Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1918)

2074 Motion Picture News Oixe SKeets L eft-e s"t Hrts Nil*. SIC 1 q uipmen-t Motion Picture Theatre Organs and Their Use THERE has appeared in our various magazines for the past five years, article after article on Music and the Picture, but most of them have been devoted to musical presentation, and what different leaders consider right and wrong in motion picture playing. However, my article is going to be on the Organ as it is being used, in connection with pictures. As this article is for the benefit of the exhibitor and organist, I hope that what I might say, will help to put on a higher plane, organ music in connection with motion pictures. The other day the writer visited five theatres where the organ is being used (some of these houses were also using orchestras), and I never really knew till I made this visit, how much asleep some people are. That goes for both the exhibitor and the organist. While I only spent about an hour in each house, it was enough to know that things were not as they should be. . To begin with, I must admit that ninety per cent, of our theatre organists are. what we call one legged. For the benefit of the exhibitor, a one-legged organist is#one that whangs away on low C and G with his or her left leg, while the right one is forever on the crescendo pedal, and whose pedal keys are as good as new from the middle register up. You exhibitors who have organs in your theatres, just go and look at the pedal keyboard, and I'll venture to say that while there are, as a rule, thirty or more keys — you will find about sixteen or seventeen of them as new and unscratched as they were the day they left the factory. Yet that doesn't mean you have a poor organist, for I've heard many onelegged organists who can play all around a legitimate two-limbed enthusiast, but it does mean that your organist is not bringing out all there is in the organ, and from a business standpoint you are entitled to all there is there. In one of the theatres visited, I sat directly back of the player, and for one-half hour she didn't touch a stop, although there were seventeen of them — but just simply had one pedal stop down which was coupled to the swell, two down on the great (Dulciana and Viola), four down on the swell (stopped diapason, flute, viol de orchestra, vox humana and the beloved tremolo). Think of it, for thirty minutes that combination. But, oh, she didn't forget there was a crescendo pedal, and her pet right foot just stuck to that, which squeeked up and down about every four or five measures of whatever she was playing. And what was more she didn't turn a page of music the whole time I was there, and I know she wasn't playing from the piece in front of her. Now, organists, is that treating your employer fair? And is it giving the public value for the money they spent in coming in? Absolutely no, and you know it, but you don't stop to think. Do you suppose for one minute that your manager could run the same pictures week after week and stay in business? And yet you play the same tunes year in and year out, and collect your salary at the end of the week with a smile on your face. Highway robbery and nothing else. I claim the organist should take as much pains in scoring a picture as the orchestra leader, yet I know of exhibitors who will screen a picture for their leader, while the regular and relief organists are peacefully sleeping at home, where as matter of fact they should have been sitting right alongside of' the musical director, taking cues just the same as he does. There is no reason why the organist shouldn't play the picture even better than the orchestra, for in the first place, a good modern organ is a complete orchestra in itself, and if you know your organ you can do things an orchestra could never think of doing. In our theatre we screen the picture two days ahead of showing date. Present at this screening are the musical director — regular and relief organists. The orchestra leader takes down the cues, and the relief organist sits right with him and takes down the same cues, each scene is timed and each situation properly scored until a picked title for the organ comes, then I take up the cues and score each situation while the relief organist follows me, and in that way, when the first show is put on two days later, every thing runs just as smooth as if it were the last day of the showing. The organists must have their music laid out just as the orchestra — none of this lights out, a couple of stops down, foot on the crescendo pedal, one eye on the picture, and the other on some friend in the front row, left foot hitting and missing, tremolo on all the time — none of that will pass at our theatre, and it should be that way at all theatres where organists are employed. Now organists wake up. First, buy some music, not only that, but keep on buying some. Get something new each week, so when the public pays their good money to come in, they will know that you are trying to please them as well as your employer. Cut out this forever wandering from one piece to another, headed for no place and never getting there. Lay out your program, just as though you were the leader of a thirty-piece orchestra, and have your first show run as smooth as your last. Keep your organ light on and your head with you, and use both to advantage. Get variety in your organ playing by using different stops, show your employer and also the public just what the organ really can do. Try to use the unison off once in a while, juggle your couplers, experiment, and you will find out you can do things you never dreamed of doing. And a word to exhibitors — keep after your organists, tell them you want something different, something new for a change. Get them to wash the glue from off their right foot and try to persuade them to separate from a dollar or two each week for new music. Wake up and find out that good music is half your show, and you will be surprised how quick the public will find it out. Julius K. Johnson, Organist and Manager New Garrick Theatre, Minneapolis, Minn. EDITOR'S COMMENT We have read the above article by Julius K. Johnson with great interest, and can only say that he has struck the " nail on the head." We practically agree with him in every point of issue, but fail to see wiry the organist or, musician in fact, should be blamed in every instance. We know many exhibitors who engaged good, live organists who after several weeks have given up in despair, and practically resigned themselves to musical doggeral, the reasons for this being two handicaps ; first, their small wages, and, secondly, no allowance for the purchase of music. Mr. Johnson's target is the musician, while we are going to criticize the exhibitor. The exhibitor who thinks it is not necessary to follow the picture or pictures with the proper musical accompaniment is far behind the times, and we are sorry to say that during our last ten years of experience as musical editor and musical director, we have met many who are using the best pictures in their theatres and not making any effort to obtain the proper musical programs. Many exhibitors, if they haven't a " Rialto " or " Rivoli " with an orchestra of at least forty men, often express this opinion, " What's the use, we'll never get there anyway." At the same time, during our long years of experience in arranging music for the film, we have had occasion to come in contact with numerous exhiBitors who have only an organ, and must admit that the one-man orchestra, if played by a professional operator, is the only means by which an exhibitor can obtain the best musical results, if his name is not S. L. Rothapfel and he is not surrounded by a symphony orchestra. The great musical problem which confronts the exhibitors of today should be a matter of serious consideration, but instead of considering the situation, the exhibitors have gone ahead without the least bit of thought and employed cheap piano players, or even worse, cheap organists, while those employing good organists