Ben and Kerr talk about Ben's new book "The Silent Film Universe" on this mini-episode. Ben discusses the various aspects of silent film language covered in each chapter and how we as viewers are engaged with them, his own development and honing of the ideas in the book, and his rationale for writing and publishing the book. The publication date for "The Silent Film Universe" is June 17, 2025, and can be purchased in paperback and hardcover wherever you buy books. There is information about "The...
May 31, 2025•26 min
In this episode, Ben and Kerr talk about accompanying a rare Wallace Reid Film “The Valley of the Giants” and other films at the Kansas Silent Film Festival; playing for the newly restored “The White Heather” and for Francis Ford’s “The Craving” (both 1919) at MoMA’s “To Save and Project” festival; creating a new theatre organ score for “Ramona” (1928) which will be released in May by Kino Lorber; Ben’s returning to the TCM Classic Film Festival to live-score a silent film – this year it’s Harol...
Apr 24, 2025•1 hr
In this episode, Ben and Kerr talk about: Ben's accompanying a rare Reginald Denny feature, sight-unseen, at Capitolfest 21; the rediscovery of "The Gorilla" (1927) and accompanying it on both piano and on theatre organ; Ben tries a new approach to underscoring the house-fall in Buster Keaton's "Steamboat Bill, Jr." (1928); the challenges and concerns in approaching the live-scoring of sound-era films like the 1931 "Dracula" and "Frankenstein"; Ben's accompanying of "Her Wild Oat" (1927) starrin...
Dec 31, 2024•53 min
In this episode: On this episode, Ben and Kerr talk about Ben's process for scoring Roland West's "The Bat" (1926) for a home video release. The new restoration was produced and released by Ben's Undercrank Productions home video label. Show notes for episode 65 can be found here.
Dec 30, 2024•46 min
In this episode: Ben talks about accompanying Laurel & Hardy's pie fight in "The Battle of the Century", for a decisive moment for Keaton's character in "Steamboat Bill, Jr.", for Ozu's "A Story of Floating Weeds", and for Raymond Griffith and Max Fleischer silents at the 15th TCM Classic Film Festival. Performance clips include recordings from shows at the Strand Theatre in Schroon Lake NY, the Strand Theatre in Plattsburgh, and at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. Show notes for episode 64 ...
Jul 26, 2024•1 hr 11 min
In this episode: Ben recaps his month's activities in March 2024, talks about the subtleties of underscoring dramatic moments when a main character thinks through an important decision, a creative way to invent main themes for a program of 7 animated shorts, accompanying a 1914 "Italian Diva" melodrama, and picking up on something about the film from its spoken introduction that affected the score created during the show; plus live-performance excerpts from scores for "Shoes" (1916) by Lois Webe...
May 07, 2024•44 min
In this episode: Ben accompanies Tom Mix in "Sky High" at the Library of Congress, adapting for organ some themes he originally composed for piano; Ben and Kerr discuss the importance of seeing silents with live music, and how a film may play one way when watched alone and completely differently at a show; Ben and Kerr discuss the hilarious and gifted silent film comedian Marcel Perez; Ben covers an upcoming Blu-ray/DVD release from Undercrank Productions; discussion of the newly restored "Man, ...
Feb 22, 2024•52 min
In this episode: Ben shares his experiences accompanying the silent era blockbuster "The Big Parade", the rare Italian film "A' Santanotte", Laurel & Hardy shorts, and others; he and Kerr discuss the practices of creating leitmotifs on the fly during a show, and then repeating them later in the film's score; there's some deep info and history on the different pianos at MoMA, and how the feel of playing these pianos – and the many others Ben encounters in his work – affect his playing and liv...
Dec 31, 2023•1 hr
In this episode: accompanying several films at MoMA in August of new restorations and a series of early color process silents; audience response difference between San Francisco Silent Film Festival and MoMA screening, and how this affected Ben's score in NYC; Ben talks about pivoting when presented before a show with a change of running time or of musical instrument; audience laughs during the climax of Harold Lloyd's "Safety Last"; accompanying a film where only way to preview was by reading t...
Nov 16, 2023•1 hr 2 min
In this episode: Ben talks about preparing for his performance at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, his first time at the fest; his Undercrank Productions home video label celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2023; Ben talks about the two newly restored Tom Mix silent films that were released by Undercrank on Blu-ray in July; he shares some tips and insights on having music light on the piano at different venues, some thoughts about scoring a few different scenes from Harold Lloyd's "Safety ...
