Silent Film Festival Featuring Buster Keaton Classics Comes to Spring Valley

The Theatre Organ Society of San Diego (TOSSD) will present Western Silent Movie Night – featuring “The Paleface” and “Go West,” two classic Buster Keaton films with a Western theme accompanied by distinguished organist Dennis James – on Saturday, Feb. 5, 2011 at Trinity Hall, 3902 Kenwood Ave. in Spring Valley. 

This Silent Movie Night includes a pre-show viewing of vintage cars from the Antique Automobile Car Club of America, San Diego Region.  Starting at 6 p.m. the Trinity Hall parking lot will display autos dating from the 1930’s to the 1960’s including a 1956 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, a 1946 Packard Clipper, a 1965 Ford Mustang, and other classic showpieces.

The show features two great Buster Keaton silent film comedy classics with Western locales:  a short from 1922, "The Paleface" followed by the 1925 feature film "Go West."

In “The Paleface,” butterfly collector Keaton unwittingly wanders into an Indian encampment whose tribe has resolved to kill the first white man who enters their gates because evil oil tycoons are trying to force them from their land. The native warriors chase Keaton, who ingeniously escapes their efforts to kill him.  He eventually becomes accepted by the tribe, given the title, "Little Chief Paleface” and then foils the scheme of the unsavory speculators. 

In “Go West.” Keaton portrays a young man who travels west to find his fortune.  After catching a train, he falls off near a ranch and tries his hand at bronco busting, cattle wrangling, and dairy farming, and forms a bond with a cow named "Brown Eyes." Eventually he finds himself the only person on a Los Angeles bound train along with a herd of cattle.

These two great films from one of the comedic masters of the silent film era are given voice by the expert work of Dennis James, who for more than 30 years has played a pivotal role in the international revival of silent films presented with live music. James appears around the world under the auspices of his Silent Film Concerts production company to present professional silent film screenings with live accompaniment.

A regular guest for Silent Film nights at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, James has arranged silent films to be accompanied by piano, theatre organ, chamber ensemble and full symphony orchestra. Since 1971 James has performed throughout the USA, Canada, Mexico and Europe.  

The Theatre Organ Society of San Diego (TOSSD), is the local chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society (ATOS), an international society with 50 chapters in the United States and abroad all dedicated to the preservation of the Theatre Pipe Organ and to further the use, understanding and appreciation of its unique musical genre. TOSSD believes that the theatre pipe organ deserves a permanent place in American musical culture and its mission is to preserve this musical icon for future generations of musicians, historians and enthusiasts.

 After the car show at 6 p.m., showtime for the film festival is 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $12 each.  Military members in uniform are free, as are children under 16 with a paid adult.  Parking is free in the Trinity Hall parking lot.

For more information about the Theatre Organ Society of San Diego visit TOSSD.org, or join their Facebook page.