The Embassy Celebrates 100 Years of Great Silent Films Starting Sunday
Fort Wayne, Ind. (June 8, 2022) – Join the Embassy Theatre this Sunday, June 12 as it begins a summer series that celebrates the 100th anniversary of great silent films including a special screening of The Iron Horse. Attendees will be transported back to the earliest days of Hollywood when silent films filled the screen as the melodious tunes of the pipe organ filled the theater.
The series runs every other Sunday in June and July as follows:
Sunday, June 12, 3 p.m. – Blood and Sand featuring Rudolph Valentino; organ accompaniment by Dennis James
Sunday, June 26, 3 p.m. – Grandma’s Boy featuring Harold Lloyd; organ accompaniment by Clark Wilson
Sunday, July 10, 3 p.m. – Oliver Twist featuring Lon Chaney; organ accompaniment by Clark Wilson
Sunday, July 24, 3 p.m. – The Iron Horse featuring George O’Brien; organ accompaniment by Dennis James
The Grande Page, installed in 1928, is one of only three organs of its kind. Its joyful and unique tones bring silent film to life by emulating multiple instruments and other recognizable sounds like sirens, train whistles and chirping birds.
The first film in this series is Blood & Sand featuring one of America’s favorite actors of the 1920s, Rudolph Valentino. Blood and Sand is based on the novel Sangre y arena by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez (1908). This classic film is the story of Juan Gallardo (Rudolph Valentino) whose fame as a toreador lands him in a quandary when he falls for two women, one of them being his wife.
This film will be accompanied on the Grande Page pipe organ by organist Dennis James.
For over fifty years Dennis James has played a pivotal role in the international revival of silent films screened with historically authentic, fully researched, and stylistically preserved live music performances. He developed his professional preservation approach at Indiana University as a music and film student in the late 1960s. James tours worldwide under the auspices of the Silent Film Concerts production company performing to films with meticulously prepared solo organ, piano, and chamber ensemble accompaniments in addition to appearances with major symphony orchestras throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. James is renowned for providing the most comprehensive selection of silent films accompanied with period-authentic live musical scoring presentations available today.
In a career filled with collaborations, Dennis James toured throughout the 1980s with silent film stars Lillian Gish, Myrna Loy, Fay Wray and Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers providing musical accompaniment on national tour revivals of their motion pictures. A featured solo performer on the international film festival circuit, James now appears regularly at annual Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., New York and Philadelphia events as well as the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado and the Pordenone and Rome Festival (Cinema Muto) in Italy.
The Embassy bar will be featuring the famous cocktail invented in honor of Rudolph Valentino’s 1922 film. The drink is also called “Blood & Sand.”
TICKETS are FREE for ages 12 and under, 65+ and members of the Embassy. All other tickets are $10 (plus applicable fees) and can be purchased at ticketmaster.com. To avoid convenience fees or to obtain free tickets, please visit the STAR Bank box office at the Embassy (260.424.5665) at 125 W. Jefferson Blvd., Fort Wayne. The box office is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and for two hours prior to each show.
Ticketing link for Blood & Sand: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/05005C42CE1B6F73
Ticketing link for Grandma’s Boy: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/05005C42CE1F6F77
Ticketing link for Oliver Twist: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/05005C42CE226F79
Ticketing link for The Iron Horse: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/05005C42CE266F80
The Embassy Theatre Foundation thanks Thomas and Penelope Mathiesen for sponsoring this program. Activities at the Embassy are made possible in part by Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne and the Indiana Arts Commission.
