Wings!

Sweetie and I attended the 25th annual Catalina Island Museum Silent Film Benefit on Saturday. This is a showing of a silent film (duh) to benefit the Catalina Island Museum (double duh) in the beautiful art-deco movie palace that is the Avalon Theatre. This theater, an original part of the Casino, completed in 1929, has been preserved in every way - it's size (seating for 1154), it's decorative murals (Greek mythology inspired art deco), and it's original Page pipe organ. The theater still shows first-run movies on a weekly basis.

But on this afternoon, the fare was Wings, a 1927 feature-length film by William Wellman and the first movie to win the Oscar for Best Picture. This was also the movie shown at the first ever Silent Film Benefit. The film, starring Buddy Rodgers, Richard Arlen and Clara Bow, follows small-town boys Jack and David as they volunteer to be pilots in World War I. They scuffle over women, become comrades-in-arms, fight the Heinies, and experience triumph and tragedy. Unbelievable by today's standards, the film showed in New York twice a day for two years. The live-filmed scenes of aerial combat wowed audiences that had never had the experience of flight.

The print we watched was a restoration of the 35mm film done by Paramount. An original score was provided live on the pipe organ by the composer, Bob Salisbury. In addition, some patrons enhanced the experience by wearing period clothing. The effect was magical. I completely lost myself in the film, forgetting entirely that the music was live and even that the film was silent. I cheered on the heroes, rooted for the girl-next-door to win the guy, and got teary-eyed when the mother of one fallen airman received the small teddy bear he carried as a token of good luck. It's a great film, and it was a great afternoon.

If you ever get a chance to come out to Avalon, I would highly recommend a tour of the Casino so you can see for yourself the fabulous Avalon Theatre, and if you're there for the Silent Film Benefit, so much the better.