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Capitolfest: Central NY's classic and silent film festival features... Exceptional restored 35mm prints 35mm variable speed carbon arc projection Original installation 1928 Möller theater organ Authentic professional period-style silent film accompaniment Leisurely pacing and fun atmosphere Original 1,788 seat 1928 movie palace 20 ft. high movie screen for more information, call the Capitol Theatre at (315) 337-6453

ABOUT CAPITOLFEST: The Capitol Theatre was built as a movie house and opened December 10, 1928 with an all-movie program including the First National feature, Lilac Time. The Capitol Theatre remains the only building in Rome, NY (population c.35,000) constructed for the specific purpose of exhibiting motion pictures. Although the theatre received an Art Deco face-lift in 1939, the auditorium is configured exactly as it was in 1928, and much of the original decor remains. Also still in place is the theatre's 3-manual, 7-rank Möller theatre organ, which has been restored and is used on a regular basis to accompany silent movies and entertain Capitol audiences! All the films at the Capitol are shown in 35mm prints on the theater's carbon-arc, variable speed projectors. Capitolfest movies are borrowed from the archives of the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, UCLA Film and Television Archive, Universal Pictures, the George Eastman House, Sony Pictures, as well as from private collections. Each of the silent films will be accompanied by one of the world's foremost exponents of authentic silent movie accompaniment; Capitolfest 7 will feature accompaniment by Avery Tunningley, Dr. Philip Carli, and Bernie Anderson and the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra!

An important note about "Pre-Glow" Friday: Five years ago, Capitolfest added a Friday evening "pre-glow" of 16mm films not available in 35mm, presented in the more intimate setting of the Rome Elks Club (across the street from the rear of the Capitol building). Fans have made our Pre-Glow an overwhelming success (thank you!) so we plan to continue the tradition in 2009! The silent movies shown for Capitolfest 7's pre-glow will be accompanied by Avery Tunningley on the Elks Club's original installation 1933 classic Möller organ with a touch of theater organ voicing. Seating is extremely limited -- last year's session was sold out -- so early registration is highly encouraged. Capitolfest differs from other classic movie festivals in its leisurely pacing. There are intermissions within each session (featuring live organ music) and relatively lengthy breaks between sessions, allowing attendees to savor the films, thus our slogan: "A vacation--not a marathon.� Once again, there will be a guided tour for early arrivals at 2pm on Friday afternoon prior to the show. The hour long tour will include a demonstration of the Möller organ. About 95% of Capitolfest attendees come from out of town, so whether you are from Central New York or another state, we want you to feel that the Capitol Theatre is your theater. As always, Capitolfest organizers would be more than happy to provide interested parties with further information. Feel free to email or call (315) 337-6453. Please stay tuned for more information as it becomes available. We hope to see you there!

Reviews: See what some of our previous Capitolest attendees from around the country and Canada had to say: "It was amazing!" "Wow, what a great weekend!" "You sure run a fabulous festival." "Great Convention, Great Theatre, Great Projection, organists and audio in theatre." "A weekend I'll not soon forget." "Can't tell you what a rush this is for us!" Did you attend a previous Capitolfest and would like to comment? Email us and let us know!

PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE:

Friday, August 7 (pre-glow), Elks Club 16mm program (all films are silent in this session, accompanied by Avery Tunningley on the 1933 original installation Moller classical organ)

