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Reviving the art of silent film, one note at a time
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Dennis James accompanies silent films around the Bay Area
and across the country.
By Thomas Gladysz
He’s been called “the world's greatest silent film organ player.” If you’ve been lucky enough to hear him play a local film festival, concert hall, or movie palace – chances are you experienced something you’ve never forgotten.
His name is Dennis James. And, he’s played a pivotal role in the revival of silent films – as presented with live music. It’s an important distinction, and not just to movie buffs. Silent films were meant to be shown with music.
Historically speaking, silent films were never really silent. In the Teens and Twenties, movies were almost always shown with live musical accompaniment. Theaters in larger cities and towns often employed their own orchestra, group of musicians, or organist to accompany the showing of motion pictures. Smaller neighborhood theaters, and theaters in small towns, usually had a pianist banging away at the keys. Whatever the case, music not only provided an overall atmosphere – it also gave the audience important emotional cues to the film on the screen. Music was an important part of “the silent cinema.”
And that’s where Dennis James comes in - he is helping restore the sound of music to a medium mistakenly thought of as silent. James' interest in accompanying silent films dates from 1969. As a teenager, he heard the legendary theatre organist Gaylord Carter provide musical accompaniment for the Douglas Fairbanks film, The Mark of Zorro (1920). From that moment on, James was musically hooked.
Starting out as a pianist at university screenings, James has gone on to play for silent films in venues both large and small all around the world. Some of the scores James performs are original to the film - others have been composed by the musician. Throughout the 1980s, he toured with silent film stars Lillian Gish and Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers, providing musical accompaniment on national tour revivals of their motion pictures.
Concurrently, James is house organist for the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, theater organist for the San Diego Symphony, and one of the silent film organists for the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, California. He has also performed at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco on a number of occasions. Resident in the Pacific Northwest, James accompanies films across the United States. He also regularly performs in the San Francisco Bay Area. The musician’s upcoming West Coast engagements include:
June 7, 2009: City Museum, Wenatchee, Washington
Silent film program: Charlie Chaplin in The Kid (1921)
June 8, 2009: Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington
Silent Movie Mondays series: Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in Flesh & the Devil (1926)
June 15, 2009: Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington
Silent Movie Mondays series: Lillian & Dorothy Gish and John Gilbert in Romola (1924)
June 22, 2009: Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington
Silent Movie Mondays series: Cecil B. DeMille's The Godless Girl (1929)
June 29, 2009: Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington
Silent Movie Mondays series: Janet Gaynor in Seventh Heaven (1927)
July 5, 2009: Lynwood Theatre, Bainbridge Island, Washington
William Boyd in The Yankee Clipper (1927)
July 10,11,12, 2009: Castro Theatre, San Francisco, California
San Francisco Silent Film Festival: title(s) tba
August 22, 2009: Plaza, Beverly Hills, California
City-presented outdoor silent film program: title tba
August 24, 2009: Balboa Park, San Diego, California
21st annual outdoor silent film program at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion: title tba
October 31, 2009: Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, California
Annual Halloween silent film program: F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922)
A Dennis James performance should not to be missed. Stephen Salmons, former Artistic Director of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, has called on James’ talents a number of times. And, he has high praise for the musician.
“Silent films are a rare and precious art form of tremendous historical importance, and the art of live musical accompaniment to a silent film is a discipline of equally important historic value. Dennis James is both a musician of tremendous artistic scope and range, and a scholar who strives to preserve and restore this unique 20th century musical practice. He is without doubt the greatest practitioner of the art of solo silent film accompaniment. To witness a contemporary audience experience the beauty and power of silent film through the overwhelming symphonic dynamism that Dennis James unleashes with unerring skill on the theatre organ is an absolute revelation."
For more info: More on Dennis James can be found on this webpage.
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