ST. MARYS, OH (WLIO) - The St. Marys Theater and Grand Opera House took time Sunday night to show movies that locals watched there back in 1923.
The audience was treated to comedy movies featuring two of the most famous actors of the time. One twenty-minute film, "The Balloonatic," starring Buster Keaton, and a full-length film called "Safety Last," starring Harold Lloyd. They also learned some history of movie-making and the biographies of the actors between the films.
Both of the movies were chosen because they premiered in 1923, which organizers thought was fitting for the milestone that St. Marys hits this year.
"What's really neat is St. Marys is celebrating its bicentennial this year and what we're doing tonight is actually doing what St. Marians a hundred years ago would have done celebrating their centennial celebrations," said Doug Spencer, the project coordinator for the St. Marys Theater Revitalization.
The original music that was played alongside the films has been lost, so the visiting artist, Dennis James, had to write and perform the soundtracks on the organ himself. James has been performing in historic movie theaters for over fifty years.
"It takes a lot of nerve, because if you think about it, I have to watch the movie and make the music fit, then I have to play the music and then I have to choose the speeds to make it match with the film. So it's like in an orchestra, I'm the conductor, and I'm the orchestra, and I'm the singers. It's a very complex job but everybody did it back in the '20s, this is how movies were heard and seen," he explained.
Dennis James will return to the Opera House Tuesday, June 13th, at 7 pm to perform a concert featuring a historic instrument called the glass armonica, invented by Benjamin Franklin.
