Palace of Silents (2010) - full transcript
The Silent Movie Theater has been screening the films of the silent era for over 65 years. It was almost lost to us completely when its previous owner, Lawrence Austin, was murdered in the theater's lobby. This is a documentary film about the passionate and somewhat eccentric individuals who strove to keep the old movies running for audiences in this unique and odd venue. This is a film about obsession for silent film and a love of the theater. The Silent Movie Theater's Quixotic occupants keep on screening films (now of all eras) despite the odds of the place surviving.
- Silence is certainly important
in a historical context.
You get a sense of how
the art of film developed.
You watch this thing evolve.
And so by the late 20s, what
you have is a real artform.
A great silent film
in the right setting
has as much ability
to move an audience
as any other movie with sound
or any other artform,
novel, painting.
And just like seeing
a great piece of art,
you wanna go to a museum
that presents it properly.
The Silent Movie Theatre is
like a museum in that sense.
But more than that, it's a
place where you really can have
a transcendent film experience.
- If you put this
into a real movie,
made this a movie movie.
Nobody will believe this stuff.
They'd all say it's
gotta be fiction.
- The Silent Movie Theatre
was like a time machine.
- It was a secretive place,
sort of a house of secrets.
- It's not some big fancy event
with a full orchestra
and a preserved print
and it's a hundred bucks a seat.
No, this is the
Silent Movie Theatre.
- It's special and it's perfect.
It's the most Hollywood
thing that you could be
because on the surface it's
all glamorous and art deco
and wonderful and clean.
And underneath there is a
roiling dark noirish subtext.
It's Sunset Boulevard,
it's Hollywood Gothic.
- This is a move theater.
You know, the theater closes,
the guy dies a horrible
death from cancer.
The best friend suddenly
shows up out of nowhere.
He reopens it with pizazz.
Bad choices lead to
this terrible thing.
Murder and people go to
prison and lives are ruined.
The theater gets sold
and is it gonna stay open
or is it gonna close?
- I started going to
the Silent Movie Theater
when I came, well the signs
those wishes around 1950.
That was the only place
in town that I knew of
that was showing silent films.
- The first time I went to
the Silent Movie Theatre
was in December of 1961.
And I went to see
the King of Kings
which was an annual
tradition there.
- The first time I went to
the Silent Movie Theatre
would have been
around 1963 or 1964.
And one Friday night I got
my father to take me there.
- The first time I went to
the Silent Movie Theatre
was 1971 and I saw
"Birth of a Nation".
- There was a whole
page about the theater
in Ezra Goodman's book,
"The Fifty Year Decline
"and Fall of Hollywood."
That might have been
where I first heard
of the theater.
- I was surprised
when I saw an ad
for the Silent Movie
Theatre and I had no idea
anything like that existed
anywhere on the world.
- I passed by one time
and I was attracted to it
and checked out to find
what it was all about
and when I did, I
thought of going there.
- I was fascinated.
I went a number of
times through the years
to the theater.
- In the early 70s,
we didn't have DVDs.
We didn't have VHS.
- When we went to the
Silent Movie Theatre
we had this strange
sensation that we were
the only people in the
world that had access
to those movies.
- I saw a lot of things there.
The first Chaney film
I saw there was called
"Flesh and Blood".
A 1922 independent film
he did with Jack Mulhall.
- I saw "The Mark of Zorro".
- I saw "Intolerance" there.
That was the first time
I saw "Intolerance"
in a complete form.
- I probably saw those
for the first time
at his theater.
- John Hampton
created the theater
and John Hampton
was the theater.
And only John Hampton
and his wife Dorothy
work at that theater.
- My brother and I ran the
show there at that time
for kids and neighborhood
every Friday night.
And my love for silent films was
nailed down tight at that point.
- He took his new
bride from Oklahoma,
transplanted her here and
set to work on his dream.
- They built that
theater which was built
like a fortress.
Poured concrete, this and that.
Like a bunker, practically.
- We started this theater,
actually we opened it
in February 25th, 1942.
I'll never forget that date
'cause that was the
day after Los Angeles
was supposedly bombed
by the Japanese.
- The second he
opened this place,
he almost closed it
'cause I remember
he was a conscientious
objector to the war.
- Willingly went to jail.
He was an activist.
He was a Quaker and
didn't believe in the war.
- And apparently was a,
kind of a difficult
case in prison,
very much an anti war guy.
- I would say about
42, was probably about
the lowest ebb for
appreciation of silent film.
