MANSFIELD — I’m a confirmed ghost story and horror film addict. I love it all: the Gothic tales of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft; vampires, werewolves and shuffling zombies; torrents of spurting blood, evil clowns and chainsaw-wielding psychos.
In this respect October is a bonanza month, with horror lurking around every corner. This coming Friday Mansfield’s Renaissance Theatre will show the classic silent movie chiller “Phantom of the Opera” (1925) on the big screen.
Lon Chaney, Sr. plays the Phantom, and his make-up (which he devised and applied himself) is still impressive. The film was a sensation on its initial release, with tales of audience members screaming and fainting during the unmasking scene.
To make this weekend’s showing even more exciting, it will be accompanied live on the vintage Wurlitzer organ by Mr. Jay Spencer, resident organist at Canton’s Palace Theatre.
“I’ve been playing the organ at the Palace for 22 years now,” Jay told me when I spoke with him last week. “In the beginning it was just pre-show music before the feature, but I pushed to bring silent movies back too.”
Jay explained to me that organs like the Wurlitzer here at the Renaissance and the Kilgen organ at the Palace were specifically designed to accompany silent pictures, mimicking the sounds of the small orchestras that sometimes played along with early films.
“Brass, strings, drums, sounds effects … it’s all in there,” said Jay, “but at a much cheaper cost.”
So how difficult is it to maintain these old organs?
“Not that hard,” said Jay. “I mean, I don’t do it myself. But the guys who do it, love it. And these organs are still being made, so parts are available.”
Of course, back in the silent era, not all venues could afford the organs, and the accompaniment was often a simple piano. In fact, Jay told me, his grandmother used to accompany silent films on the piano in the 1920s.
“So yes, I was carrying on a tradition,” said Jay, “and that was part of what made me want to do this.”
Interestingly, Jay mentioned as a side note that early silent pictures in Spain were sometimes accompanied by guitar. At first this struck me as odd, but the more I think about it the more appealing it sounds. Someone should set up a showing like that here in town.
I asked Jay if he composed his own musical score to accompany the feature or followed an existing one.
“I use my own,” Jay told me, explaining that most silent films never had an “official” score to begin with.
“Back then, the theater organist or pianist would usually improvise as he went along. There just wasn’t time to prepare anything.”
I asked Jay how he went about coming up with his own music.
“Well, I just sit and watch the movie first, with the volume on mute. I don’t want to hear the music on the DVD. Then I play along watching the movie, improvising as I go, until I get what I need.
“I’ll throw in songs that people know, period songs,” he told me, “although that’s something that seems to work better with comedies for some reason. Like the ‘Charleston’ for a scene at a dance. Or, you know, when you have characters arrive home you play a bit of ‘No Place Like Home …’
“But for something like Phantom, it’s really classical pieces, with Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor being the one everyone knows.”
You might not know the name but everyone knows it when they hear it. Those doom-laden opening notes have been used since the early days of sound film (and before) to signify all things sinister and evil.
What else do you use, I asked?
“Well, in the scenes where they’re performing on stage, it’s meant to be Faust [the opera] so I use a bit of the music from that. And there’s some Webber in there, too.”
That would be Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer of the hit 1980s musical version of Phantom.
“People expect the Webber score. I don’t use much,” Jay continued, “but enough so those that know it will recognize it.
“Now, the organists in the early days, if you could talk to those guys … they would’ve frowned on that sort of thing, the inclusion of tunes that were out of place with the period. But people enjoy it, it’s fun.
“Also, I use a little snippet of the Lee Erwin score in the masquerade scene.”
Jay explained that Lee Erwin, along with Gaylord Carter, were two well-known silent film accompanists that had scored early performances of Phantom.
“I actually saw Gaylord perform in the 1990s,” Jay told me, “accompanying (the 1927 silent film) ‘Wings.’ He was in his 80s by then, and still hitting every note.”
I suggested to Jay that memories such as these were an important connection to the past, as the original silent era has now all but passed out of living memory.
“That’s right,” said Jay, “all the originals are gone now. One of the last was Rosa Rio. She was incredible. She lived to be 107, and was still playing at 105!”
Here’s an extra little snippet for you. At his day job, Jay works in the Canton City Police Forensics Lab.
“You must be the only guy in the world,” I told him, “who works police forensics during the day and plays a movie theater organ at night.”
Jay did not know for sure, but he suspected that this was indeed the case.
It’s a treat to see these old films as they were intended to be shown – with live music – and with ‘Phantom of the Opera’ it’s a particularly satisfying combination. This Friday, as the Phantom roams the dark corners of the Paris Opera House and pounds his organ in his subterranean lair, the powerful Mighty Wurlitzer will play along with him, shaking the walls of the Ren to make the whole experience come alive.
Phantom of the Opera plays Friday, Oct. 21, 7 p.m. at the Renaissance Theatre, 138 Park Avenue West, Mansfield.
Tickets dirt cheap at $5 each, payable at the door.
