Before the era of sound in motion pictures, the theater organist set the mood for silent movies.
“I try to have the organ do the talking,” said Ron Carter, a Marietta resident and organist who has accompanied silent films at Sacred Heart Cultural Center for 21 years. He’ll be back on Sept. 12 to play for Buster Keaton’s “Our Hospitality,” a 1923 film that he noted has “few dialogue cards, but the better silent films don’t need them.”
The film will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday. For ticket information, call (706) 826-4700 or go here.
Music has played an important role in Carter’s life. Growing up, he first took accordion in the era of band leader Lawrence Welk’s popularity, but later he moved to piano and organ. Hearing the mesmerizing music of the Fox Theatre’s organ led him to that instrument.
He’s spent more than 50 years playing organ part time for Atlanta area churches and his currently part of a team that plays for the Marietta First Baptist Church.
An organ convention in Virginia around 1987 that he attended with his family (which included his mother, grandmother, wife and son) made a tremendous impact. There, he had his first opportunity to hear an organ accompanying a silent film.
“After the first 10 minutes, I was so involved. The organist was so fantastic. I thought ‘I’ve got to learn how to do this.’ That bug bit me,” he said.
Live music adds another layer to the film, he said.
Despite his love and proficiency for the instrument, it wasn’t his full-time career. He’s had more time to devote to it since retiring as a commander after 38 years from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Now, he travels to about 12-15 cities a year playing along with films. He has about six performances coming up over the next few weeks with spooky films such as “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” on his calendar.
“Silent movie and theater organ accompaniment and orchestra accompaniment has made a big comeback in the last 10 years or so because of digital restoration,” he said. “They’ve found films and taken the film with the blemishes in them and cleaned all that up. They’ve produced it in high definition.”
Some of the films have published musical scores that are available through the Library of Congress, and there is a body of published pieces that are appropriate for use with other films that are missing their scores. Those are catalogued according to the musical themes such as romance, fight scenes and others.
“For ‘Our Hospitality,’ there was no score that was saved,” he said.
He relies on music that might be appropriate for the time frame. Also, he has to incorporate a few special sounds such as a trumpet at just the right time. “Our Hospitality” is set in the pre-Civil War South and features a Hatfield-McCoy type of relationship.
Keaton’s love interest was played by Natalie Talmadge, his real-life wife. His son and father also appeared in the film.
“It’s a seriously great comedy. It’s got spine-tingling, edge-of-your-seat moments, and you wonder ‘how did they do that with no computers,’” Carter said.
Buster Keaton liked to do his own stunts and according to the International Buster Keaton Society website, he almost drowned when filming the climatic scene saving his love interest from a waterfall.
Not only will Carter play for Thursday’s showing, but he will do an outreach presentation for school children while he’s in Augusta.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years and is a Georgia Press Association award winner. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