- They were considered
extremely old fashioned then,
even more so than now.
- Remember, Marian Peckford
felt that the advent of sound
had made her films
look so old fashioned,
she seriously considered
destroying them.
- Silent Movie Theatre was not,
at best it was like
a neighborhood house
in a small town.
It didn't have that
Grand Movie Palace aura
about it at all.
- Small and depressing.
And very hard chairs.
- I swear to god, it was painted
the color of dried blood.
- There was no
adornment of any kind
except the handpainted
posters outside the theater.
There were no pictures
inside the theater.
- Sometimes the lobby was
a John Hampton art show.
There is this beautiful
lettering and photo work
on the outside.
And then you would
go into the theater
and it was always very dark
and he had these dead flowers
at the front of the theater.
- It just seemed old,
cramped and antiquated.
But we didn't care.
We went to this place and it
was just a magical place for us
because of what
was on the screen.
- You'd go into the theater
and Hampton would play 78s.
- He would play 40s swing.
- As the scenes would
change, he would move rapidly
from one turntable to the other
to have music.
- And sometimes the
music worked, sometimes
the music didn't work.
But it didn't matter.
- It was still, in a
sense, a live performance
because it was
different for every show
'cause you couldn't get those
needles in the same groove.
- He had some amazing
affinity for this equipment
and it was all taped
together and patched together
with wire and masking tape.
He had a lot of masking
tape on everything.
- The program at Silent
Movie Theatre was pretty much
the same unless he
had a very long film.
- They start off with
a Felix the Cat cartoon.
And then they had a
couple of comedy shorts.
There was in those days,
generally there was
always a Chaplin film.
- And then frequently
they'll have a serial.
- I think he had
"Plunder" with Pearl White
and the "Adventures of
Tarzan" with Elma Winkin.
- Hampton had this
humongous collection.
What this guy had
was unbelievable.
- There were a number
of films that John ran
that you literally
couldn't see anywhere else.
- You'd go there and you'd
go away with this feeling
of finding buried treasure.
- Most of what John ran were
films that had been distributed
through the Kodascope Library
and the Bell and Howe library
and the Universal
show at home library
in the 20s and 30s.
- It's especially fortunate
because Universal threw out
or one of their
executives had decided
to throw out their entire
silent inventory in the 1940s.
So many of the Universal
pictures only survived
through 16 millimeter prints.
And this includes
big important movies
like "The Hunchback of
Notre Dame" with Chaney.
- Hampton never ran anything
other than public domain films.
- He ran "The Covered
Wagon" and Paramount
did go after him.
- It was quite
famous at the time.
He had shown Covered
Wagon, which was a film
which was in copyright.
And Paramount came down on
them like a ton of bricks.
- Mr. Hampton had this
strange duty to the theater
but he also had a
duty to posterity.
He was conscious of
the fact that he was
the only guy out there who's
restoring a lot of these films.
- He would get a print of a film
and let's say three quarters
of the film was in good shape.
And the other
quarter part wasn't.
He would wind up,
wheeling and dealing
and he'd get the better last
quarter part of the film
and he'd splice it together.
- He had a Sydney Chaplin
film that he was editing
together from two
different prints
he'd got from different sources.
And he had no idea
why he kept saying
I don't know why I'm doing this.
Nobody wants to
see Sydney Chaplin.
There's no notice in this films.
And then he answers
his own question.
He said, if I don't
do it, no one will.
- You can always tell
a Hampton restoration,
one of his 16 millimeter prints
because he favored a Bell
& Howell diagonal splicer
intended to give you a strong
splice in 16 millimeter.
- But it goes right
across the picture.
- He would buy sound
prints of silence
and he would perforate them
so that he could run them
on his silent projectors.
- These perforations were
very ragged as I recall.
They weren't very good.
But they got the job done.
- On the other hand,
there wasn't a textbook
for restoring film.
There were people
that were doing it,
but he was way ahead
of his time I think
in the concept of
trying to find materials
to create the best and
most complete prints.
You'll see things
in a Hampton print
that you won't see
on any other print.
But you're also gonna
see the, you know,
the diagonal splice come
through the projector.
It's just the tradeoff.
- You couldn't really
talk to Hampton
about anything really
more than the operation
of the Silent Movie Theatre
and what he was showing.
- Something in him
resonated deeply
about the value of silent films.
- He had to clear
off some film cans
for me to have a place to sit.