Aug 28, 2023•49 min
In this episode: Ben talks about doing double-duty as both silent film accompanist and Blu-ray producer-distributor; Ben talks about accompanying "Clash of the Wolves" starring Rin-Tin-Tin at the TCM Classic Film Festival and the differences between this performance and the one of recording a score for this film, along; Kerr and Ben talk about the upcoming Ernie Kovacs book "Ernie in Kovacsland", and Kerr takes a real deep dive into the history and recordings of "Die Moritat", known to Kovacs fa...
Jun 01, 2023•1 hr 3 min
In this episode: Ben and Kerr discyss about Ben's process for creating and recording silent film scores for home-video releases, and how it differs from scoring a silent in performance. Ben talks about composing by using the start-stop possibilities of recording in place of traditional notation, as well as using underscoring to help audiences register certain kinds of transitions or to grasp subtleties in the mood or intent of certain kinds of scenes. Recording examples includes segments from To...
Apr 13, 2023•1 hr 2 min
In this episode: Ben and Kerr talk about the current theme music for the podcast and its impending replacement; Ben talks about playing for a recent screening of the newly restored Chaney film "The Unknown" and how he musically meets the issues of possible inadvertent laughter in this and other silent dramas; Ben and Kerr discuss Ernie Kovacs' use of music in Kovacs' commercials for Dutch Masters cigars; Ben talks about a scoring films with extensive WWI battle sequences, how these utilize a 191...
Feb 21, 2023•59 min
In this episode: Ben talks about scoring silent films that lack a traditional narrative – films made for educational purposes – and creating music that is more "visual" than what is usually done for silents; films discussed are the 1922 "Making of a Bronze Statue" and the 1970 "Spirals" produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Ben has been hired to score these and others for the Met's online "From the Vaults" series; also covered are the live-scoring of polar exploration silent films shown at...
Jan 24, 2023•53 min
In this episode: Ben talks about the fun and challenges of playing a number of different organs at silent film shows during October and November in Ocean Grove NJ, Ursinus College in PA, and at the historic Everett Theatre in Delaware; Ben and Kerr discuss how often to use leitmotivs and some techniques Ben uses to create themes before or during a show; Ben talks about the sixth sense silent film accompanists develop and use to sense an audience's engagement with a silent film during a screening...
Dec 20, 2022•1 hr 3 min
In this episode: Ben reflects on his conversation with William Perry heard in the previous two episodes of the podcast; discusses how considering a show's intended audience is part of his programming process; covers the different film options for Halloween shows; talks at length about his recent live-underscoring of the 1931 "Frankenstein" at the Library of Congress, incl. multiple examples recorded during the show; shares a few minutes of his pipe organ accompaniment for Harold Lloyd's "The Fre...
Nov 24, 2022•1 hr 2 min
In this episode: Ben interviews composer, silent film pianist and television producer William Perry. Perry is probably best-remembered for his scores for the now-legendary television series "The Silent Years", produced by Paul Killiam, that ran for two seasons on public television, in 1971 and 1975. For twelve years Perry was the music director and composer-in-residence at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the second part of this interview, Perry talks about his work as MoMA's full-time s...
Oct 19, 2022•59 min
In this episode: Ben interviews composer, silent film pianist and television producer William Perry. Perry is probably best-remembered for his scores for the now-legendary television series "The Silent Years", produced by Paul Killiam, that ran for two seasons on public television, in 1971 and 1975. For twelve years Perry was the music director and composer-in-residence at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the first part of this interview, Perry talks about his impressive musical backgrou...
Sep 27, 2022•51 min
In this episode: Ben accompanies a bunch of shows of silent serials during June, and talks about the musical challenges of accompanying serials and in scoring an entire program of them; Kerr and Ben continue their conversation about Ernie Kovacs's use of music, and discuss Kovacs' "Street Scene" video of Bartok's "Concerto For Orchestra", and for music by Stravinsky, Karajev and Esquivel; Ben gives a progress update on his new book "The Silent Film Universe"; Kerr and Ben talk about silent film ...
Aug 20, 2022•1 hr 2 min
In this episode: Ben plays with holding back musically to help an audience of art deco fans connect with Valentino and Nazimova during a show of "Camille" (1921); he and Kerr Lockhart dig in to details about "Oriental Blues", the theme song Ernie Kovacs used for all of his shows from 1951-1962; and Ben discusses the various intricacies of live-scoring Keaton's "The General" in order to help one gag, get out of the way of another, and to create a musical arc for a feature-length comedy that's ess...
Jul 16, 2022•52 min
In this bonus episode, podcast co-host Kerr Lockhart talks with Rick Benjamin, musical director of The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, about mood cues and photoplay music from the silent era.
