March 25, 2007: Silent Movie

When Karen and I went to North Dakota, we happened on a "double feature" at the old theater in downtown Fargo. The first half of the evening was a wonderful live stage production that was a re-enactment of a World War II Radio Show with big band music and Abbot & Costello and singers and dancers and soloists. It was so well done. The second half was a silent movie with live musical accompaniment on the original movie theater organ. Wow! What a treat! I'd never seen, or in this case, heard, anything like that before.

Well, UMF had its own version and we went. I received the notice via email sent to all faculty and staff:

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Sunday 3/25 7pm Lincoln Auditorium

The Kid Brother (silent with LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT by DOUG PROTSIK;
Harold Lloyd, 83 minutes). $5 adults; $3 children, UMF students free.


Review by Hal Erickson at
http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=97655:
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I read the review and the movie sounded like a lot of fun (which it was). But the idea of live piano accompaniment was what really enticed me. I convinced MRM to go and even though we were exhausted from our full afternoon of Maine Maple Syrup Sunday adventures (more about that later), we went.

Doug Protsik is great! He gave background information on the movie itself and the era and the genre. He was quite animated and fun to listen to. Then he explained that when he composed the music to go with the film, he pulled from music from the era, he composed some of his own melodies, and he had a little fun by putting other music in there that if you knew the music and/or the lyrics, you would get the little joke.

I was worried I would fall asleep in a dark theater, but I was literally on the edge of my seat, multi-tasking between watching the movie, listening to the music, thinking about what the lyrics were (if there were any), watching for certain things in the movie that he had told us about, and laughing so hard at the fun and cleverness of the movie.

After the move, Creston stopped by the house and he, MRM, and I debriefed. I definitely won the prize (not that there was a contest) for observing the most things that Doug had told us about up front, but I also noticed (or knew) more of the hidden songs. A lot of them were from Dede's era (my grandmother) and because I learned so much from her, I think I have an older soul than most people my age. Some of the songs included: the theme song from Bonanza (okay, that's not from Dede's era), Pop Goes the Weasel, Late Last Night (When We Were All In Bed), Mary Had a Little Lamb (the others knew that song but didn't hear it in the score), Roll Out the Barrel (Dede and Grandaddy's favorite song to polka), The Old Gray Mare, What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor, Let Me Call You Sweetheart, and the sea shanty, Blow the Man Down.

But just knowing what the songs were is nothing. They were so cleverly intertwined with the other music (which sooo sounded like silent movie music, including "mysterioso") and they really went with that tiny piece of the plot at the time. So sorry. You had to have been there. Next time I get an announcement that Doug Protsik is doing something, I'm going!