And we sat there and
he never looked up
from editing the
film the whole time.
I don't think he ever could
tell you what I looked like.
- He was so focused on his work
that when he built the place
he built it with
a little trapdoor
in the projection booth.
So that rather
than stop working,
Dorothy could feed him
food from the upstairs
where the kitchen was
down through the hole
into the booth.
- The week before Christmas
he'd run "King of Kings"
and then he'd go take off for
a week or two for vacation.
And that was the only time
that he wasn't in that booth
splicing film or running film.
- And they had their
cause and that's what
they devoted their lives to.
Heroically, frankly.
- Offhand, I don't remember
what they were charging
65 cents or a dollar.
- Often for a crowd of
maybe seven to 14 people.
- I don't think they did
it to make a lot of money.
They did it to pay
the light bills
and keep the doors open.
And they lived in
the building as well.
- I mean you had to
have had a passion
to build a theater,
to live upstairs.
I don't know what it
was like up there.
But I assumed it
was pretty small.
- I felt so privileged
to be upstairs.
And even though
there's no room for me.
There were reels of
film piled everywhere
and you couldn't
see how he even knew
where anything was.
- He was very devoted
to the silent picture
to my way of thinking,
kind of extreme extent.
- I think it was probably
mostly his obsession.
And maybe his wife
Dorothy was sort of
secondary to that.
I think she was
working for his dreams
a lot of the time.
And my impression that hers
were probably perhaps withering.
- She was just a
very supportive wife
and she was kind
of in awe of John.
She just thought he was the
greatest guy in the world.
It would have been
very intriguing
to be around John
Hampton at the time
of the sound transition when
he was in his late teens
because he obviously
loved silent pictures.
And sound pictures won and it
must have been tough on him.
- Actually I was up there
one time when he was
running a sound
film for himself.
A sound film?
- Yeah, he was running a
sound film in the theater.
It seemed very strange.
- I would say that John and
Dorothy were private people.
I don't say that in a bad way.
You know, they were unassuming.
- John and Dorothy
were difficult to know.
- I got to know the
Hamptons about as well
as I think anybody
could at that time
which was not very much.
You got the feeling that these
people woke up in the morning
and their lives were running
that theater night and day.
- On a couple occasions,
I saw them on a bus
heading toward
downtown Los Angeles
and I was told by
John that he was going
to visit his son who
was in a hospital.
- She had wanted a
baby for a long time.
He was born with Down Syndrome.
He was put in a hospital.
And I believe he died.
- That has got to have
been very tragic for them
and then perhaps the
theater was an escape.
- In the photographs, they
look when they're with the kid
I mean especially
Dorothy looks so happy.
She wants this.
- And then, one day came,
the Hamptons went on a vacation
and they just never quite
somehow got around to reopening.
- It was always, we're
gonna reopen sometime soon
and sometime soon stretched
to six months and a year
and ultimately
something like 10 years.
- By the early 80s, everybody's
putting all those films
that you used to see at
Silent Movie Theatre on VHS.
And then in 1979 Kevin
Brownlow's Hollywood Series
is finally syndicated.
Now I've seen stuff
I've never seen.
I've kind of graduated
from film history 101
of the Hamptons and now
I'm into graduate level
Kevin Brownlow silent films.
- The Hamptons at
the time had an offer
to sell the collection and
close down as I understand it
to inventory their collection,
get ready to sell it
for a substantial
amount of money.
- Well I heard
through the grapevine
that David Packard had
bought that collection.
When you sell things off,
it's perhaps an indication
that you're not as completely
obsessed as you were.
- They just kind of
disappeared, faded out.
You know, kind of like
Norma Desmond in a way.
- And then the next
thing one heard
is that John was ill
and then really ill.
- It must have attributed
this man's ill health
that he was sitting
there all day
breathing all these
different chemicals.
He was mixing them
in the bathroom.
- Whether John Hampton
really died as a result of
what he breathed, who can say?
Who can say?
He lived to be 80.
- Then you know, then John died.
And Dorothy lived on upstairs
in their little
apartment upstairs.
- Well obviously
when I heard that
I thought well that's
the final blow.
That's the end of the theater.
- It just kind of seemed to,
was going to die a quiet death.
- It was part of my past and
I kept needing to revisit.
You know, we all
have these regrets.
I wish I had gone to
the Silent Movie Theatre
a couple times
before it closed down
and just visit it one more time
in the form that I knew it.
