest stretch of unbroken accompaniment-free days since January, when I was clambering about the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Well, speaking of which: I intend to use the break to finally put together an account of the Kilimanjaro journey, which was amazing on many levels.

But for now, the big deal is a screening of Keaton's 'The Cameraman' (1928) in 35mm at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square, Somerville, Mass.

Showtime is Sunday, May 3 at 2 p.m. More info is in the press release below.

But a few words from me: I really have to give the Somerville credit for continuing to run 35mm programs in an era when everyone else seems so focused on digital.

Actual physical film has been the native format for motion pictures since the beginning, and to abandon it so quickly and without recognizing its unique qualities does seem rather short-sighted.

So bravo to the Somerville for keeping their 35mm projection systems in place, and for cultivating the booth expertise to screen film to its best advantage.

Yes, I know some film prints can be scratched or faded or have any number of problems, and that digital offers an experience that's touted as free of these short-comings.

Maybe I'm getting old, but I do feel there should be more appreciation for the 35mm format, since it was what the creators of movies had in mind for the past century.

And then there's the audience experience. Virtually all films made until recently were designed to be shown in a theater with an audience present. Taking that out of the equation can rob a film of a big part of its impact—especially older films.

So if motion pictures were indeed the art form of the 20th century, I see a place like the Somerville as kind of a Museum of Fine Arts for cinema. They're making an effort to screen great pictures in the way their creators intended them to be seen: on film, in a theater, with an audience—and, in the case of silent films, with live music.

Alas, it pains me to say that attendance of late hasn't been spectacular. Maybe it was the brutal winter, which we're still emerging from around here.

Or maybe it's just that people don't feel the film/theater/audience experience is worth it. We're becoming so accustomed to seeing what we want on demand, and when we want to see it (at home alone with our parakeet) that the audience experience has been devalued.

Of course I feel differently. And I believe you'd agree with me if you can come to our screening of 'The Cameraman' (1928) this Sunday at the Somerville Theatre. Hope to see you there!

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Buster Keaton and Eddie Gribbon in MGM's 'The Cameraman' (1928).

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Buster Keaton's 'Cameraman' in 35mm at Somerville Theater on Sunday, May 3

Classic silent film comedy masterpiece to be shown on big screen using real film with live musical accompaniment

SOMERVILLE, Mass.—He never smiled on camera, earning him the nickname of "the Great Stone Face." But Buster Keaton's comedies still rocked Hollywood's silent era with laughter throughout the 1920s.

See for yourself with a screening of 'The Cameraman' (1928), one of Keaton's landmark feature films, on Sunday, May 3 at 2 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville, Mass. Admission to the screening is $15 or $12 seniors/students.

'The Cameraman' tells the story of a young man (Keaton) who tries to impress the girl of his dreams (Marceline Day) by working as a freelance newsreel cameraman. His efforts result in spectacular failure, but then a lucky break gives him an unexpected chance to make his mark. Can he parlay the scoop of the year into a secure job and successful romance?

Music for will 'The Cameraman' will be performed live by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire composer regarded as one of the nation's leading silent film accompanists.

The program is the latest in the Somerville Theatre's 'Silents, Please!' series, which aims to recapture the magic of early Hollywood by presenting silent films as they were intended to be shown: in 35mm prints, in a theater on a big screen, with live music, and with an audience.

"If you can put together those elements, it's surprising how much entertainment value these films still have," said Rapsis, who improvises live music for silent film screenings throughout New England and beyond. "You realize why these films caused people to first fall in love with the movies."

In 'The Cameraman,' Keaton uses the newsreel business to create comedy that plays with the nature of film and reality. The movie contains classic sequences often cited as among Keaton's best, including a scene where Keaton and a large man both struggle to change into swimsuits in a tiny dressing room. The scene, which runs several minutes long, was filmed in one take.

Keaton, along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, stands as one of the three great clowns of the silent screen. Many critics regard Keaton as the best of all; Roger Ebert wrote in 2002 that "in an extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, (Keaton) worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies."

As a performer, Keaton was uniquely suited to the demands of silent comedy. Born in 1895, he made his stage debut as a toddler, joining his family's knockabout vaudeville act and learning to take falls and do acrobatic stunts at an early age. He spent his entire childhood and adolescence on stage, attending school for exactly one day.

A remarkable pantomime artist, Keaton naturally used his whole body to communicate emotions ranging from sadness to surprise. In an era when movies had few special effects, Keaton's acrobatic talents meant he performed all his own stunts.

All those talents are on display in 'The Cameraman,' which was selected in 2005 for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Rapsis said the Keaton movies, like all silent films, were made to be shown not only with live music, but also on the big screen to large audiences.

"They weren't intended to be watched on a home entertainment center by, say, just you and your dog," Rapsis said. "However, if you can put all the elements back together, the films really do spring back to life."

Rapsis improvises live scores for silent films using a digital synthesizer to recreate the texture of the full orchestra.

"It's kind of a high wire act," Rapsis said. "But for me, the energy of live performance is an essential part of the silent film experience."

• Sunday, June 7, 2 p.m.: 'Play Safe' (1927) and 'Show People' (1928). A double feature of two comedies from the silent era's peak. 'Play Safe' includes one of most hair-raising train chase sequences ever filmed, while 'Show People' is director King Vidor's sly and self-referential valentine to the era of silent movie-making.

• Sunday, July 5, 2 p.m.: 'The Big Parade' (1925) starring John Gilbert, Renee Adoreé. Director King Vidor's intense drama about U.S. doughboys sent to World War I France, where the horror of trench warfare changes their lives forever. Among the first Hollywood films to depict realistic battlefield action; still maintains its power to shock.

• Sunday, Aug. 2, 2 p.m.: 'Speedy' (1928) starring Harold Lloyd. Can Harold New York City's last horsedrawn streetcar line from the clutches of a greedy transport tycoon? The Big Apple co-stars in one of Harold's great silent comic masterpieces. Plus an extended cameo appearance from none other than Babe Ruth!

Buster Keaton's ‘The Cameraman’ will be shown in 35mm on Sunday, May 3 at 2 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville, Mass. Admission to the screening is $15 or $12 seniors/students; general admission seating. For more info, call (617) 625-5700 or visit www.somervilletheatreonline.com. For more info on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.

More than your average post: Keaton, Griffith, the Packard Center, Ben Cohen, and more!

A documentary film crew will be on hand for our screening of Keaton's 'The General' (1926) on Sunday, April 26 at 4:30 p.m. in Wilton, N.H.

How would you like to be in the movies by going to the movies?

That's what might happen on Sunday, April 26 when a documentary film crew will be on hand for our screening of Buster Keaton's 'The General' (1926) at the Wilton (N.H.) Town Hall Theatre.

They're from Merge Creative Media in New York City, and they're working on a feature-length documentary on the continuing popularity of Keaton's comedy.

