On April 26th at 4pm Peace Lutheran Church is hosting another of its popular silent movie events with Walt Strony at the Theatre Organ. The feature film, “The General,” originally released in 1926, is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Starring the famous silent film lead, Buster Keaton, it was based on a true story memoir published in 1889 as The Great Locomotive Chase written by William Pittenger.
Keaton plays Johnnie Gray as the engineer of his beloved train engine named The General. Set in the Confederate South during the Civil War, the film is classified as an action comedy and rightfully so. There is plenty of edge-of-seat action action and drama, including one of the most iconic live action “events” ever produced. And of course there is also romance with Silent film star, Marion Mack, best known in her career for her role in The General as Johnnie’s love interest, Annabelle Lee.
Keaton was also a co-producer of this film which ended up being his last production as an independent film maker due to its huge (at the time) budget of $750,000 and low box office returns worldwide of $1,000,000. The General was made toward the end of the silent era and was not particularly well received by the critics and audiences of the time. Since then The General has come to be regarded by critics and filmmakers as one of the greatest films ever made. In 1989, the film was selected by the Library of Congress to be included in the first class of films for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
Movie production before sound relied on a live organist playing dramatic background music and sound effects. The score will be personally written and performed live by Walt Strony. In addition to being the Peace organist and artistic advisor for Arts@Peace, Strony has specialized in theatre organ during his long, varied career. He is an inductee into the American Theatre Organ Society Hall of Fame and is the only living two-time winner of the ATOS Organist of the Year Award. He will be using the Peace Allen-Reuter organ which has a special “suite” of sounds reproducing the sound of the Mighty Wurlitzer organs that were originally used to accompany silent films. The General will be an exciting opportunity to hear Strony and theatre organ at its most dramatic.
Peace Lutheran Church invites you to spend the afternoon enjoying a silent film as if you were back in the roaring 20’s. Dress up if you like and enjoy this special event. A wine and cheese reception will follow the film showing. Doors will open at 3:30pm. The event is free to all ages; however, donations to Arts@Peace to bring more events to the community will be welcomed.
Peace Lutheran Church is located at 828 W. Main St. in Grass Valley.
For more information visit https://peacelutherangv.org or call the church office at (530) 273-9631.