w August 24 2017 4. Diverse lineup UH-Hilo releases season schedule of Performing Arts Center 6. Puzzles Entertain your brain 7. Music with a message Concert to raise awareness of rat lungworm disease 8. Let’s Go Out Ono grinds CREDITS: Editor David Bock Writers Jeff Hansel Photography Hollyn Johnson Design Bonnie L. Rogers 2 Thursday, August 24, 2017 Popular silent movie showings return to Palace Theater Have you been to a Silent Movie at the Palace Theater? If you haven’t, you are invited to step back in time to the 1920s when you could have watched the legendary classic “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” starring Lon Chaney. Make plans now to attend the 7 p.m. Sept. 22 showing. Tickets are $10 for presale and $12 at the door. The Palace’s screening of this classic will feature Tommy Stark playing an original score on the mighty pipe organ just like it would have been “back then.” These increasingly popular Silent Movie Nights support the Palace Theater and the Hilo Theatre Organ Society that maintains the impressive organ. This silent screen version of the often filmed novel by Victor Hugo remains a powerfully entertaining movie nearly 90 years after its release. Filmed in 1923, the movie is older than the Palace Theater itself. Lon Chaney gives a brilliant performance as the grotesque bell ringer Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame. He is deaf and half blind; his only joy in life is ringing the cathedral bells. Chaney wore a fake “dead” eye, wig, putty nose, plaster hump and braces on his legs. Chaney hobbles around, constantly licking his lips and grimacing, making his version of Quasimodo so memorable. This incredibly dedicated actor never relied on those outward trappings to carry the part and manages to convey real emotion in several scenes. Set in 15th century Paris, 10 years before Christopher Columbus arrived in America, “Hunchback” personifies the word Gothic. It begins on the annual Festival of Fools, the one day when the oppressed subjects of King Louis XI’s tyranny get to let loose and have some fun. Quasimodo gets crowned King of the Fools during the revelry. Email your Island Beat announcements to entertainment@hawaiitribune-herald.com Stark, a member of the Hilo Theater Organ Society, enjoys the process of selecting a silent film, then preparing his musical background to accompany the on-screen activity. He reports that only at the actual performance does he finally put the music and what he watches together so it is “fresh and truly live.” “The Hilo Theater Organ Society has an exciting announcement to make. The Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo, Calif., has donated a very rare set of pipes for our pipe organ,” Stark said. “The set of ‘serpent post horn’ pipes will bring us a ‘snarly bright trumpet sound’ built and voiced by famed pipe organ builder Kenny Kukutt of Los Angeles. “We’ve wanted this extra sound for years but the $15,000 cost has been prohibitive,” he adds. “We may not have it in time for this show but stay tuned. The Palace will let you know when to listen for the new sound.” If you would like to help maintain or repair the pipe organ directly by making a restricted donation to the organ, you can donate to the Palace Theater noting “organ fund” on your donation. All donations are tax deductible under IRS guidelines. The Palace Theater and the Hilo Theatre Organ Society are nonprofits. The presentation of Silent Movie Nights are fundraisers to benefit the theater and to maintain a fund to keep the mighty pipe organ entertaining the Hilo community. “We hope to see the theater packed with silent movie, Lon Chaney and pipe organ fans,” said Morgen Bahurinsky, executive director of the Palace Theater. “We are so lucky to have this amazing piece of musical equipment in our historic theater. Please come and enjoy. It is an experience you will never forget.” Tickets can be purchased in advance from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday through Friday at the box office or by phone with a credit card at 934- 7010.
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