To do that, they're looking to talk with folks after our show—a double-bill that includes Raymond Griffith's 'Hands Up!' (1926) followed by Buster's 'General.'

They're both comedies set during the U.S. Civil War, which ended 150 years ago this very month—hence the program. The fun begins at 4:30 p.m. Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $5 per person to help defray costs.

If anyone out there is making a documentary about Raymond Griffith, feel free to show up and interview our audience members as well!

Lots more info about Sunday's below in a press release (below) that went out earlier this month. But first a few things to cover...

• Visiting the archives: You know that scene at the end of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' when the Ark of the Covenant is placed a massive government warehouse?

I couldn't help thinking about that last Saturday, when I got a tour of the Packard Campus of the National Audio Visual Conservation Center out in Culpeper, Va.

The facility, about an hour's drive south of Washington, D.C., is home to the bulk of the media operations of the Library of Congress. It handles pretty much everything connected to recorded sounds or images: acquiring materials and equipment, conserving and preserving them, and housing them in permanent climate-controlled storage.

As curator Rob Stone took me through the place, I just could not get over the scale of what I was seeing. Stepping through Maxwell Smart-like sets of doors, we entered corridor upon corridor of metal-doored vaults filled with fragile nitrate film, all of it in cans stacked neatly on fire retardant shelving in concrete units chilled to 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Altogether 124 vaults make up the largest nitrate film storage facility in the Western hemisphere.

A corridor in the Packard Center's nitrate film vault area.

And that was nothing compared to the enormous quantity of safety film also kept in cold storage on site. The underground bunkers go on seemingly to infinity, prompting the thoughts of 'Raiders.' I'm told there are 90 miles of shelving in use here. The place overall maintains something like 7 million artifacts, with thousands more arriving every day.

When and if I get a chance to return, I hope to write a long post about the Packard Center. There's so much going on there that anyone with the slightest interest in film and media would find it fascinating on many levels. I know I did.

I mean, what can you say about a place where cans of film—some of it priceless—arrive by the pallet-load? Just one example: Jerry Lewis recently agreed to donate his entire archive (about 4,000 reels of 35mm film amassed over the course of his long career) to the Packard Center. So Rob Stone has been working with Lewis and his family to catalog the newly arrived material and shepherd it into the archives.

But then there are the rooms full of equipment used to work with obsolete media formats, and the weird custom-built machinery used to transfer material from several dozen videocassettes at once to digital file formats—and of course the story of the facility itself.

Tucked into the side of a hill, it's no accident that the Packard Center looks a bit like a fortress. It was originally built by the U.S. Federal Reserve in the 1960s as a secret facility to store U.S. currency in case of a Cold War emergency! It was also set up to function as a command center for government functions in the event of nuclear attack.

The place was decommissioned in 1993, and sold to philanthropist David Packard in 1997. Unbelievably, Packard sunk $150 million of his own money (Congress chipped in $82 million) to transform it into a state-of-the-art preservation mecca to centralize the far-flung audio/visual holdings of the Library of Congress.

And then Packard gave it back to the government! I'm told it's the second-largest gift ever to the feds, exceeded only by the Smithsonian Institution.

An exterior view of the above-ground part of the Packard Center. (It's actually built into the side of a hill.

The place opened in 2007, and even includes a well-appointed theater that runs regular vintage film programs. (It's one of the very few theaters in the nation that can legally project nitrate film.)

The interior of the Packard Center's theater, complete with organ, which malfunctioned recently, prompting the call for piano accompaniment.

That's why I was there: Rob had an opening for someone to accompany a Gloria Swanson program on Saturday, April 18, and I was fortunate enough to be invited to come down.

Rob was a great host, even taking me out to dinner with his wife Jody prior to the show.

The evening's feature was 'Zaza,' a big Paramount costume story which I hadn't seen before but which followed the usual pattern of Gloria's starring vehicles.

The only surprise came from the theater's digital piano. About half-way into the picture, I lost the lower half of the keyboard! For some reason, the notes below middle C just stopped playing.

Luckily, it was a quiet part of the film, so it seemed natural to restrict the music to the upper registers while I pondered what to do.

I didn't mind it right then, but I knew if I didn't find a way to restore the lower notes, I would start to go insane, as would the audience.

What happened was that I had grazed one of the many "setting" buttons that are flush with the keys (bad design there), partially activating a function designed to play chords instead of just single notes. I say "partially" because I only got as far as losing the individual notes, but I somehow hadn't completed whatever sequence of buttons was required to start up the chord function.

So I scanned the buttons, all the while accompanying Gloria, and found one that seemed the likely culprit: it was marked "Chords" and was glowing red.

I weighed the odds. If I pressed it again, there was a good chance that it would cancel the uncompleted chord activation and restore my keyboard, which would be great.

On the other hand, there was a chance that pressing it would activate a bossa nova rhythm, or a speed guitar function, or some other setting that would create a sonic train wreck.

As I had no other options, I went ahead and pressed it—and it worked! The light went off and all my notes were restored. I was never so glad to play octaves in the bass!

And this reminded me of something attributed to Winston Churchill: "There is nothing as exhilarating as getting shot at and missed." He was right!

But many thanks to Rob Stone and Mike Mashon and everyone else at the Packard Center who put on a great program and made me feel welcome the entire time I was there. I'm looking forward to returning with more time to explore the collection.

For a more complete look at the Packard, check out this story from Washingtonian magazine. And here's a Washington Post piece about the place.

• What's old is new: For several years, a high school student and movie buff named Matt Bilodeau helped me with a monthly silent film series at the Manchester (N.H.) City Library.

Well, Matt went on to attend Keene (N.H.) State College, where he's now a sophomore and taking a film production class this semester.

I was delighted to find out that for his class project, Matt and his roommate had created a short silent film. And I was even more delighted to be asked to create music to accompany it.

So last Wednesday, I hauled out to Keene and we recorded several takes for the five-minute comedy, titled 'Tripping Across the Way.'

Working with 16mm film, Matt and his classmates had fashioned something that captured the dream-like quality of the silent film experience. Bravo!

Also, Matt said he hoped to create a film that looked like a silent film of the 1920s, but had more contemporary content. I think he succeeded on both counts!

See what you think: the film is online and available for all to see.

• Who are you? Time for another edition of "Brush With Greatness," in which I encounter bewildered celebrities. This time the victim is Ben Cohen, the "Ben" of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. Here's a picture of us together:

Ben and Jeffy (not Jerry) at the Airport Diner in Manchester, N.H.

Ben (and his partner Jerry Greenfield, who wasn't with him) is one of my business idols. Another one is Charles Ives, who died in 1954, so I won't be meeting him anytime soon.

So I was happy to connect with Ben, who was in our town of Manchester, N.H. to promote his campaign to get big money out of politics. He was great to talk with, and seemed delighted that I use a book about the early days of Ben & Jerry's as one of the texts of a writing class I sometimes teach.

But what does this have to do with silent film?

