Reviewer: Janet Martineau
Venue: The Temple Theatre
So if you’re going to celebrate Silent Film Day (Sept. 29), might as well do it in grand style.
As in a trifecta.
Which is what Saginaw’s historic Temple Theatre, 201 N. Washington, served up Sunday afternoon.
First, the Temple opened in 1927 and thus is part of the silent film era 1894-1931. And as such still has a fully functioning, beautiful, ornate Barton “Golden Voiced” Organ. Which rises 4 feet from the pit and has all sorts of bells and whistles pipes created to accompany silent films.
Second, for this day Andrew Rogers, organist at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, was hired to accompany the 1923 Harold Lloyd film “Safety Last!” In 1994 it was selected for preservation by the United States National Film Registry/Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” And, by the way, it is absolutely hilarious.
But third, and most memorable, the Temple Theatre leadership used the day to honor Ken Wuepper, who for 70 years has served the theater as one of its most devoted volunteers and single-handedly made sure that Barton organ didn’t disappear despite some huge obstacles.
Wuepper recalled he first started volunteering at the Temple in 1953, a year before graduating from high school who realized the organ had some issues when he visited there. But no salary to offer or a budget to buy parts. He has never left. On Sunday he introduced the film.
Today Wuepper is considered the facility’s organ curator/historian. He helped facilitate the theater’s $7 million private restoration in 2003, after years of deterioration. He supervised the Barton organ being given a facelift in 2011, after 84 years being taken apart and shipped off to a pipe organ company in Livonia at a cost of $35,000. He served as the theater manager briefly, is known for his detailed and fun tours of the facility, has worked there as a stage hand and a projector operator.
Or as Irene Hensinger of the Riverside Saginaw Film Festival, which early on booked films there, said, “For for many of us Ken is the human face of the Temple Theatre. Thank you again for everything you do.”
On Sunday, Temple Theatre president Michael Kolleth presented Wuepper with a proclamation from the mayor of Saginaw and hailed him “the hero of the Temple Theatre.”
The Temple Theatre Barton Organ Club was established in 1970. The has instrument three keyboards and 11 sets of pipes. Approximately 80% of the films made in the silent era have been lost forever.
As for the Harold Lloyd film that was shown, organist Rogers said:
— Lloyd was in more than 200 films, surpassing Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.
— Lloyd did the majority of his own stunts in his films. In “Safety Last,” which has his character climbing up the side of a tall building and hanging off a clock at one point, the closeup shots are him with a basically useless safety mattress below and building facades. In the long shots it is the “ human spider” Bill Strother actually climbing a tall building in the movie. Strother is the man who teams up with Loyd’s character to climb the building.
— Rogers said each time he is asked to accompany a silent film he “starts from scratch” by watching the film over and over. No two performances of the same film are the same.
— Asked what are his favorite films silent films to accompany, Rogers said Greta Garbo‘s “The Kiss,” “Ben-Hur” (1925) and “The Artist.”
As an added note, Wuepper will join Tom Trombley at noon on Tuesday, Oct. 22, at the Castle Museum to present a lecture titled “First Congregational Church’s Restoration After the Fire of 1973.” Admission is free.