The State Theatre celebrates 85 years with silent classics.
By: Susan Van Dongen
For generations of Americans who grew up with the multiplex, the concept of a "movie palace" is practically unknown. There was a time when movie theaters, especially in cities, featured sumptuous lobbies, seating spaces the size of concert halls and ushers in stylish uniforms. You got dressed up when you went to the "cinema show." There was just one screen and no one talked on their cell phone during the show.
In the days of silent films, seeing a moving picture was an experience that invited the audience’s participation, since elements of the presentation were theatrical and live. You saw jugglers, comedians and maybe other live performers before the film began. One of the biggest differences was the musical accompaniment. Before the marriage of sound and vision on film, the soundtrack was provided by live musicians often a pianist or organist, but sometimes a full orchestra.
For Dennis James, one of the premier theater organists in the country, the experience of hearing live music with silent film is superior to watching a multi-million dollar blockbuster filled to the rim with special effects and an ear-busting soundtrack. He’s seen more and more attention given to the art form of live film accompaniment, thanks in part to the many performances around Halloween. For example, 1922’s Nosferatu is often screened at churches with live organ accompaniment.
"What I’m most intrigued about is the notice that somebody is playing the organ at these screenings," Mr. James says. "The liveness of the organ player has seeped into the culture. Then the next layer that I’m doing will be the identification of the organist. I hope to (get the idea out that) it isn’t enough to put a film on the screen. I want to recreate the actual live experience of going to a film with actual period music."
That’s what Mr. James will be doing at the State Theatre in New Brunswick at a special screening of the silent classic White Oak Dec. 26, as the former movie palace marks its 85th anniversary. The matinee showing of White Oak, starring early movie idol William S. Hart, will be just one facet of the re-enactment of the theater’s opening day, Dec. 26, 1921. The soundtrack will be live organ accompaniment by Mr. James.
In addition, there will be a variety of vaudeville performers including visual comedian Peter Geist, jugglers who go by the name of Project Dynamite and rope tricks by Chris McDaniel. The emcee for the day will be Richard Stillman, who also will provide song and dance.
Instead of admission, the theater is sponsoring a food drive to benefit Middlesex County’s Emergency Food Distribution Network, serving more than 60 local food pantries and soup kitchens. Each patron is asked to bring at least one non-perishable food item to gain admission.
White Oak is just the first in a series of silent films to be screened at the State Theatre this winter and spring, with live organ accompaniment. Mr. Daniels, who lives in Tacoma, Wash., but was born and raised just outside of Philadelphia, will return to accompany The Son of the Sheik Feb. 11 and Ben-Hur March 25.
He hopes theater-goers will pick up on the excitement and immediacy of the experience and perhaps usher in a new appreciation of silent film in central New Jersey.
"The contemporary film experience is the polar opposite of the earliest days of film because today, movies manipulate the presentation way beyond reality special effects have become the main goal," Mr. James says. "This is a live experience where musicians are making live decisions in front of you. For the series at the State Theatre, my goal is to revive the vivacity of the film, a living medium."
According to Mr. James, also a renowned film historian, seeing and hearing silent films performed with live musical accompaniment is a revelatory experience. The music performed in a darkened theater diverts expectations and coaxes added nuance from the film image, he says.
"Capacity audiences cheer when they see and hear vintage films performed to thrilling live music accompaniment," Mr. James says.
For more than 35 years, he’s played a pivotal role in this revival. Mr. James first played to audiences at the Lansdowne and Brookline theaters in suburban Philadelphia. Both venues had pipe organs and, in the ’60s, he played music during film intermissions something else that has gone the way of the dodo.
Mr. James’ first teacher was Leonard "Melody Mac" MacLaine, one of the nation’s premier silent movie accompanists, known around Philadelphia as "Mr. Theater Organ."
"My initial performance as a theater organist came as a result of a fairly dramatic event," he adds. "In 1967, Leonard was felled by a heart attack and I was sent to play a theater organ concert in his place at a national convention in Detroit. Until that time we had been studying only classical literature, because Leonard had predicted a concert career for me. He introduced me to the world of the theatrical Wurlitzers during a series of impromptu bedside sessions."
Mr. James began professional film accompaniment at Indiana University while he was a music student in the late ’60s. He also played the Wanamaker organ when he returned to the Philadelphia area on summer vacations. Over the last three decades, he’s pretty much played them all, including the monstrous organ in the ballroom of the old Convention Hall in Atlantic City.
"I had a goal to tour the world and play all the great theater organs and I’ve played quite a few," he says. "Even though I’m in Washington, I still come to New Jersey to play. When they renovated and re-opened the Broadway Theater in Pitman, I was brought in to play. I’ve played the organ at Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton. There’s also one in Asbury Park. They’re sprinkled around the state."
Mr. James now tours worldwide under the auspices of his own Silent Film Concerts production company, performing to silent films with solo organ, piano and chamber ensemble accompaniments, as well as presentations with major symphony orchestras.
Throughout his diverse career, Mr. James has appeared with film personalities Vincent Price, Ray Bolger, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Myrna Loy, Olivia DeHavilland, Ethel Smith, Ginger Rogers and Fay Wray. Throughout the ’80s, he traveled with silent film stars Lillian Gish and Charles "Buddy" Rogers, providing musical accompaniment on national tour revivals of their motion pictures.
The State Theatre known as Walter Reade’s State Theatre when it opened in 1921 was part of a bustling New Brunswick. The city had a population of about 40,000, with more than 60 industrial firms and dozens of churches. The venue would have certainly been considered a movie palace, fit for an art form Mr. James says was on a par with opera, symphony orchestra and ballet.
"Movie palaces were like concert halls, equivalent in ticket prices and in content," he says. "Film was popular art in conception but elevated to high art. In fact, the highest paid musicians were the silent movie players they were paid more than musicians in symphony and opera orchestras."
Although the instrument he’ll play at the State Theatre is a digital electronic replica of the venue’s original pipe organ, Mr. James is hopeful that the series of silent films will get audiences thinking about re-installing the real thing.
"This is part of our attempt to re-introduce the idea," Mr. James says. "Judging from the reception to the performance, it is conceivable that a (vintage) organ could be put back in again."
The 85th Anniversary Celebration at the State Theatre will feature the silent
film White Oak accompanied by organist Dennis James, 15 Livingston Ave.,
New Brunswick, Dec. 26, 2 p.m. (Doors open at 1 p.m., first come, first served.)
Bring a non-perishable food item for admission. For information, call (732) 246-7469.
Mr. James will return to the State Theatre to accompany the silent film The
Son of the Sheik, Feb. 11, 3 p.m. and Ben-Hur, March 25, 3 p.m. Tickets
costs $15. On the Web: www.statetheatrenj.org