Well, our paths crossed by virtue of local restaurant magnate Alex Ray, owner of the Common Man group of restaurants here in New Hampshire. Alex also owns the Flying Monkey Moviehouse in Plymouth, N.H., so that's the flimsy excuse I have for including my encounter with Ben in this already overly long blog post.

I actually gave Ben my silent film accompanist card (as well as my standard day job publishing card), and he was polite enough to seem pretty impressed.

And I'm sorry, but that's all the time we have for "Brush With Greatness."

• Back to the program: Okay, about this weekend's program at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Here's the long-awaited text of the press release. Hope to see you there!

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One war, two comedies: Raymond Griffith in 'Hands Up!' (1926), our companion feature to 'The General.'

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Silent film classic 'The General' with live music in Wilton (N.H.) on Sunday, April 26

Buster Keaton's U.S. Civil War comic masterpiece to be screened with companion feature, 'Hands Up!' in honor of 150th anniversary of war's ed

WILTON, N.H.—He never smiled on camera, earning him the nickname of "the Great Stone Face." But Buster Keaton's comedies still rocked Hollywood's silent era with laughter throughout the 1920s.

See for yourself with a screening of 'The General' (1926), one of Keaton's landmark feature films, at the Wilton (N.H.) Town Hall Theatre on Sunday, April 26 at 4:30 p.m. The show is free and open to the public with suggested $5 donation.

The program, which includes a companion Civil War comedy 'Hands Up!' (1926), will be accompanied by live music performed by silent film composer Jeff Rapsis.

"This month marks the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, so we thought a fitting way to commemorate this milestone would with a double feature of silent films set during that period," Rapsis said.

'The General' tells the story of a Confederate locomotive engineer (Keaton) whose engine is hijacked by Northern spies with his girlfriend on board. Keaton, stealing another train, races north in pursuit behind enemy lines. Can he rescue his girl? And can he steal his locomotive and make it back to warn of a coming Northern attack?

Critics have called 'The General' Keaton's masterpiece, praising its authentic period detail, ambitious action and battle sequences, and its overall integration of story, drama, and comedy. It's also regarded as one of Hollywood's great train films, with much of the action occurring on or around moving steam locomotives.

Also on the program is another comedy set during the Civil War, 'Hands Up!' (1926), starring Raymond Griffith, a once-popular silent film star with boyhood ties to New Hampshire.

Long before he entered the movies, as a student Griffith attended St. Anselm prep school in Goffstown in the early 20th century.

A talented actor and comedian, Griffith became a major comic star in the 1920s for Paramount Pictures. Unfortunately, most of his films are lost, making it difficult to assess his career and talents today.

In 'Hands Up!' Griffith plays a wily Confederate spy charged with preventing a shipment of Western gold from reaching Union forces. The film is regarded as the best of Griffith's few surviving pictures.

While Griffith's work has languished in obscurity, Keaton's films are more popular than ever.

Keaton, along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, stands today as one of the silent screen's three great clowns. Some critics regard Keaton as the best of all; Roger Ebert wrote in 2002 that "in an extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, (Keaton) worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies."

As a performer, Keaton was uniquely suited to the demands of silent comedy. Born in 1895, he made his stage debut as a toddler, joining his family's knockabout vaudeville act and learning to take falls and do acrobatic stunts at an early age.

A remarkable pantomime artist, Keaton naturally used his whole body to communicate emotions from sadness to surprise. And in an era with no post-production special effects, Keaton's acrobatic talents enabled him to perform all his own stunts.

Critics review 'The General':

"The most insistently moving picture ever made, its climax is the most stunning visual event ever arranged for a film comedy."
—Walter Kerr

"An almost perfect entertainment!"
—Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

"What makes the film so special is the way the timing, audacity and elegant choreography of its sight gags, acrobatics, pratfalls and dramatic incidents is matched by Buster's directorial artistry, his acute observational skills working alongside the physical élan and sweet subtlety of his own performance."
—Time Out (London)

Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film musician who has accompanied shows at venues across New England, said films from the silent era were not made to be viewed at home on online. By running a monthly series, the Wilton Town Hall Theatre lets people experience silent film as it was meant to be seen—in high quality prints, on the big screen, with live music, and with an audience.

"All those elements are important parts of the silent film experience," said Rapsis, who will improvise the musical score on the spot as the films screen. "Recreate those conditions, and the classics of early Hollywood leap back to life in ways that can still move audiences today."

Rapsis performs on a digital synthesizer that reproduces the texture of the full orchestra and creates a traditional "movie score" sound.

Buster Keaton's 'The General' (1926) and Raymond Griffith's 'Hands Up!' (1926) will be shown on Sunday, April 26 at 4:30 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre, 60 Main St., in Wilton N.H. The program is open to the public. Suggested donation $5. For more info, visit wiltontownhalltheatre.com; for more info on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.

Coming 4/24: Langdon's 'The Strong Man' ...but first, my Library of Congress debut!

An original poster for Harry Langdon's 'The Strong Man' (1926), which I'm accompanying on Friday, April 24.

Here's some news: Today I head down to Washington, D.C., where this weekend I'll make my silent film accompaniment debut at the Library of Congress.

The screening is actually at the Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation out in Culpeper, Va., where Saturday night I'll do music for 'Zaza' (1923), a romance starring Gloria Swanson and H.B. Warner.

Many thanks to Rob Stone of the Packard Center for offering me a turn on the bench as guest accompanist for a screening at their theater.

Here's a picture of the Packard Center:

It didn't always look like this. Prior to its current role as a center for film preservation, the Packard Center was quite a different place. Built during the Cold War, its original purpose was to serve as a secret storage bunker for the currency stockpiles of the U.S. Bureau of Printing and Engraving!

Later, it turned out that storage vaults for paper money could be repurposed for nitrate film. And here we are!

I'm looking forward to visiting the Packard and seeing the conservation labs and vaults, which I'll report about when I return.

Unless I find a few spare bags of leftover currency, in which case I'll never return.

For now, here's a press release about an unusual screening coming up on Friday, April 24.

It's 'The Strong Man' (1926) starring Harry Langdon, and directed by a very young Frank Capra.

Harry Langdon in 'The Strong Man' (1926).

What's unusual about the screening is that it takes place on the campus of Northeast Catholic College, a small school in rural New Hampshire. (Until this year, the school was named The College of Saint Mary Magdalen.)

I've done shows there in the past, and it's proven to be a great environment for the silent film experience. Student turnout is strong and enthusiastic. We project the films on a huge blank wall in the multi-purpose room, so the image is really, really big.

The screening is open to the public, so I encourage anyone in need of a good laugh to trek on up through the back roads of Warner, N.H. (just off Interstate 89, so it's not that remote) and take in this screening.

It'll also be interesting because the story of 'The Strong Man' involves themes of religion and faith, which ought to resonate on a Catholic college campus. We'll see.

If you'd like to join in, below is the press release. Hope to see you there!

