1920s Movie Theatre Organist Rosa Rio
This is Rosa Rio, doesn't she look amazing! She is playing 'The Mighty Wurlitzer' with built-in sound effects such as galloping horses and rolling thunder, bass drums and cymbals. She would sit at this outrageous keyboard and improvise sound tracks to the very latest silent movies.
Silent movies were of course never silent. They were designed to be accompanied by live music, and it was even used on the film set so the actors could get a feel for the mood of the scene. Some say that the music was necessary to cover up the rattling sound of the projector, but I prefer to think that it was worth a bit more than that, and in the big movie theatres the music for the feature films was played by an orchestra.
Silent movies were of course never silent. They were designed to be accompanied by live music, and it was even used on the film set so the actors could get a feel for the mood of the scene. Some say that the music was necessary to cover up the rattling sound of the projector, but I prefer to think that it was worth a bit more than that, and in the big movie theatres the music for the feature films was played by an orchestra.
An amazing number of great silent movies are still open to musical interpretation which, as long as the music is played live, is a great way to present these films over and over again to new and contemporary audiences.