May 26, 2022•30 min
In this episode: Ben trusts his instincts and has a little magic happen during a show of "The Patsy"; makes a decision and tries something new when it comes to using a "characteristic" musical mode in scoring Keaton's "The Cameraman" and "The General"; pays tribute to Gilbert Gottfried and talks about getting to do a comedy bit with him when Ben was a guest on Gilbert's Amazing Colossal Podcast in 2021; pulls back to help the audience zoom in for a tender moment in "The Cameraman"; plus performa...
May 26, 2022•38 min
Ben talks about: being a guest accompanist at the 25th annual Kansas Silent Film Festival; playing for Edward Everett Horton in a Cathedral, and the use of a "Bowery waltz"; introducing Marcel Perez to fans at the KSFF; playing for William S. Hart in Brooklyn; being able to turn on a dime in underscoring and have it make sense musically; live-scoring "The Goose Woman" on piano; new Marion Davies Blu-ray and DVD releases from his Undercrank Productions label and the new Kickstarter for Raymond Gr...
Mar 28, 2022•53 min
Ben talks about: the process of scoring "Zander the Great" and "Beverly of Graustark" for home video release; a recent Kickstarter that funded super-quick; Marion Davies's talents as a silent film actor; teaching in-person and on-campus again after two years; accompanying Edward Everett Horton shorts and "The Fire Brigade" at the Museum of Modern Art; various silent film accompaniment techniques; upcoming streams and shows, and more. Episode 45 show notes are available here.
Feb 14, 2022•57 min
This is a re-posting "flashback" of episode 8, which originally posted on February 4, 2015. Welcome – News from January: composing and performing music for Parallel Exit's "Everybody Gets Cake", running off-Bway thru Feb 8, 2015 – Recording: instrumental from "Cake" show: "A Shakespearean Smoke Break" – the restoration of Georges Melies' "A Trip to the Moon" with narration – recording: live performance piano and narration for "A Trip to the Moon" in Tromsø, Norway – funeral organists workshop in...
Feb 02, 2022•35 min
This is a re-posting "flashback" of episode 7, which originally posted on January 21, 2015. Welcome – News from the road – December 2014 recap: the Silent Clowns Film Series, Chaplin Mutuals, Library of Congress holiday party, the Powers kids in "The Skeleton" – Recording: live performance, accompaniment to "Peter Pan", Peter saves Tinkerbell –Using ragtime to accompany silent films, then and now, pros and cons – On accompanying the murder scene in "Blackmail" – Recording: live performance, from...
Jan 28, 2022•33 min
Ben relates the journey of playing piano as part of a full orchestra live accompanying Chaplin’s City Lights under the baton of the score’s restorer, Timothy Brock, during the Silent Film Days Festival in Tromsø, Norway. Ben also explores how he experienced Chaplin’s score “from the inside” and what he learned about making music to support silent film as a result. He describes the technical difficulty of playing live accompaniment with a large group, and analyzes Chaplin’s choices of accompanime...
Jan 24, 2022•54 min
This is a re-posting "flashback" of episode 6, which originally posted on January 7, 2015. Welcome — Mea culpa, and welcome to the podcast reboot — The Silent Film Sound and Music Archive — My new DVD label Undercrank Productions and the LoC — Live performance: "My Best Girl" at St. Francis College — Using pre-existing music in film accompaniment — The Herb Graff show: silent comedies on public TV in the 1970s — Recording: Arthur Kleiner playing "The Philanderer" — Arthur Kleiner, MoMA's first s...
Jan 15, 2022•53 min
This is a re-posting "flashback" of episode 5, originally posted on March 18, 2013. Welcome – A whirlwind week of performances and travel - 7 shows in 8 days Live performance: "The Mark of Zorro" at Central Baptist Church – Preparing for a performance: music prep, bench height, piano light, etc – Live performance: "My Best Girl" at Port Washington library – Upcoming performances, including a week of Mary Pickford in April – Closing Somewhere back in 2017 when I absorbed my blog and podcast into ...
Jan 13, 2022•27 min
This is a re-posting "flashback" of episode 4, originally posted on January 14, 2013. Welcome – Playing the organ at the Library of Congress theater – My Kickstarter project to release rare/lost silents on DVD and YouTube – Live performance: Raymond Griffith in "You'd Be Surprised" at Silent Clowns – Listening to a film's spoken intro can give clues for a score – Thoughts on scoring "Oliver Twist", W.C. Fields in "It's the Old Army Game" and Larry Semon in "The Wizard of Oz" – Live performance: ...
Jan 07, 2022•27 min