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Harry Langdon in 'The Strong Man' (1926).

MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2015 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Frank Capra's first movie highlights silent film program at Northeast Catholic College on Friday, April 24

Harry Langdon's classic silent comedy 'The Strong Man' to be shown with live music; screening open to the general public

WARNER, N.H. — Silent film with live music returns to the big screen at Northeast Catholic College this month with a showing of an acclaimed comedy starring Harry Langdon.

The screening, on Friday, April 24 at 8 p.m., will feature Langdon's classic comedy 'The Strong Man' (1926).

Helming 'The Strong Man' was young first-time director Frank Capra, who would later go on to create such Hollywood classics as 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' (1939) and 'It's a Wonderful Life' (1946).

Live music will be provided by silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis. Admission is free to students with a college ID; general public is $5 per person.

'The Strong Man' tells the story of a World War I soldier (Langdon) who, following his discharge in Europe, comes to America as assistant to a circus strong man. As the act travels the United States, Langdon continually searches for a girl he corresponded with while stationed overseas in the military.

The search leads to a town controlled by Prohibition-era gangsters, which forces Harry to test the limits of his own inner strength even as he looks for his dream girl. Can Harry triumph over the bad guys? And is love more powerful than brute strength?

The feature-length film showcases the unique child-like personality of Langdon, who is largely forgotten today. For a brief time in the 1920s, however, he rivaled Charlie Chaplin as Hollywood's top movie clown.

Harry Langdon enjoys attention from 'Mary Brown' in 'The Strong Man' (1926).

Langdon's popularity, which grew quickly in the last years of the silent era, fizzled as the movie business abruptly switched to talkies starting in 1929.

'The Strong Man,' a family-friendly comedy, was was selected in 2007 for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

In recent years, 'The Strong Man' has been recognized as a major achievement of the silent film era—a satisfying and timeless balance of emotion and comedy.

"A little tragedy and a lot of laughs can be seen in 1926's The Strong Man," wrote critic Richard von Busack in 2007. "Director Frank Capra's energy and sturdy plot sense counterpoint Langdon's wonderful strangeness."

'The Strong Man' will be accompanied by live music by Jeff Rapsis, a New England-based silent film accompanist who performs at venues across the region and beyond.

"These films were created to be shown on the big screen as a sort of communal experience," Rapsis said. "With an audience and live music, they still come to life in the way their makers intended them to.

"So the screening at Northeast Catholic College is a great chance to experience films that first caused people to first fall in love with the movies," he said.

Established as a residential, Catholic liberal arts college in 1973 and located in Warner, N.H., the Northeast Catholic College (formerly the College of Saint Mary Magdalen) seeks to call students to the life-long pursuit of intellectual and moral virtue through the rigorous study and discussion of primary texts and through its vibrantly Catholic student life.

Frank Capra's 'The Strong Man' will be screened with live music on Friday, April 24 at 8 p.m. at Northeast Catholic College (formerly Magdalen College), 511 Kearsarge Mountain Road, Warner, N.H. Admission is free to students with a college ID; general public is $5 per person.

For more information about Northeast Catholic College, visit www.northeastcatholic.edu/ For more info on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.

Planes, trains, and automobiles! Plus Keaton's 'Cameraman' on 4/16 in Salem, N.H.

An original poster for 'The Cameraman' (1928).

Coming up next: 'The Cameraman' (1928), one of Buster Keaton's best features and a personal favorite.

I'm doing live music for it on Thursday, April 16 at 7 p.m. at Kelley Library in Salem, N.H. Details below.

But first...well, it's one of those times where there's just not enough time to cover all that's going on.

Consider: the past week has found me at such diverse places as Northeastern University in Boston, where last night I braved a minimum wage protest to accompany 'Nosferatu' for a very enthusiastic audience, to the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum out in San Francisco, where last weekend I accompanied 'The Italian,' an intense early melodrama. Also on the program: Chaplin's 'The Tramp,' which was filmed just a short distance away, on the 100th anniversary of its release.

The minimum wage protest march on Huntington Avenue in Boston.

And this weekend I'm heading down to Washington, D.C., where on Saturday I'll make my accompaniment debut at the Packard Center of the U.S. Library of Congress, doing music for Gloria Swanson's 'Zaza' (1923). But not before doing music for Buster Keaton's 'The Cameraman' (1928) tomorrow night at a different but no less important library—the one in Salem, N.H.

And all this comes after a great screening last week of Keaton's 'Three Ages' (1923) at the Flying Monkey Theatre up in Plymouth, N.H., where we were joined by the crew from Merge Creative Media who are putting together a documentary on the enduring popularity of Keaton's work. (At left is a silhouette of me they took accompanying Keaton.)

To get the latest on their efforts, check out their Facebook page. They'll be back up in this part of the world for 'The General' in Wilton, N.H. on Sunday, April 26, and then again in June for a student program I'm doing out at Great Brook Middle School in Antrim, N.H.

So it's a time of planes (out and back to San Francisco), trains (down to D.C.), and automobiles (everywhere else) for me. But so far I haven't run into any shower curtain ring salespeople.

One thing I did run into was the new video-conference option at the Hertz rental car counter at the San Francisco airport. I've tried this once before and didn't care for it, but the line to interact with an actual person was so long, I allowed myself to be steered to it once again.

The guy on the screen was in Tucson, Ariz. And yes, I know agents are trained to take customers through a series of questions to make sure no opportunity to sell more is missed. But there's something about the remote video thing that fails to communicate that a customer (me) is tired, grumpy, and just wants the car.

Hence a prolonged interaction in which my cheery new friend in Tucson wasn't able to pick up any cues that I was not in the mood for the lengthy interrogation that his script apparently called for.

Somewhere while trying to upsell me on car make and model (no), insurance I didn't need (no), and a $39 gas fill-up policy that was automatically added without asking me (and which I had to ask him remove), came this exchange:

Tucson: "Is your visit to San Francisco for business or pleasure?"

Me: "Well, both, kind of."

Tucson: "I need to know which so I can complete the registration."

Me: "Let's say business. I'm a musician here for a performance."

Tucson: "Oh! Are you a singer!?"

No, but I was about to become a shouter. I just wanted the car.

Note to Hertz: this may be more efficient in a corporate planner's perfect world, but not everything is better digital.

But a highlight of my quick visit to San Francisco was the chance to hear the Chamber Symphony of John Adams played by the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Hall, which I'd never been to before.

Here's a furtively snapped cellphone shot of what the place looks like from where I sat, which was actually behind the orchestra.

Paired with the Adams work was the Chamber Symphony of Schoenberg, on which the latter piece was modeled. I'm not a Schoenberg geek (there's still so much to learn!) but I was curious to hear the work because Adams described it as a big Mahler or Richard Strauss score put into a trash compactor.

That image alone is worth the price of 'Hallelujah Junction,' the memoir Adams published a few years ago. Highly recommended for anyone interested in how "classical" or art music works in our life and times.

