A vintage holiday

The Silent Movie Theater rounds out the year by presenting its “Silent Picture Show” touring program, which has played San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle and Chicago. Composed of half a dozen outstanding two-reelers with pristine 35-millimeter prints, the show also features a live performance by Janet Klein, the ukulele chanteuse, who sings four vintage songs in an authentic period style. Bob Mitchell, soon to commence his 80th year accompanying silent movies, will accompany the first half of the program on the piano and the second on the organ.

“The Silent Picture Show” is a holiday treat for the entire family. Opening the show is D.W. Griffith’s “Those Awful Hats” (1909), which shows how early theater managers dealt with the enormous hats worn by female patrons in those days, veritable flower gardens and nests of feathers guaranteed to block the view of anyone sitting behind them. Among the cast are Linda Arvidson, Griffith’s first wife; comedian Flora Finch; future Griffith star Robert Harron; Florence Lawrence, the first movie actress to receive star billing; and Mack Sennett, the future King of Comedy.

Sennett would soon launch Charlie Chaplin’s peerless career at his Keystone Studios, and “Kid Auto Races at Venice” (1914) marks Chaplin’s first appearance as the Tramp, wearing seedy gentleman’s attire, including a bowler and a cane. Wandering around in his splayed-feet walk, the imperturbable Chaplin threatens to wreak havoc with the races, which drew thousands of spectators. Directed by Henry Lehrman.

Directed by Leo McCarey, who would go on to a major career in the sound era, “Mighty Like a Moose” (1926) stars Charley Chase, the most debonair of the silent comedians. He and Vivien Oakland play a wealthy couple who independently decide to do something about their appearance, with Mr. Moose having his buckteeth corrected while Mrs. Moose undergoes a nose job, which triggers a complete makeover. While it has to be taken on faith that the wife would not recognize her husband with perfect teeth, the wife’s transformation is most convincing, and she is really not recognizable as her former homely and dowdy self. That they don’t recognize each other when they accidentally meet and are instantly mutually attracted provides the basis for an inspired and evergreen comedy.

The second half of the program is composed of three timelessly funny gems produced by Hal Roach. Co-directed by McCarey and James W. Horne, “Big Business” (1929) is classic Laurel and Hardy, as Stan and Ollie try to sell a Christmas tree to James Finlayson. Short, wiry, bald and mustached, Finlayson was one of the boys’ great comic foils. He sends them packing when they ring his doorbell, but they have to keep on ringing it when first the tree and then Stan’s coat get caught in the door. At last Finlayson’s homeowner loses his temper, and a knockabout comic war is on in earnest. All three Hal Roach shorts build upon a simple comic premise carried out to the hilarious extreme.

Roach’s silent productions alone compose a historic record of a Los Angeles experiencing unprecedented growth. “Big Business” is set in a new, uncompleted tract, with Finlayson’s home a handsome Spanish style structure. Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, the Harold Lloyd comedy “Never Weaken” (1921) is set on 7th Street in downtown. Lloyd is an office worker smitten with a secretary (Mildred Davis, soon to become Mrs. Lloyd) to a doctor with an office nearby. When the doctor tells Davis he will have to let her go due to a decline in patients, Lloyd hits the streets to stir up some new business for him. Some clever plotting finds Lloyd scarily scampering high above 7th Street, teetering on I-beams in a structure going up across the street from the Beaux Arts Pantages Building at 7th and Hill. Clearly, “Never Weaken” is a warmup to Lloyd’s classic 1923 “Safety Last.”

Directed by Robert F. McGowan, “Saturday’s Lesson” (1929) is a Little Rascals comedy in which the kids resist their mother’s Saturday chores until a guy (John B. O’Brien) in a devil’s costume, taking a break from his promotional job, decides to have some fun scaring the children into obeying their mothers. The results are hilarious. Among the familiar Little Rascals-Our Gang crew members are Allen (Farina) Hoskins, Jean Darling and Joe Cobb.

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Screenings

The Silent Picture Show

What: “Those Awful Hats” (1909), “Kid Auto Races at Venice” (1914), “Mighty Like a Moose” (1926), “Big Business” (1929), “Never Weaken” (1921) and “Saturday’s Lesson” (1929)

Where: The Silent Movie Theater, 611 N. Fairfax Ave., Hollywood

When: Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 8 p.m.

Info: (323) 655-2520