Echoes of the Picture Palace

February 13, 2025

Sunday, February 9, saw a return to the very olden days in the history of the Malachi Gilmore Hall when one of its functions was as a movie theatre. The Lumière brothers invented film projection in the 1880s, Charlie Chaplin made his first films in 1914, the hall was built in 1937 and the recent invention was very quickly adopted as a form of entertainment for the people of Oberon.

The show consisted of some silent films from back in the day, with musical accompaniment by the Golden Age Quartet consisting of Nick Russoniello on saxophones, Julia Russoniello on violin, Zi-Hao Li on piano and Paul Stender on cello.

The afternoon started with a performance of Valse Vanité (1923) by Rudy Wiedoeft, arranged by Nick Russoniello.

The first film shown was made by the Lumière brothers and filmed in Redfern. The film was only recently discovered so the many documentaries about early film making don't include it. It was accompanied by improvisation on the piano by Zi-Hao Lin.

The first full-length film shown was one of Charlie Chaplin's first films, Laffing Gas made in 1914, the year he started as a professional film actor (and a year before he officially became The Tramp). The amount of violence in this film would probably prevent anything like this being made today, but the audience seemed to be laughing rather than being horrified.

(The music heard in this was not what was played on the day.)

This was followed by a performance of Motion Picture Moods (1924) by Ernö Rapée, played to a selection of stills from old films illustrating the categories of Gruesome, Grotesque, Western, Love and Firefighting.

The final piece before the interval was Sax-O-Phun (1925), again by Rudy Wiedoeft and arranged by Nick Russoniello.

After a short interval for the audience to replenish their refreshments from the bar, they were treated to Valse Rudy, an original composition by Nick Russoniello. (The title is an obvious reference to master saxophonist Rudy Wiedoeft.)

The final film was Chaplin's 1917 The Immigrant with score by Nick Russoniello.

(The music heard in this was not what was played on the day.)

It was a fascinating afternoon. and Lucy and Johnnie East must again be thanked and congratulated for bring this entertainment back to Oberon.

The music comes (with the permission of Nick Russoniello) from the CD The Golden Age Project, which is available from wherever you buy your records or from Nick Russoniello's web site.

The movies were downloaded from YouTube, with the best quality used when several versions were available. YouTube no longer allows embedding (because the want you to see advertisements they get paid for, not someone else) and in any case accounts there can disappear at any time for no apparent reason

The show was supported by a grant from Live Music Australia to help with "Equipment, professional development, artist fees, marketing and production costs to support original Australian live music at Malachi Gilmore Hall, Oberon".

Keep watching What's Now for future events at the Malachi Gilmore Hall.

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