Okay, let's try that again!
Last month's 100th anniversary celebration for the Colonial Theatre in Keene, N.H. was upstaged by snow.
So this weekend brings the rescheduled "Party Like It's 1924," complete with cake and champagne. The fun, which is free and open to all, is on Sunday, Feb. 18 at 2 p.m.
The star of the show this time will not be Old Man Winter, but Lon Chaney playing the title role in 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' (1923).
It's the film that opened the theater back in January 1924, so they're rerunning the timeless film (with live music by me) to honor the equally timeless theater.
And it IS a rare survivor—a single screen downtown theater built originally as a silent-era moviehouse and vaudeville venue that remains pretty much intact.
Really! Check it out:
Come join the fun! More details about the film, the theater, and the celebration are in the press release below.
* * *
MONDAY, FEB. 12, 2024 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com
Chaney as Quasimodo in 'Hunchback of Notre Dame' on Sunday, Feb. 18 in Keene, N.H.
Postponed from January: Celebrate
Colonial Theatre's 100th anniversary with free screening of classic
film that opened theater in 1924
KEENE,
N.H.—It was a spectacular combination: Lon Chaney, the actor known as
the "Man of 1,000 Faces," and Universal's big screen adaptation of
Victor Hugo's sprawling tale of the tortured Quasimodo.
The
result was the classic silent film version of 'The Hunchback of Notre
Dame' (1923) — a movie so popular that it was chosen as the opening
program at Keene's Colonial Theatre when it first opened to the public
on Jan. 29, 1924.
Now, 100 years later, the Colonial will once again screen 'Hunchback' as part of a centennial celebration.
Live music for the movie will be provided by silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis.
The program includes cake and champagne afterwards.
Lon Chaney post-whipping and Patsy Ruth Miller in 'Hunchback.'
'The
Hunchback of Notre Dame' is based on Victor Hugo's 1831 novel, and is
notable for the grand sets that recall 15th century Paris as well as for
Chaney's performance and make-up as the tortured hunchback Quasimodo.
The
film elevated Chaney, already a well-known character actor, to full
star status in Hollywood, and also helped set a standard for many later
horror films, including Chaney's 'The Phantom of the Opera' in 1925.
While
Quasimodo is but one of many interconnecting characters in the original
Hugo novel, he dominates the narrative of this lavish Universal
production.
In the story, Jehan (Brandon Hurst), the evil brother
of the archdeacon, lusts after a Gypsy named Esmeralda (Patsy Ruth
Miller) and commands the hunchback Quasimodo (Chaney) to capture her.
Military
captain Phoebus (Norman Kerry) also loves Esmeralda and rescues her,
but the Gypsy is not unsympathetic to Quasimodo's condition, and an
unlikely bond forms between them.
After vengeful Jehan frames
Esmeralda for the attempted murder of Phoebus, Quasimodo's feelings are
put to the test in a spectacular climax set in and around the Cathedral
of Notre Dame.
As the hunchbacked bellringer Quasimodo, Chaney
adorned himself with a special device that made his cheeks jut out
grotesquely; a contact lens that blanked out one of his eyes; and, most
painfully, a huge rubber hump covered with coarse animal fur and
weighing anywhere from 30 to 50 pounds.
Chaney deeply identified
with Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer at Notre Dame Cathedral who was
deafened by his work. Chaney was raised by deaf parents and did a lot
of his communication through pantomime.
“The idea of doing the
picture was an old one of mine and I had studied Quasimodo until I knew
him like a brother, knew every ghoulish impulse of his heart and all the
inarticulate miseries of his soul,” Chaney told an interviewer with
Movie Weekly magazine in 1923.
“Quasimodo and I lived together—we
became one. At least so it has since seemed to me. When I played him, I
forgot my own identity completely and for the time being lived and
suffered with the Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
The film was a major box office hit for Universal Studios, and Chaney's performance continues to win accolades.
"An
awe-inspiring achievement, featuring magnificent sets (built on the
Universal backlot), the proverbial cast of thousands (the crowd scenes
are mesmerizing) and an opportunity to catch Lon Chaney at his most
commanding," wrote critic Matt Brunson of Creative Loafing in 2014.
The
famous cathedral, a symbol of Paris and France, was severely damaged by
fire in 2019. After a long period of rebuilding, the Cathedral is
scheduled to reopen to the public in December 2024.
Screening
this classic version of 'Hunchback' provides local audiences the
opportunity to experience silent film as it was intended to be shown: on
the big screen, in restored prints, with live music, and with an
audience.
"If you can put pieces of the experience back together
again, it's surprising how these films snap back to life," said Rapsis, a
New Hampshire-based silent film accompanist who creates music for
silent film screenings at venues around the country.
"By showing the films as they were intended, you can really get a sense of why people first fell in love with the movies."
In
creating music for silent films, Rapsis performs on a digital
synthesizer that reproduces the texture of the full orchestra and
creates a traditional "movie score" sound.
'The Hunchback of
Notre Dame' (1923) starring Lon Chaney, will be screened with live music
on Sunday, Feb. 18 at 2 p.m. at the Colonial Theatre, 95 Main St.,
Keene, N.H. Admission is free, but attendees are asked to RVSP online in
advance at www.thecolonial.org.
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