The Silent Movie Theatre refuses to, well, go silently into that good night.
The movie house at 611 N. Fairfax Ave. recently came back to life, reopening with an invitation-only screening of Charlie Chaplin’s classic “Modern Times.”
This is the third incarnation of the only theater in the country dedicated to our silent movie heritage. The original operation was run by husband-and-wife team John and Dorothy Hampton from 1942 through 1979.
In 1991, following John’s death from cancer, thought to be caused by the chemicals he used to preserve his vast collection of classic films, the theater was reopened by family friend Laurence Austin. Austin was murdered at the theater on Jan. 17, 1997, by a man hired by his longtime companion, James Van Sickle. The venue was immediately shuttered, and the 1,500-film collection it thrived on was auctioned off in May of this year.
That sale seemed to seal the institution’s fate for good. And that’s probably what would have happened, except for the enthusiasm of Charlie Lustman.
A 34-year-old L.A. native who has spent most of his adult life composing music in such far-flung locales as Costa Rica and Copenhagen, he was on a visit back home — and on his way to get a falafel, actually — when he noticed the dark theater’s weathered facade (which has since been replaced by a very snazzy, neon-and-bulb art-deco marquee).
“I was heading down Fairfax and I saw this For Sale sign outside,” Lustman recalls. “I thought, `Silent Movie — that’s kind of interesting.’ I walked through the doorway and saw all of the pictures that were still on the walls, and immediately I was taken. This was like a shrine for silent film. Now, I don’t know silent film, but of course I know the stars. Then it hit me that this art form was this century’s art form, and these people on the walls were its pioneers.
“I just thought this would be so cool, to get involved in something that was part of this early culture, and of the city of L.A. So I called a few people who I knew had money and asked them how they felt about investing in a silent movie theater. They’d go, `You’ve got to be kidding me. How are you going to get people to go see old silent movies?’
“I convinced them that this had a lot of versatility — don’t ask me how, but I did — and then started the renovation process to bring it back to life.”
Much has been done to make the 222-seat theater a haven for film lovers. A new screen and two lovingly restored, 500-watt Super Simplex xenon projectors have been installed, as has a 20-by-6-foot stage for live performances that can be removed to accommodate an eight-piece music ensemble. There’s now an upstairs cappucino bar and a back patio, where fans will be able to meet and discuss the evening’s show, starting at 6 p.m. and going until midnight.
But where will those 8 p.m. shows come from? When Butterfield’s auctioned off the Hampton collection in May, Lustman was able to buy the Douglas Fairbanks action features, but little else. Fortunately, major studios and organizations such as Ted Turner’s massive film library have been restoring prints for video and broadcast in recent years; between those sources and supportive private collectors, Lustman expects to be able to program an ambitious series of retrospectives.
Initially, he’s sticking with the tried and true: Chaplin features for the next couple of weekends, Fairbanks and Mary Pickford on weekdays, a week of Buster Keaton comedies in December, “King of Kings” and “The Bishop’s Wife” for Christmas.
Tuesdays will be regularly devoted to sound films released before 1950: “The Jazz Singer,” Laurel & Hardy’s “Flying Deuces,” the Marx Brothers’ “Duck Soup” and John Ford’s World War II classic “They Were Expendable” are the November entries.
Some may consider the presence of recorded dialogue in the silent movie shrine a tacit admission that the audience indeed may not be that big for silent movies these days. Then again, that’s what investors told the Hamptons in 1942, and they made a go of it for more than 35 years.
And Lustman is confident the same thing that happened to him can happen to people his age and younger.
“We’re gonna get the audience that’s left to come back and we’re going to create an entirely new audience,” he says. “I’m young compared to most silent film fans. I never knew about this and the more I learn about it, the more I love it.”