7:00 pm	The Speed Spook	Johnny Hines, Faire Binney, Edmond Breese, Warner Richmond; D: Charles Hines (65 min.) Johnny Hines was a popular comedian somewhat in the mode of Harold Lloyd in modestly budgeted independent movies of the 'twenties. The Speed Spook features him as a professional race car driver who becomes involved in a local political squabble while innocently passing through a small town. He also soon discovers that the community is being terrorized by a mysterious driverless gray car that defies logic and all attempts to capture it as it drives through the city at breakneck speeds. “There are a number of ingenious ideas in this production….Nobody could accuse the producers of enlisting subtlety in their efforts to make their picture funny, and yet some of the situations are so utterly absurd that one is forced to laugh.” --Mordaunt Hall, New York Times, 10/2/24
8:10 pm	The Nickel-Hopper	(Roach, 1926) Mabel Normand, Michael Visaroff, Theodore von Eltz, Margaret Seddon, James Finlayson, Boris Karloff, Oliver Hardy; D: F. Richard Jones, Hal Yates (28 min.) Comedian Mabel Normand was towards the end of her fruitful career when she made this 3-reeler for Roach in 1926. In it she plays a dance hall girl who lives with her family, including her good-for-nothing lout of a father (Michael Visaroff) who lives off Mabel's earnings. This fast and amusing picture is particularly noteworthy for the supporting cast, including Oliver Hardy (as the drummer in the dance hall band) and Boris Karloff, who has a nice scene as a letch who makes a play for Mabel.
8:40 pm	Intermission	(15 minutes)
8:55 pm	Parisian Nights	(Gothic, 1925) surviving fragment with Lou Tellegen and Boris Karloff (2 min.) This otherwise believed “lost” film features Boris Karloff as a Parisian Apache.
9:00 pm	The King of the Kongo	(Mascot, 1929)-Chapter 1, “Into the Unknown” Jacqueline Logan, Walter Miller, Richard Tucker, Boris Karloff; D: Richard Thorpe (20 min.) Walter Miller is a secret service agent who is searching the jungle for his lost brother. While engaged in his search he encounters Jacqueline Logan, who is searching for her lost father. During their adventures they encounter a band of ivory smugglers, a giant gorilla, and a lost treasure. Boris Karloff is the principal villain, and that future master of action and adventure epics, Richard Thorpe, directed the serial. Released in silent and part-talkie versions, only the silent version survives.
9:25 pm	Let's Get Married	(Paramount, 1926) Richard Dix, Lois Wilson, Nat Pendleton, Edna May Oliver; D: Gregory La Cava (70 min.). Richard Dix is the ne'er-do-well son of a prominent hymnal publisher who reforms and joins the firm as a salesman after he meets and falls in love with Lois Wilson. Period reviewers found this fluffy comedy to be extremely praiseworthy, including The New York Times who called it “a bright, hilarious entertainment” and Photoplay who raved it was “Richard Dix at his best. Plenty of laughs that come fast and furious. Don't miss it!”

9:30 am	The Miracle Man	(Paramount, 1932) Sylvia Sidney, Chester Morris, Robert Coogan, Irving Pichel, Boris Karloff, Ned Sparks, Lloyd Hughes, Virginia Bruce; D: Norman McLeod (85 min.) The talkie re-make of the famous 1919 version of Frank L. Packard's story about a gang of hoods who seek refuge in a small town and latch onto a bonafide faith healer to bilk the public. “Whatever may be said about the age of the tale and the fact that it is known to so many thousands of persons, it does not alter the fact that it is one of the popular brand. In certain respects, as far as memory serves, the acting of some of the parts is superior to that in its predecessor. -Mordaunt Hall, NY Times, 4/21/32
11:00 am	Movie Milestones No. 1	(Paramount, 1935) Includes the surviving footage from 1919 Miracle Man with Lon Chaney, as well as scenes from The Covered Wagon (1923), Blood and Sand (1922) and Beau Geste (1926). (10 minutes)
11:15 am	Intermission	(20 minutes)
11:35 am	The Charge of the Light Brigade	(Edison, 1912) James Gordon, Richard Neill; D: J. Searle Dawley (13 min.) Edison's re-telling of the 1854 incident of the Crimean War in which a British cavalry unit, because of a mix-up in orders, charged an almost impregnable Russian artillery position Shot on location in Cheyenne, Wyoming, the film reportedly employed 800 U.S. Cavalry troops. The picture made a considerable splash in 1912 as one of the screen's first large-scale spectaculars. SILENT
11:48 am	The Ballad of Fisher's Boarding House	(Fireside, 1922) Mildred Owens, Ethan Allen, Olaf Skavlan; D: Frank Capra (13 minutes) With no directorial experience whatsoever, Frank Capra undertook the task of translating Kipling's poem to the screen. Using a tech crew of mostly unprofessionals and a cast largely recruited from San Francisco waterfront dives, Capra turned out a one-reel drama that was immediately hailed as an innovative minor masterpiece. SILENT
12:02 pm	The Barker	(FN, 1928) Milton Sills, Dorothy Mackaill, Betty Compson; D: G. Fitzmaurice (part-talkie) (87 min.) A veteran carnival barker's (Milton Sills) lofty plans for his son (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) seem doomed to fail when the latter falls for hardened side-show girl Dorothy Mackaill. This is the original part-talkie release as restored by UCLA. “Human and humorous story of circus life….See it.” --Photoplay 12/28; “The picture has been done exceedingly well. One, in fact, is made to feel as if seeing real people and not mere shadows.” --Harrison's Reports, 12/15/28 SILENT
1:30 pm	Lunch Break

