"As a professor, I tended to think of history as run by impersonal forces. But when you see it in practice, you see the difference personalities make."

- Henry Kissinger

 

Silent Film Series

The 2010 series brings a fantastic collection of early black and white silent films. Well-known organist Frank Rippl composes an original score for each film, which he performs live on The Museum’s 1926 Austin Pipe Organ. The History Museum’s Silent Film Series is presented in partnership with the Packerland Theatre Organ Society and Wisconsin Public Radio. Admission is $7 per person available in advance or at the door.

Monday, March 1 / 6:30 p.m.
Safety Last (1923)
Meet a Country Boy (Harold Lloyd) who moves to the Big City to seek his fortune. Hired as a department store clerk, the boy talks his manager into offering a reward to anyone who can bring in more shoppers. His scheme to have his pal, a “human fly,” enter and win the contest by climbing the front of the store building begins to unravel when The Law shows up with interest in The Pal, a wanted man. The Boy must make the dangerous climb himself! Each ledge of the building brings new challenges culminating in the famous ‘clock scene.’

Monday, June 7 / 6:30 p.m.
The General (1926)
As the Civil War begins, Johnnie Gray’s (Buster Keaton) enlistment into the Confederate Army is rejected. He is too valuable to the war effort as the Engineer of The General, a supply train. As the war progresses, the Union make plans to steal The General and use it to supply a surprise attack against the Rebels. It’s up to Gray and his sweetheart – a passenger when The General was stolen – to reclaim the train, re-cross enemy lines, and warn the Confederates before it is too late.

Monday, August 30 / 6:30 p.m.
Orphans of the Storm (1921)
As the French Revolution looms, Henriette and Louise (Lillian and Dorothy Gish) venture o Paris to seek a cure for Louise’s blindness. While fighting to remain together, and away from corrupt and evil aristocrats, Henriette falls in love with Chevalier de Vaudrey, whom she struggles to save from the fate being dealt to all nobles in this D.W. Griffith classic.

Monday, Oct. 25 / 6:30 p.m.
Phantom of the Opera (1925)
At the Opera of Paris, a mysterious phantom (Lon Cheney) threatens a famous diva forcing her to give up her star-status at the opera house, only to be replaced by the ingénue, Christine Daae (Mary Philbin). Will Christine fall victim to the phantom’s machinations, or will she take control of her own destiny in this classic horror film?