So it was a musical pilgrimage of sorts for me, as Adams (raised in Concord, N.H.) has been based in the Bay Area for decades now, and the San Francisco Symphony is sort of his "hometown" orchestra.

So cross that one off the bucket list, even though from where I sat I couldn't hear the synthesizer part very well. Still, it gave me an immense amount of satisfaction and pleasure—so maybe I gave the wrong answer to that rental car guy after all.

And what about 'The Cameraman?' I'll get to it, but now the title of Buster's film has reminded me of a great idea I had while having lunch at a ramen place in Fremont, Calif.

You know how people in restaurants take pictures of their food and post it for all to see? Nothing wrong with that, but my impression is that among many practitioners it's become another mindless reflex that's kind of getting out of hand. Just like the remote rental car check-in, not everything needs to posted or to go digital.

Plus, it's kinda rude: "Look what I'm about to eat that you're not."

So an antidote of sorts occurred to me at the ramen place, where I'd pretty much finished lunch. Why not take a photo of the meal after it was eaten? Or, more accurately, a picture of what's left of the meal?

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the newest online social media trend guaranteed to go viral: photos of restaurant meals after they've been eaten.

In this case, the scene is augmented by a side order of pork that I wasn't quite prepared to finish. Be honest: doesn't a photo like this come across as a lot more meaningful and satisfying than an uneaten meal?

Okay, here's more info about 'The Cameraman' in the form of a press release that went out, fittingly, on April Fool's Day. Hope to see you there! And come early, as the library has limited space.

* * *


WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Buster Keaton's 'The Cameraman' at Salem (N.H.) library on Thursday, April 16

Classic silent film comedy masterpiece to be screened with live musical accompaniment at Kelley Library.

SALEM, N.H. —He never smiled on camera, earning him the nickname of "the Great Stone Face." But Buster Keaton's comedies rocked Hollywood's silent era with laughter throughout the 1920s. Acclaimed for their originality and clever visual gags, Keaton's movies remain popular crowd-pleasers today.

See for yourself with a screening of 'The Cameraman' (1928), one of Keaton's landmark feature films, on Thursday, April 16 at 7 p.m. at Kelley Library, 234 Main St., Salem, N.H. Admission to the screening is free and the public is welcome.

'The Cameraman' tells the story of a young man (Keaton) who tries to impress the girl of his dreams (Marceline Day) by working as a freelance newsreel cameraman. His efforts result in spectacular failure, but then a lucky break gives him an unexpected chance to make his mark. Can he parlay the scoop of the year into a secure job and successful romance?

Music for will 'The Cameraman' will be performed live by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire composer regarded as one of the nation's leading silent film accompanists.

The silent film screening at Kelley Library aims to recapture the magic of early Hollywood by presenting silent films as they were intended to be shown: in restored prints, in a theater on a big screen, with live music, and with an audience.

"If you can put together those elements, it's surprising how much power these films still have," said Rapsis, who improvises live music for silent film screenings throughout New England and beyond. "You realize why these films caused people to first fall in love with the movies."

Keaton runs afoul of policeman Eddie Gribbon in 'The Cameraman.'

In 'The Cameraman,' Keaton uses the movie business to create comedy that plays with the nature of film and reality. The movie contains classic sequences often cited as among Keaton's best, including a scene where Keaton and a large man both struggle to change into swimsuits in a tiny dressing room. The scene, which runs several minutes long, was filmed in one take.

Keaton, along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, stands as one of the three great clowns of the silent screen. Many critics regard Keaton as the best of all; Roger Ebert wrote in 2002 that "in an extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, (Keaton) worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies."

But while making films, Keaton never thought he was an artist, but an entertainer trying to use the then-new art of motion pictures to tell stories and create laughter.

As a performer, Keaton was uniquely suited to the demands of silent comedy. Born in 1895, he made his stage debut as a toddler, joining his family's knockabout vaudeville act and learning to take falls and do acrobatic stunts at an early age. He spent his entire childhood and adolescence on stage, attending school for exactly one day.

A remarkable pantomime artist, Keaton naturally used his whole body to communicate emotions ranging from sadness to surprise. In an era when movies had few special effects, Keaton's acrobatic talents meant he performed all his own stunts.

All those talents are on display in 'The Cameraman,' which was selected in 2005 for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Rapsis said the Keaton movies, like all silent films, were made to be shown not only with live music, but also on the big screen to large audiences.

"They weren't intended to be watched on a home entertainment center by, say, just you and your dog," Rapsis said. "However, if you can put all the elements back together, the films really do spring back to life."

Rapsis improvises live scores for silent films using a digital synthesizer to recreate the texture of the full orchestra.

"It's kind of a high wire act," Rapsis said. "But for me, the energy of live performance is an essential part of the silent film experience."

Buster Keaton's ‘The Cameraman’ will be shown on Thursday, April 16 at 7 p.m. at Kelley Library, 234 Main St., Salem, N.H. Admission to the screenings is free and the public is welcome. For more info, call (603) 898-7064 or visit www.salem.lib.nh.us/. For more info on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.

Saying goodbye to Mischa Serykh: a good friend taken much too soon

This is a post not about silent film, but about a Russian guy named Mikhail Serykh. (That's him above.) Mikhail, called "Mischa" by everyone, died unexpectedly this week.

I'm posting this here because Mischa often used this blog in teaching English. He did this because he lived with us in the United States for a good part of 1993. So all this time, my silent film musings have been a sort of "show and tell" for an audience of English students in Russia.

To all his students, and to everyone else who knew Mischa: we've lost a great man.

Sad to say, I hadn't been in touch with Mischa very much in recent years. But like everyone, he was on Facebook, and we had vague plans to visit him again in his home town of Belgorod, an industrial city of 400,000 people where I traveled to twice in the early 1990s as the Soviet Union was disintegrating.

And so it came as a complete shock earlier this week to have my own Facebook page suddenly flooded with tributes and pictures of Mischa. What happened? My heart sank and my face flushed as I realized from the tone of the messages what had happened.

Yes, he indeed had died: on Tuesday, April 7 at 7 a.m., according to a post by his brother. I don't know the cause. Mischa was only in his late 40s. I've gone through all the posts and the only info I can glean comes from vague references to doctors. I'll learn eventually, I suppose.

But whatever the cause and whatever the reason, Mischa is now no longer among us. And so I wanted to let his students and anyone else who comes across this post to know that he will always be remembered as a great friend and companion.

Whether it was searching the parched summer streets of Belgorod for beer (when was then brought in from the country in wagons) or driving him to Goffstown High School in America to be guest lecturer (he could earn $50 a day doing this, at the time a small fortune in rubles), Mischa was always fun to be around.

This friendly easy-going nature is what what compelled me to make use of his services as translator when I first went to Russia and my command of the language wasn't sufficient to interview the Mayor of Belgorod in his native tongue. (Little did I know the interview would consist entirely of drinking Azerbaijani cognac at 9 a.m., rendering translation services unnecessary.)