2:40 pm	Helen Morgan in “The Gigolo Racket”	(Vitaphone #1255-1256) (WB, 1931) Helen Morgan, Reed Brown, Jr., Joseph Striker; D: Roy Mack. (20 minutes) Helen Morgan, the great Ziegfeld star of Show Boat, in a 2-reel Vitaphone drama with music. Reportedly her songs are “Nobody Breaks My Heart” and “I Know He's Mine.”
3:05 pm	Viennese Nights	(WB, 1930) Vivienne Segel, Alexander Gray, Jean Hersholt, Walter Pidgeon, Louise Fazenda, Alice Day, Bela Lugosi; D: Alan Crosland (UCLA Technicolor restoration) (92 minutes). An original operetta for the screen by Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II, which tells what happens when a musician trapped in a loveless marriage to a nagging shrew, meets his long-lost love again. Although much-taken with the Romberg-Hammerstein songs, NY Times critic Mordaunt Hall wrote, “It is primarily a musical entertainment, but at the same time one in which its none too novel narrative often captivates one's interest. The fact that the characters suddenly give vent to their feelings in song and that they are occasionally accompanied by an unseen orchestra, does not worry one, because the singing is invariably satisfactory and the ballads are beguiling.” “The best operetta in recent months with oh, what waltzes!” --Photoplay, 12/30
4:40 pm	Intermission	(15 minutes)
5:00 pm	Afraid to Talk	(Universal, 1932) Sidney Fox, Eric Linden, Louis Calhern, Ed. Arnold, George Meeker, Robert Warwick, Burton Churchill, Mayo Methot, J. Carrol Naish; D: Edward L. Cahn (69 min.) A no-punches-pulled Universal pre-code programmer on political corruption with a terrific cast of character actors. “What happens to a young bellhop who witnesses a murder. A scorching exposé of how politics and crime are mixed up. Eric Linden is very fine as the young bellhop.” --Movie Mirror, 3/33
6:15 pm	Dinner Break	(15 minutes)

