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Have you seen the news of our upcoming Silent Movie Mondays series and wondered what it's all about? It's a chance to experience silent films from the 1920s as they were meant to be seen and heard.

Silent Movie Mondays

As part of the Balboa Theatre’s centennial celebration, San Diego Theatres will screen 5 films made between 1920 and 1929, with renowned organists Ken Double and Russ Peck playing the historic Wonder Morton theatre organ, making for an immersive experience that marries classic silent movie with live musical accompaniment. The Balboa Theatre, with its rich legacy since opening in 1924 as a venue for vaudeville, music, and silent films, provides the perfect setting.

A Glimpse Into History

Silent films, despite their lack of dialogue, were anything but silent. They relied on visual storytelling, expressive acting, and musical accompaniment to convey emotion and move the narrative forward. The ability to synchronize sound with film successfully did not exist at the time, and even if a movie's sound was perfect, many theatres did not have the ability to play synchronized sound.

The era of silent cinema, from the late 1890s to the late 1920s, laid the foundation for modern filmmaking and gave rise to legendary figures like Charlie Chaplin, Clara Bow, Buster Keaton, and more. Researcher and author David Pierce says it best: “The silent cinema was not a primitive style of filmmaking, waiting for better technology to appear, but an alternate form of storytelling, with artistic triumphs equivalent to or greater than those of the sound films that followed."

The development of the silent film industry led to the rapid growth of Southern California, especially Los Angeles. New York City and Chicago had served as incubators of the new technology, but as films grew in popularity, studios realized they needed to film year-round to keep up with demand. Southern California also boasted one advantage over other warm cities: a variety of scenery including mountains, desert, and coast, within a relatively small radius. Within a few decades, dozens of studios had set up around the town of Hollywood and began creating works that would revolutionize entertainment (Encyclopedia Brittanica).

Unfortunately, 75% of the films made in the silent era have been lost forever, according to a study from the Library of Congress (The Atlantic). An even smaller percentage of the surviving films are fully intact in their original 35mm copies (David Pierce). Silent Movie Mondays is not just a night of entertainment, is it a look into a lost medium, one that time has not been kind to.

The Wonder Morton Theatre Organ: An Orchestra in One Instrument

When you hear the words "pipe organ," a formal and austere sound from religious services or horror movies may come to mind. A theatre organ couldn't be further from that! It's a whimsical instrument that can mimic the tones of strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion, and even includes actual instruments like drums, tambourines, xylophones, and chimes. Designed to replace an entire orchestra, the theatre organ was capable of producing a wide range of sounds and effects, making it an ideal companion for silent films.

Our Wonder Morton theatre organ is a notable example of this instrument, with its 2,000 pipes ranging from the size of a pencil to 16 feet fall. Together with real instruments, like snare drums and a train whistle, their sound envelopes guests in sound. The Balboa Theatre's current organ originally lived at Loew's Valencia movie theater in Queens, NY, the first of the chain's five lavishly appointed "Wonder Theatres." It later fell into private hands before the Balboa Theatre Foundation raised $600,000 to buy and refurbish it for the theatre's reopening, 15 years ago.

It's a beautiful blend of engineering and artistry, combining to fill Balboa Theatre with music. There's truly nothing like it!

The Films We're Featuring

We have carefully curated a selection of silent films to showcase some of the best the era has to offer:

• The Phantom of the Opera (1925) - October 28, 2024

  • The perfect event for spooky season, The Phantom of the Opera stars Lon Chaney as the titular character, a talented but deformed virtuoso who haunts the halls of the Paris Opera House as he attempts to make his protégé and love interest, Christine, into a star.

• Cops (1922) and Big Business (1929) - December 9, 2024

  • In Cops (1922), a young man played by megastar Buster Keaton repeatedly falls foul of the city's police department, spending the film wooing his beloved while on the run. Big Business (1929) is a Christmas film starring the famous comedy duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who play Christmas tree salesmen locked in a comedic back-and-forth with a local homeowner.

• The Gold Rush (1925) - February 24, 2025

  • Set during the Alaskan Gold Rush of the late 1800s, Charlei Chaplin plays a prospector who gets caught in a blizzard and stumbles upon a small cabin occupied by two other men. What follows is a tale of gold-tinged greed, temporary memory loss, love at first sight, and inconvenient mix-ups that all get resolved by the film's end.

• The Mark of Zorro (1920) - April 14, 2025

  • Renowned actor Douglas Fairbanks plays Don Diego Vega, a seemingly foolish and frivolous son of a wealthy landowner in colonial Spanish California. What his peers don't know is - he is the masked hero Señor Zorro, who defends his community from the corrupt and cruel Governor Alvarado.

• Flesh and the Devil (1926) - June 9, 2025

  • Flesh and the Devil has every element that defines the Romance genre: drama, duels, exile, and a love triangle that tests a lifelong friendship! The beautiful Greta Garbo stars alongside Lars Hanson and John Gilbert, the latter of which she would begin an offscreen romance with. In the film, two dashing young soldiers fall in love with a countess, leading to a deep romantic tension that pilots the film.

What to Expect

Silent Movie Mondays will not be your usual moviegoing experience! Imagine stepping into the beautifully preserved 100-year-old Balboa Theatre. The vintage chandeliers cast a warm glow, illuminating the intricate woodwork and elegant fixtures that transport you back to the 1920s. Grab a snack or a glass of wine at the bar, choose your seat, and enjoy pre-film entertainment, which varies at each event but promises to be a memorable live performance.

The lights dim, and the Wonder Morton theatre organ comes to life. You hear—and feel—the room fill with a multitude of sounds that transport you straight into the film. This isn’t just any musical accompaniment; it’s a live performance by a talented organist whose skill and artistry bring the onscreen action to life and add a layer of authenticity that's hard to replicate with modern soundtracks.

Watching these classics on the big screen, surrounded by fellow cinema lovers, is an experience like no other. As the final note fades, you'll leave with a new appreciation for silent cinema—and a smile characteristic of the end of a fun night out.

A 100-year-old theatre is the perfect place to experience these films as they were meant to be seen, and we hope you join us. Tickets are available at https://sandiegotheatres.org/silent-movie-mondays