So Mischa came with me as I made my way from one appointment to the next, doing interviews for a feature story I was writing about life in Belgorod, which had become a sister city with Keene, N.H., where I worked as a reporter for the daily newspaper. When we weren't interviewing, we hung out together. Several afternoons were spent under a tree drinking the aforementioned country beer from an enormous glass jar as big as an aquarium.

It was a wild time, and so Mischa was there at moments that I'm sure will always be highlights of my own life. I came to Belgorod as one of the first Americans to visit the city since the end of World War II. Even after decades of communist propaganda, many ordinary Russians still looked at Americans as their brothers in breaking the back of the Nazi war machine. That was certainly true in Belgorod, which was destroyed by the Germans and was not far from the monumental Kursk tank battle that helped turn the tide against Hitler's advances.

And so I was met by people who made solemn promises on their father's deathbed that if they ever met an American, they would drink to his health. (Thus I found out how serious Russians can be about drinking.) Belgorod families vied to have me as their honored guest; children would band together and decide to offer me their most prized possession, which in one case was an adorable six-week-old puppy!

And Mischa was there for all of it. He was amazed and overwhelmed as much as I was, and so we became good friends. He spoke English well, and was eager to practice because there were few people in his orbit he could do this with. He had us over to his apartment to watch "Fawlty Towers" episodes with him, as there were some phrases he couldn't quite understand.

It was at Mischa's apartment that we entertained a middle-aged gentleman named Vladimir Babin, editor of Nash Belgorod ("Our Belgorod"), a brand new local newspaper, born in the spirit of glasnost. Babin wanted me to write a column about life in America for Nash Belgorod, and so for a couple of years I was a regular contributor to his pages, with Mischa translating.

Among the American gifts we brought were several Slinky spring toys, which our new Russian friends had never seen before. They found it amazing as it walked down stairs and did all the other things a slinky does. We even taught them the Slinky jingle: "...for fun it's a wonderful toy!"

We gave one to Babin's young son, who got it hopelessly tangled, which inevitably happens. Turned out dad had quite a temper, and blew up at what he considered a major faux pas. I'll never forget him shouting in Russian that "millions of American children play with this toy, and it only takes this idiotic child one moment to break it!" Thankfully, things were quickly smoothed over.

Despite his command of English, Mischa had never been outside of Russia, other than the time he served in the army and was sent to Cuba, which he described as "like Russia with palm trees."

So, to thank Mischa for all his help, we arranged for his airfare and officially invited him (necessary at the time for a travel visa) to come live with us for a few months in Milford, N.H. as a sort of do-it-yourself one-on-one exchange.

This was pre-Internet, when the only ways to communicate were by mail (very slow) or by tenuous long distance phone connection. (Belgorod is about 400 miles south of Moscow, near the Ukrainian border; calls into that part of Russia seemingly had to go through three different operators.) We would arrange for me to try calling on a certain day and time, and maybe one in three attempts I'd get through.

It was truly thrilling to reach him, hear his voice, and make plans. Often we'd spend most of the phone call (which inevitably would be cut off before we were done) making plans for the timing of the next phone call. I wonder how much of that magic has been lost in today's era of social media, instant communications, and so on.

Mischa arrived at Kennedy Airport in New York City in January of 1993, and thus began a great adventure for all of us. On the way back to New Hampshire, we stopped at a Grand Union supermarket in Connecticut, and Mischa became fascinated by how the doors would automatically open when someone stepped on a rubber mat, which he'd never seen before.

Being with Mischa once again produced encounters that I will always remember: Mischa at the Milford town meeting; Mischa discovering candlepin bowling; Mischa insisting that the United States had seven original colonies because of the "seven stripes on your flag." (He didn't realize we count the white ones.)

One really important side of Mischa was his devotion to the music of 'Queen' and Freddie Mercury, who was Mischa's own personal musical hero.

When I first met Mischa in the early 1990s, 'Queen' was about as dated as you could get in terms of pop music. So I chalked up Mischa's enthusiasm to a sort of Soviet cultural time lag.

But Mischa was serious: Freddie Mercury was not some passing fad. He was the best, all the world loved Freddie Mercury, no one was as popular as Freddie Mercury in every part of the globe, and no one could disagree with that.

Okay, okay!

But then later, Mischa's stay with us in America coincided with the release of the "Wayne's World" movie, which of course featured Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' which briefly propelled the group back into the commercial limelight.

So there's Mischa, newly arrived in the United States, visiting a Barnes & Noble bookstore with a gigantic Queen display dominating the front entrance.

"You see this!" he said, smiling contentedly. "I told you Queen was the most popular group in all the world!"

Our contact tapered off after his visit, as things will. I got a demanding newspaper management job, and ceased trying to actively learn Russian. Mischa went back to teaching English, and at one time was involved in a joint venture to export or import sausages, I think. (I can't remember.)

All along, I had the intention of returning to Belgorod someday to reconnect with Mischa and see how things have changed. It might even have been next year: 2016, the 25th anniversary of my first visit.

But now, if I go, there's one change I won't look forward to: Mischa's absence.

I hadn't seen him in a long time, and I don't know when I would have seen him next. But now he's gone, and I find I miss him terribly. He's one of these people that you assume will always be around. But now he's not.

To his students and friends and family: we have all lost a special person. He will always be remembered by those who knew him, but I know that's not much comfort when someone is taken from us so suddenly, and when so young.

Let us use the memory of Mischa to ensure we don't take for granted all the others who have touched our lives. Keep in touch. Make time. That's what I'll do.

And Mischa? Alas, not even a crackly tenuous phone connection could reach him now. But wherever he is, I'm sure he and Freddie Mercury are having one helluva great time together.

До свидания, Mishka!

Needed: Audience members at 4/9 screening to help out documentary on Buster Keaton

Buster's autograph as obtained by Linda Olmsted in 1956.

First priority: to plug a screening of Keaton's 'Three Ages' (1923) on Thursday, April 9, as a documentary film crew will be on hand to interview attendees about Buster.

So come along. What are you waiting for? The more, the merrier!

But first, a few highlights from a holiday weekend as packed with silent film adventures as a child's egg-filled Easter basket.

• Friday, April 3: 'The Lost World' (1925) at Red River Theatres, Concord, N.H. Small turnout but strong reaction to this very entertaining film.

Just before the screening, a Red River staffer brought in an item from the collection of Barry Steelman, a well-known local movie buff and part of the Red River family.

I'll be darned: an original booking contract for 'The Lost World,' framed and perfectly intact, complete with full-color letterhead with artwork derived from the film's promotional materials.

But it was only the start of a weekend filled with unexpected artifacts...

• Saturday, April 4: 'The General' (1927) at the hall of Blazing Star #71 Grange in Danbury, N.H. Small theater but packed with locals for what promised to be an unusual night out.