7:45 pm	The Eagle's Nest	(UFA, 1929) UFA Oddities Series (10 min.) We have very little idea as to what this is, except that it was produced in Germany and that Major Bowes is credited with the U.S. titles. SILENT
8:00 pm	The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna	(UFA, 1929) Brigette Helm, Francis Lederer, Warwick Ward, Lya Jan, Harry Hardt; D: Hanns Schwartz (95 minutes) An extraordinary UFA silent by the much under-appreciated Hanns Schwartz, starring Brigette Helm (of Metropolis fame). This is reportedly a masterpiece of late German cinema and features what may be Brigitte Helm's most memorizing screen portrayal. SILENT
9:45 pm	Intermission	(15 minutes)
10:05 pm	The Awful Goof	(Columbia, 1939) Charley Chase, Dorothy Comingore, Lucille Lund, Dick Curtis, Bud Jamison; Del Lord (17 min.) A partial re-make of Charley Chase's great silent comedy, Limousine Love.
10:25 pm	The Secret of the Blue Room	(Universal, 1933) Paul Lukas, Lionel Atwill, Gloria Stuart, Edward Arnold, Robert Barrat, Onslow Stevens, William Janney; D: Kurt Neuman (66 minutes) Three suitors for the hand of Gloria Stuart agree to spend a night each in the allegedly haunted blue room of her father's (Lionel Atwill) castle-where 20 years earlier three persons died under mysterious circumstances. “…An engaging example of the early 'spooky house' mystery at or near its best. It's a low budget film with few pretensions, but it has the advantages of a sturdy cast, a beguiling premise and a plot nicely filled with atmosphere….Secret of the Blue Room remains a charming bit of spookery that still plays well today.” --Michael Brunas, John Brunas, and Tom Weaver, Universal Horrors (McFarland, 1990) “An excellent murder mystery melodrama. It holds one's interest from the beginning to the very end, for it has been worked out intelligently….it holds one in tense suspense throughout, particularly during the situations in which three different men venture to stay in a room that is supposedly haunted.” --Harrison's Reports, 7/22/33

9:30 am	Ann Butler & Jay Brennan in "You Don't Know the Half of It"	(Vitaphone #833) (WB, 1929) D: Murray Roth (10 min.) Jay Brennan recreates the act that he and his late partner Bert Savoy performed in the Ziegfeld Follies, at the Palace Theatre, et. al., this time with Ann Butler taking over Savoy's role as the dishing dame. Mae West liberally borrowed from female impersonator Savoy's character, including Savoy's famous line, "you must come over, you must come over!" reshaping it into her own "come up and see me sometime."
9:50 am	Movietone Follies of 1930	(Fox, 1930) El Brendel, Marjorie White, Frank Richardson, Noël Francis; D: Benjamin Stoloff (84 min.) A rarely seen early talkie musical (with the usual plot elements of misunderstandings, a comic Swedish butler, et. al.) in a restoration by U.C.L.A. “The New Movietone Follies of 1930, audible picture at the Roxy, is a smartly produced, wise-cracking affair, which yesterday afternoon achieved its purpose in creating gusts of laughter. It is a warm-weather entertainment with handsome scenes and both bright and trite lines. In it the comic El Brendel is busy as a romantic butler named Alex Svenson. Marjorie White and Frank Richardson supply vigorous turns and William Collier Jr. appears as Conrad Sterling, who has sown a few wild oats at the wrong time….There are several catchy melodies in this attraction. Miss White sings “I'd Love to Be a Talking Picture Queen,” and she and Mr. Richardson render “Emily Brown.” El Brendel and Miss White contribute “I'm Bashful” and Mr. Brendel and Noel Francis chant “I Feel a Certain Feeling Coming On.”--Mordaunt Hall, NY Times, 6/21/30
11:15 am	Intermission	(15 minutes)
11:35 am	The Sultan's Wife	(Keystone, 1917) Bobby Vernon, Gloria Swanson, Joseph Callahan, Teddy the Dog; D: Clarence Badger (20 min.) One of four 2-reel comedies that teamed Bobby Vernon and 18-year-old Gloria Swanson at Keystone in 1917. SILENT
12:55 pm	Footloose Widows	(WB, 1926) Louise Fazenda, Jacqueline Logan, Jason Robards; D: Roy Del Ruth (70 min.) A pair of women pretends to be widows in order to snag wealthy husbands in this now rarely screened but orig. very popular WB farce from 1926. SILENT “Flighty though it is (Footloose Widows), the new picture adorning the screen at Warners' Theatre possesses the redeeming feature of being entertaining. In it there are precious few moments that could be termed restrained or sober. It is hilarious and even hysterical during some episodes, but there is no gainsaying the fact that it elicited many a wave of laughter from an audience yesterday afternoon. This photoplay is well photographed and competently acted. Jacqueline Logan is at her prettiest and Louise Fazenda is alert and resourceful.” -Mordaunt Hall, NY Times, 6/22/26
1:10 pm	Lunch Break