♪ They think that I'm bashful
♪ But I'm flighty
just the same ♪
♪ It's this dress I wear that
makes them think I'm slow ♪
♪ They think I haven't
cut my wisdom tooth ♪
♪ But oh boy if they
only knew the truth ♪
- I drove down Fairfax one
day and they were painting it.
There were people out
front putting a fresh coat
of paint on it and I went
oh my goodness, it's
coming back to life.
- Suddenly I realized there's
this new person, Larry Austin
who suddenly is going to
open the theater again.
I said, couldn't believe it.
- Well, I've been
running silent films
for about four years before this
at a church out in the valley.
And Hampton of course
knew about this
and he's very much interested
in the project I was doing.
Unfortunately his
health never allowed him
to come to see what
I was doing, but,
he knew I always
had this interest.
And when he passed away,
I talked to Dorothy about
reopening the theater.
And she thought it
was a good idea so
it took us about five
months to get the place
in shape again.
- He had been going to the
theater for a long, long time.
He did know the Hamptons.
He was in a position,
because he was known by them
to talk Dorothy into letting
him reopen the theater.
- And we reopened on
January 18th, 1991
with the film "King of Kings".
- That was great!
I had a great time
and I started going
more and more often.
- It was 1991, I
moved to Los Angeles.
Around the corner, like a
few blocks from where I lived
there was this Silent Movie
Theatre and I thought wow,
how amazing is this.
- A friend of mine
said you know,
have you been to this place,
the Silent Movie
Theatre on Fairfax?
- That was my Friday night.
I used to walk over the
Silent Movie Theatre
and watch these films
and it was magic to me.
- I was blown away by
the first experience
and also impressed by
the proprietor who plays.
One Lawrence Austin.
- He really did a great
number on the theater.
I mean the theater
really came to life.
- I was amazed what
he had done with it.
He made it into a
beautiful little jewel box.
- Like a little toy theater.
Like a little dream theater.
Just the right size, you know.
Couple hundred seats.
- Larry put the right
curtain on the theater
which is still there.
- Really, really
wonderful blowups of
major silent stars.
- The wooden seats were
still freaking uncomfortable.
He did finally pad
the bottom parts.
- Lawrence indicated
that he was very close
to the Hamptons.
- He felt they were like family.
They had known each
other for years, he said
and I'd seen snapshots of
them taking trips together.
- He certainly seemed to have
a close bond with Dorothy.
- Lawrence would give
the person the ticket
and not three feet
away, there'd be Dorothy
ripping the ticket in half.
It was like the
space of this much.
- She smile, she glowed,
she right where regarded it
as a miracle.
- Larry played them all
but we tried to put on the
best films that we could.
And my husband spent his life
collecting and
refurbishing, you know.
- Clearly he was
very fond of Dorothy.
But he would say
things like, well John.
People don't know John.
John had a very dark side.
I kind of think it might
had just been as innocent
as running some porn reels
for his own pleasure.
- I got to work one
day and Lawrence
was out on the back
patio with a garbage can
with a pencil stuck
through the reels
and literally pulling the
stuff, this film off these reels
into the garbage can.
And I'm like what are you doing?
He says, oh there's
all these films.
It's pornography, you
want some pornography?
- It might have been
hardcore, but it was antique.
Another time though, we
were inventoring the film
at the back of the film vault.
And he gets to one and he says
write down this
one, A224XXX horse.
And he sets it down.
- Larry would tell me that
John would be collecting
large amounts of pornography,
as he was anti-pornography.
And he would do marches
and things like that.
Then upstairs, Dorothy
would be in bed
watching evangelists
on the television.
- Lawrence was absolutely
enamored of silent films.
He would often get the
names and dates wrong
when he was relaying
information to the audience.
Because that wasn't the most
important thing to Lawrence.
- There must have been
something more than just
let's say promoting himself
when he was running the theater.
- He loved to play
the role of the person
who represented the
Silent Movie Theatre.
He was extremely
proud of that role.
- I was working at
the theater the night
that the LA riots started.
Larry continued to run the
theater through the riots.
He was running Laurel
and Hardy movies
during the Los Angeles riots.
Couldn't understand
why Larry wouldn't just
close the theater.
But again it was part
of being Larry Austin
was to just damn the
torpedoes, full steam ahead.
- As a silent film buff,
with Larry running it
in the first four to five
years up to about 95,
he really went all out
to try and show things.
- He didn't really care
if five people showed up
or 15 or 200.