It certainly was for me. First, the Blazing Star's hall appears unchanged since perhaps the McKinley era, with the exception of modern wiring. Stern faces of Grange leaders from the pre-World War I Grange heydays stare down from the hall's wooden walls.

The small proscenium stage, still in working order, is home to an impressive collection of antique theater curtains and scenic backdrops, some of it original to the hall and some of it acquired from other small theaters.

One of many antique scenic backdrops housed at the Blazing Star Grange Hall in Danbury, N.H.

A group of volunteers are working on conserving these rare artifacts. The ones on display are a sight to behold.

For the silent film program, the same people created a very substantial white screen, complete with wooden frame held together by clamps. Amazing!

As for the films: Buster rocked the house. It's always a treat to do a screening for such an appreciative audience.

But a highlight for me was when a woman approached me prior to the show with an old-time autograph book open to a particular page.

On it was written, in classic Palmer method script: Buster Keaton.

(I seem to have heard somewhere that Buster, who attended exactly one day of public school in his entire life, was functionally illiterate. I don't know if the very stilted penmanship of his signature bears this out, but it would be interesting to get it evaluated. Any volunteers?)

The woman, Linda Olmsted, said she was a Girl Scout in Manchester, Conn. on a field trip to New York City in the mid-1950s when she spotted Keaton on the street near what she thought was a TV studio.

So she asked, and Keaton obliged. And she still had the book, and Keaton's signature, after all these years. Again, today's word: Amazing!

Unfortunately, Danbury resident Carl Hultberg could not attend Saturday night's screening due to illness.

Hultberg had contacted me earlier, wanted to let me know his grandfather was Rudi Blesh, Keaton's authorized biographer who was working with him just prior to Keaton's death in early 1966.

He has since sent along a note apologizing for not attending, but saying he's still like to show me something I might find interesting: one of Keaton's hats.

Geez, what is it with Keaton and Danbury, N.H.? After all this, it wouldn't surprise me if the Grange stove was the same one used in Keaton's two-reel comedy 'Hard Luck.'

Thou Shalt Not Miss It: an original poster for Cecil B. DeMille's 'The Ten Commandments.'

• Sunday, April 5: 'The Ten Commandments' (1923) in 35mm at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square, Somerville, Mass. About 100 people made a Biblical epic part of their Easter Sunday, despite my comments that the Archdiocese of Boston would not allow attendance to count as Mass.

Got to use my one sure-fire laugh line on this. To depict the parting of the Red Sea, technicians used large blocks of gelatin sprayed with water. My wife said it had to be strawberry Jell-O because, after all, it's the RED SEA. Har!

The film itself is a great one for music, I think: all broad gestures and a good amount of motion at varying tempos. I had five melodic cells picked out for this and wound up making heavy use of just two of them. Still, it held together and I felt it was one of my better efforts.

Okay, on to Buster Keaton's 'Three Ages' (1923) on Thursday, April 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center in Plymouth, N.H.

Come one, come all! Because it would be great to have a sizable turnout so the documentary producers will have something to work with.

The filmmakers are Jessica Roseboom and Gavin Rosenberg of Merge Creative Media. Based in New York City, they're assembling material for a documentary on Keaton's silent comedy and how it continues to delight and mesmerize audiences nearly a century after it was produced.

For a good write-up of what they're doing, check out this story that ran on Sunday, April 5 in the Concord (N.H.) Monitor.

Or better yet, come to the screening and be part of the experience. For more info about 'Three Ages' and the program on Thursday, April 9, check out the press release below.

See you there!

* * *

Pre-historic Buster takes a pre-historic bath in 'Three Ages' (1923).

SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 2015 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Documentary film crew to visit Flying Monkey on Thursday, April 9

Local audience for Buster Keaton silent film program to be interviewed for possible inclusion in documentary

PLYMOUTH, N.H.—Audience members who attend next week's silent film screening at the Flying Monkey will have some unusual company.

A documentary film crew will visit Plymouth and the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center on Thursday, April 9 for a screening of Buster Keaton's classic silent comedy 'Three Ages' (1923).

Filmmakers Jessica Roseboom, Gavin Rosenberg and Chad "CJ" Gardella, of New York City-based Merge Creative Media, are currently making a feature-length documentary about Keaton's enduring popularity.

Titled "Buster Keaton: To Be Funny," the project has been actively underway for several months. Filming locations so far have included Tucson, Ariz. and New York City.

As part of their work, Roseboom contacted New Hampshire-based silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis, who provides live music for the Flying Monkey's monthly silent film series.

The Flying Monkey's screening of Keaton's 'Three Ages' prompted the filmmakers to come to Plymouth for the event.

During their visit, they plan to interview audience members and also film audience reactions during the screening.

"It's a real honor to have the Flying Monkey selected for inclusion in this project," Rapsis said. "Buster Keaton's films are always popular, but now there's an another reason for people to attend."

The program, accompanied by live music, will also include several Keaton comedy short films released prior to his jump into full-length feature films.

The Keaton show is on Thursday, April 9 at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $10 per person.

'Three Ages,' a loose send-up of the then-famous drama 'Intolerance' (1916), weaves together similar love stories told in three different epochs: the Stone Age, the Roman Age, and "Modern" (1920s) times.

The three-stories-in-one approach was Keaton's first attempt at a feature-length comedy. If 'Three Ages' showed signs of box office trouble, Keaton planned to split it up into three shorter films to be released separately.

But the picture was a success, due primarily to inspired comic touches that still shine through to audiences today. 'Three Ages' launched Keaton's spectacular run of classic comic features that lasted until the industry's transition to sound pictures in 1929.

Keaton, one of the silent film era's great comics, was known for his ingenuity with gags, acrobatic stunts, and his trademark dead-pan manner.

'Three Ages' is the latest in a series of monthly silent film screenings at the newly renovated Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performing Arts Center. The series aims to recreate the lost magic of early cinema by assembling the elements needed for silent film to be seen at its best: superior films in best available prints; projection on the big screen; live musical accompaniment; and a live audience.

The Flying Monkey's silent film series will continue in 2015 with these upcoming titles:

• Thursday, May 21, 2015, 6:30 p.m.: 'The Count of Monte Cristo' (1922) starring John Gilbert. The original screen adaptation of the Andre Dumas swashbuckler about a man unjustly imprisoned who later seeks revenge. A film thought lost for decades until a print surfaced in the Czech Republic!

• Thursday, June 11, 2015, 6:30 p.m.: 'Wings' (1927) starring Clara Bow, Buddy Rogers, Richard Arlen. Just in time for Flag Day! Epic saga of American flyboys in World War I took the first-ever Academy Award for Best Picture. One of the all-time great silents, just as moving, thrilling, and exciting as when first released.

