Capitolfest 8 - August 13-15!!!

For the past 4 years I have been heading up to the city of Rome, New York to take part in one of my favorite film festivals, CAPITOLFEST! This year the crew at the Capitol Theater has programmed another winner weekend with tons of great and rare films including El Brendel's first turn in front of a movie camera, a tribute to Jean Arthur (with a few of her features being shown), and a number of Vitaphone shorts making their US debut!!

First off, at 2pm on Friday, the staff at the Capitol is giving a tour of the theater itself. From the basement where the dressing rooms for stage productions are, to backstage area, around the Moller organ, right up to the projection booth. I went on this tour and found it to be a delight and the staff will answer just about any question you have. After the tour, there's plenty of time to grab a bite to eat before heading over to the Rome Elks Club at 7pm for an evening "pre-glow" show of 16mm silent prints. This gives a "soft" start to the fest and the club even has a 1933 Moller classical organ to accompany the show. Saturday morning we switch over to the Capitol Theater for the official start of the film program, all flicks shown in beautiful 35mm prints.

One of my favorite aspects of Capitolfest is that all the silent films shown in the theater (a beautiful 1928 auditorium, BTW) are accompanied by an original 1928 Moller theater organ. After reading what I wrote you may say "So what?", but to actually hear this organ live, is an experience you will not soon forget as the player can pull out percussion, woodwind, and many other sounds out of the unit and not just the normal notes you'd usually hear. The experience is really tremendous!

So sign up and come and join me in a couple weeks for a great weekend at the Capitol!!

A full schedule can be found here, you can buy tickets and register here, and listed below is a photo preview of some of the highlights:

Capitolfest's tribute to Jean Arthur gets kicked into high gear with her appearance in 1931's "Virtuous Husband", scheduled to be shown on Saturday morning, at 9:45am.

El Brendel's first appearance in a motion picture, Paramount's 1926 "You Never Know Women", will close out the festival at 4:50pm on Sunday. This film was thought lost until a print was discovered at the Library of Congress in 2001.

the UCLA restoration/recreation of "Paramount on Parade" (1930) will be screened on Saturday afternoon at 3:10pm

Jack Oakie stars with Jean Arthur in the 1931 film "The Gang Buster", which will hit the screen at 2:30pm on Sunday.

Frank Fay fans will get their fill (in Technicolor even!) with 1930's "Under A Texas Moon", screening on Sunday at 9:30am.

ALSO, you can find the Capitol Theater Appriciation Society on Facebook here and the Capitolfest page here! Become a freind and stay up on the latest updates!