Fifty Before '50: Niles/Essanay, Part II: The Edison Theater

 by JB

What a wholesome little conclave.

Last week I wrote lovingly of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, California. It is a special place that I enjoyed visiting. The museum also encompasses an original Nickelodeon theater that showed silent movies from 1916 to 1924 when it was “replaced” by a bigger theater next door, The Edison. The Edison showed movies from 1924 until 1956, when an unfortunate fire burned it to the ground. Years later, the museum people noticed the original Nickelodeon was still standing, purchased it, renamed it “The Edison” and set about restoring it to its 1916 glory. Their efforts are ongoing, and you can contribute to this worthy cause.

Every Saturday night, the museum staff show silent movies on film with live piano accompaniment. It’s the berries! I attended two Saturdays ago. Here are the films we screened, with my comments. Pop yourself some corn, click on the links below (I carefully scoured the interwebs for the VERY BEST versions of these little gems), throw your laptop image and sound onto the biggest screen you can find, and you can recreate this wonderful night at the movies. Hire a big, tall Victorian woman to sit in front of you, wearing an impossible, huge, turn-of-the-century, Sunday-go-to-meeting-style hat... and then politely ask her, “LADY, PLEASE REMOVE YOUR HAT!”

The Immigrant (1917)

The evening started with one of the twelve films that Charlie Chaplin made after he left Essanay for the Mutual Film Corporation in 1916. Mutual offered him more money. The total contract for $670,000—that was $10,000 per week with a signing bonus of $150,000. That’s the equivalent of $20 million in today’s money. Chaplin was expected to produce 12 two-reel comedy films over a 12-month period. It wound up taking 18 months.

The Immigrant is a very funny film with a dash of social commentary. I love when the immigrants aboard ship see the Statue of Liberty for the first time, the titles tell us “The Land of the Free,” and the immigrants are quickly herded behind a thick rope like cattle to be processed. Subtle!

The Baloonatic (1923)

This celluloid hodgepodge was made when Buster Keaton was about to “graduate” to feature films. It represents Keaton’s attempt to use all the gags he had written down in his little notebook before he moved on to the stricter narrative requirements of longer movies. This probably explains the randomness of much of the film, and that randomness is one of the reasons I love it; it moves from carnival to sky to woods to lake and back to sky. The plot, such as it is, is just a laundry line upon which Keaton hangs his inventive gags. Considering the title, Keaton sure spends a lot of time in a BOAT.

What Price Goofy? (1925)

Charlie Chase is largely forgotten today, and that is a shame because his films were very funny. (Check out Mighty Like a Moose or Movie Night if you ever have some spare time.) This film was a particular highlight at The Edison screening. Besides being very funny, the audience was experiencing the joy of discovery. I experienced that as well, as this was the only film screened that night that I had never seen. Is that a LEG sticking out of that bundle?

That’s My Wife (1929)

Apparently, on nights that feature comedy shorts, it is a tradition at the Edison to end with a Laurel and Hardy film. This one did not disappoint. One of only a few films by the boys that sees Stan Laurel donning drag, I think the audience at The Edison was surprised by how racy parts of this film were. A necklace falls down the back of Stan’s dress, and the boys keep trying to find out-of-the-way-places in a nightclub where Ollie can retrieve it. I love the line when Ollie is caught groping Stan in a phone box, and Ollie calmly explains to a shocked onlooker, “Believe it or not, we were calling Philadelphia.”

Music was provided by Bruce Loeb on the piano and he did a terrific job, underscoring the films and the jokes. Basically, he was engaged to play a 90-minute solo recital. Bravo, Bruce.

I wish more theaters, aside from reparatory theaters, art houses, and museums, would feature silent films. The sixty or so patrons who visited this 100-seat gem last Saturday were having a great time! It felt good to laugh with strangers. Perhaps one reason that silent comedies remain so popular is that, aside from clothing and hairstyles, human behavior remains remarkably consistent.

For any of my readers who happen to live in the Fremont area (or just don’t mind the drive), The Edison turns over its programming next weekend to silent horror movies, all featuring live music accompaniment and horror-themed comedy shorts. This Saturday, October 3, The Edison features an all-shorts program, including The Haunted House with Buster Keaton and Haunted Spooks with Harold Lloyd; October 10 features the 1922 Nosferatu; October 17 features the 1920 Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; October 24 features 1928’s The Last Warning; and Halloween features a screening of 1924’s Dante’s Inferno.

Another series that runs through October is Spooky Fridays. The Edison will screen Little Shop of Horrors (1960) on October 2, The Milpitas Monster (1976) on October 9, Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) on October 16, House on Haunted Hill (1959) on October 23, and the original Night of the Living Dead on All Hallow’s Eve Eve.

Oops. Gotta go. My wife and I are planning to call Philadelphia!