• Thursday, July 9, 2015, 6:30 p.m.: 'A Dog Double Feature' spotlighting silent-era canine stars Peter the Great and Rin Tin Tin. In 'The Sign of the Claw,' a police dog helps solve a crime wave. The only surviving film of Peter the Great, a popular German shepherd performer. 'The Night Cry' (1926) finds iconic dog superstar Rin Tin Tin accused of killing sheep. Can he find the real bandit and clear his name?

Buster Keaton's comedy ‘Three Ages’ will be shown on Thursday, April 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performing Arts Center, 39 Main St., Plymouth, N.H. Admission $10 per person. For more info, call (603) 536-2551 or visit www.flyingmonkeynh.com.

For more information on the documentary "Buster Keaton: To Be Funny," visit www.tobefunnythemovie.com

Saturday, April 4: Bringing Buster Keaton to the Blazing Star Grange Hall in Danbury, N.H.

Buster examines his world in 'Sherlock Jr.' (1924), on the program tonight with 'The General' (1927) at the Blazing Star Grange #71 Hall in Danbury, N.H.

Check out this e-mail I received today:

Hey Jeff:

Don't know if you know this, but my name is Carl Hultberg and my grandfather, Rudi Blesh was Buster's authorized biographer.

I live in Danbury and work at the transfer station. I have a biography of my grandfather out now about my grandfather, Rudi (and me).

http://www.amazon.com/Rudi-Blesh-Story-told-grandson/dp/0615901948

I'm going to try to make the show tonight. So I hope to see you there.

-Carl Hultberg
Danbury NH 03230

Wow! You never know who's out there!

The Blesh biography, written with Buster's cooperation, was one of the earliest books about silent film I encountered.

In the early 1970s, the Nashua (N.H.) Public Library had a copy, and I must have renewed it more than a dozen times, keeping it home as part of an impromptu reference library I accumulated at the time.

And now, all these years later, to hear from the biographer's grandson, who lives in rural New Hampshire about an hour's drive north of here. Fantastic!

The "show" tonight he refers to, by the way, is a program of Buster Keaton films I'm presenting at an usual venue—the Blazing Star Grange #71 Hall in, yes, Danbury, N.H.

If Danbury sounds like a small New Hampshire town, then you heard right.

And like many small towns in rural parts of our start, the local Grange chapter is still active.

A seasonal view of tonight's venue. Yeah, we still have a lot of snow up here.

The Grange? It's kind of an agri-centric community education and fellowship society that emerged as a national movement in the 19th century.

Many local Grange groups fell by the wayside long ago—ironically, in part because of competing pastimes such as movie-going.

But a few continue to soldier on, including the "Blazing Star" chapter in Danbury, which has evolved into an advocate for locally grown food.

Members also hold a series of winter markets, support sustainable development, and also curate a unique collection of vintage stage curtains that have been in use at the local Grange Hall for nearly a century.

On example from the collection of antique painted stage scenery and curtains cared for by the Blazing Star Grange #71 of Danbury, N.H.

Find out more about the Blazing Star Grange #71 at http://www.danburygrange.org/. And you can also see online photos of the vintage stage curtain collection.

Tonight's program is a double bill of two Keaton features, plus possibly a chat with the grandson of Keaton's biographer. Really looking forward to it, as well as possibly meeting the grandson of Keaton's official biographer. (Hey—when you're this far removed from Hollywood, you take what you can get.)

For more info about tonight's screening, check out the press release below. See you there!

* * *

MONDAY, MARCH 16, 2015 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Silent film classic 'The General' with live music at Blazing Star Grange on Saturday, April 4

Buster Keaton's comic masterpiece set during U.S. Civil War to be screened at historic Grange Hall in Danbury, N.H.

DANBURY, N.H.—He never smiled on camera, earning him the nickname of "the Great Stone Face." But Buster Keaton's comedies rocked Hollywood's silent era with laughter throughout the 1920s.

Acclaimed for their originality and clever visual gags, and also admired for their realistic stories and authentic location shots, Keaton's films remain popular crowd-pleasers today.

See for yourself with a screening of 'The General' (1926), one of Keaton's landmark feature films, at the Blazing Star Grange Hall in Danbury, N.H. on Saturday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m. The show is open to the public with suggested $5 donation.

The program, which also includes Keaton's feature 'Sherlock, Jr.' (1924), will be accompanied by live music performed by silent film composer Jeff Rapsis.

'The General,' set during the U.S. Civil War, tells the story of a southern locomotive engineer (Keaton) whose engine (named 'The General') is hijacked by Northern spies with his girlfriend onboard. Keaton, stealing another train, races north in pursuit behind enemy lines. Can he rescue his girl? And can he steal his locomotive and make it back to warn of a coming Northern attack?

Critics have called 'The General' Keaton's masterpiece, praising its authentic period detail, ambitious action and battle sequences, and its overall integration of story, drama, and comedy. It's also regarded as one of Hollywood's great train films, with much of the action occurring on or around moving steam locomotives.

Civil War-era railroad engineer Buster on the film's namesake locomotive, 'The General'

Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film musician who has accompanied shows at venues across New England, said Keaton's films were not made to be shown on television or viewed at home. In reviving them, the Blazing Star Grange will give the public a chance to experience silent film as it was meant to be seen—in high quality prints, on a large screen, with live music, and with an audience.

"All those elements are important parts of the silent film experience," said Rapsis, who improvises the score on the spot as the films screens. "Recreate those conditions, and the classics of early Hollywood leap back to life in ways that can still move audiences today."

Rapsis performs on a digital synthesizer that reproduces the texture of the full orchestra and creates a traditional "movie score" sound.

Keaton, along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, stands today as one of the silent screen's three great clowns. Some critics regard Keaton as the best of all; Roger Ebert wrote in 2002 that "in an extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, (Keaton) worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies."

While making films, Keaton never thought of himself as an artist, but merely as an entertainer trying to use the then-new art of motion pictures to tell stories and create laughter.

As a performer, Keaton was uniquely suited to the demands of silent comedy. Born in 1895, he made his stage debut as a toddler, joining his family's knockabout vaudeville act and learning to take falls and do acrobatic stunts at an early age.

A remarkable pantomime artist, Keaton naturally used his whole body to communicate emotions from sadness to surprise. And in an era with no post-production special effects, Keaton's acrobatic talents enabled him to perform all his own stunts.

Critics review 'The General':

"The most insistently moving picture ever made, its climax is the most stunning visual event ever arranged for a film comedy."
—Walter Kerr

"An almost perfect entertainment!"
—Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

"What makes the film so special is the way the timing, audacity and elegant choreography of its sight gags, acrobatics, pratfalls and dramatic incidents is matched by Buster's directorial artistry, his acute observational skills working alongside the physical élan and sweet subtlety of his own performance."
—Time Out (London)

Buster Keaton's 'The General' (1926) will be shown on Saturday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Blazing Star Grange Hall, 15 North Road, Danbury, N.H. The program is open to the public. Suggested donation $5. For more info, visit danburygrange.org; for more info on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.

— 30 —For more info, contact:
Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com
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