One of Salt Lake’s hidden treasures is this nifty little place called The Organ Loft, a monument to one man’s hobby that his family maintains for the benefit of local film lovers. So the story goes, Lawrence Bray fell in love with the sound of the pipe organs that once provided musical accompaniment for many old-time silent-movie theaters and, beginning in the late 1940s, he started acquiring components of these old organs as they were scrapped out of Salt Lake moviehouses. He assembled them in his uncle’s chicken coop, adding onto the building several times over the years as his instrument grew. Today, that much-enlarged (and improved) chicken coop is The Organ Loft. Owned and operated by Lawrence Bray’s nephew, Larry, it is one of the few venues in this country, and probably in the whole world, where you can see a silent movie in something close to the way our great-grandparents must’ve experienced it.
The Loft’s master organist is a man named Blaine Gale. He is, in my uninformed opinion, a genius. Most silents never had official scores, so Blaine composes one for each movie the Loft plays. Just like his counterparts in the silent era, he assembles bits of current pop tunes, familiar, time-honored melodies, and his own improvisations — not to mention the surprising array of sound effects The Loft’s mighty Wurlitzer is capable of generating — to bring to life films that are nearing (and in a few cases beyond!) a century old for modern audiences. The Girlfriend and I have enjoyed many silents at The Loft; up until just a couple years ago, we considered the annual Halloween screening of Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera a standing date. (Circumstances caused us to break our pattern one year, and we haven’t managed to re-establish it. But it’s not for lack of desire, believe me!)
All of which brings me, at long last, to the point of this entry:
Sean Means reported today that the 1922 silent film Trapped by the Mormons (a ridiculously over-the-top anti-Mormon propaganda piece that has become a cult classic and local favorite) has just been released on DVD. And here’s the cool part: it features an organ-music accompaniment by The Organ Loft’s own Blaine Gale. Sean doesn’t say if Blaine played The Loft’s Wurlitzer on the track, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did.
I normally don’t care for watching silents on DVD — like live theater, there’s a big difference between seeing them in a public place with a real organist and an audience vs. watching them on TV in your living room — but I think this is going to be a must-have in the Bennion Movie Collection. If anyone’s looking for a Christmas idea for me…
I am delighted to hear this! And I haven’t been to the Organ Loft for ages! (Need to go again…)
Yeah, I was thinking that while I was writing this entry. Like I said, Anne and I haven’t made it to Phantom the last couple of years. Halloween seems kind of weird without it…
The University of Pennsylvania’s Irvine Auditorium houses the Curtis Organ, which is one of the oldest/largest in the country. They used to run The Phantom of the Opera on Halloween night when we were at school too. I saw it once, but have no idea who the organist was. I do reemmber, though, that it was ultra cool to see/hear…
Cool… I’ll have to check that one out if I happen to find myself in the neighborhood.
Our local place that I describe above shows one or two silents a month in the fall, winter and spring; The Girlfriend and I were regulars for a while, and I’m sorry we got out of the habit. It’s a very different experience than modern movie-going, isn’t it?
Thanks again for the tip on the Irvine Aud.
No problem. Here’s more on Irvine:
http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/perelmanquad/facilities/irvine_auditorium/irvine.html
http://www.upenn.edu/admissions/tour/tourstop.php?stop=6
As with many things at Penn, the statistcs are impressive: 11,000 pipes, the 11th largest pipe organ in the world, built in 1926 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the only early 20th-century civic pipe organ that remains in its original condition.
According to the links above, they also still run POTO on Halloween night…
Wow, that looks really awesome… something to add to my file of “one of these day” attractions for sure!
Hey, Remember me? As you know, I haven’t been able to comment lately due to my crappy work computer system being sidelined with a nasty virus.
I’m sorry we haven’t made it to the loft lately, either. I miss it. We’ll have to make an effort to catch one of this season’s offerings.
You’re silly… we do talk outside of this blog, you know… 😉