Pretty much the midweek show
was where you'd see the
real sort of rarities.
- And birth, it
takes a lot of worth
and considering so
many films gone by,
it challenge you to what kind
of programs you can put on
and change the variation
so that you'll keep
the audience interest
in the program.
- Larry Austin would screen
as many rare features as
he can get his hands on.
"The Black Pirate",
"Love Sosoniaw", Sadie Thompson.
- He, unlike John
Hampton would get films
from various sources, not
just what was at the theater.
- He was able to get a
lot of MGM silent films
that never got shown.
Well we got to see
a lot of that stuff.
- There were never a
lot of people there
except on comedy nights.
- Laurel and Hardy weekend,
all star comedy or Chaplin.
'Cause the comedies really
sort of drew the most in.
- Larry put certain
emphasis on comedy.
He called his company, I guess,
the Shape of
Laughter productions.
- He showed a lot of Keaton.
Keaton had a resurgence
because of Larry, literally.
- That was the only
time you would ever see
any kind of real line
out this theater.
- There were still films from
John Hampton's collection
at the theater.
And that helped a lot because
we could draw on those.
- Naturally, he was
very protective of this.
He really didn't want
other collectors to know
what was in the collection.
It's the holy grail,
you know, finding out,
getting a list of what
the films were actually
in the collection.
And the rumors were flying
about what he actually had
and many of them, perpetuated
by Lawrence himself
who would say oh
yeah, we have that.
We have that and
someday I'll show it.
And of course he never did.
- One of the nights
we ran, "The Eagle"
which was a real strong
Valentino picture.
Larry brought out this print
and I printed it up and
did some rehearsal with it.
And it was pretty
fuzzy, pretty dupey
and I said to Larry, well
it's not very good quality.
And Larry went back
into the vaults
and brought out another print.
So I printed up this print
and it looked about the same.
So I said to Larry, this is
not better really, Larry.
Larry went back into
the vault again,
brought out a third print.
It was gorgeous.
- I remember one time I get
this phone call from him
and he says "You're never
gonna guess what I found."
I said, "What?"
"Well I've been going through
these cans that Hampton had
"and checking his notes."
And he goes "There's some
footage from Chaney's Thunder."
which was Chaney's
last silent film
which has been considered lost.
I said "You're kidding."
He goes. "No."
He says "Come down tomorrow,
I'll show it for you."
- I didn't care if it was nerdy
to spend my Friday nights
in the Silent Movie Theatre.
I was very happy there.
- It was the best
time of my life,
that two and a half
years I was there, really
with all the ups and downs.
- Once everything settled
in and the lights went down
and I got to sit in the back
row finally and just watch,
and it was fantastic.
Silent films are not
meant to be seen silent.
Silent films are meant
to be seen with music.
And Lawrence knew this.
- You'd have players
like Bob Mitchell,
the legendary Bob Mitchell.
- The first night I came here,
they were showing "Hands Up".
And I had played for that in
1925 at the Strand Theater.
And I remember it vividly.
- Dayward Carter,
of the top three
silent film accompanists
of all time.
- Dean Mora started
playing for Larry.
- I actually started on piano.
Lawrence had said "We'll
start you on a movie
"that we're showing
for a UCLA film class.
"It'll be on piano and
it'll be pretty easy."
And it turned out to
be "Birth of a Nation."
It's only three hours long.
- First thing, they
called me, said that
can you play "Pomp
and Circumstance"?
I said yes I can play
it in all 12 keys.
- He would open each show
with "Pomp and Circumstance"
which I guess he had
heard that Sid Grauman
had himself piped into
the Grauman's Chinese.
- Oh my god, what is he doing?
- It was Larry, it was
part of the show, you know?
- This worked.
Every time I start up
"Pomp and Circumstance"
audience would go and applause.
So he knew his
showbusiness anyhow.
- Tonight we're gonna
start the program
with "Felix the Cat".
- He was utterly
charming and weird.
- He would tell you how
he'd preserve the films
and how he was running
films in 35 millimeter
when in fact they
were 16 millimeter.
- He would often laugh.
And people really were
kind of laughing at him
but he would laugh also.
And the whole thing had kind of
a rather friendly vibe about it.
- He seemed to have this
infectious love of the films
that he was showing.
I caught that right away
and I loved this guy.
And I love the theater
and I love what he was doing.
- And Lawrence did make
an evening out of it.
It was something that was
I think very special.
- And for six dollars,
you could come hear these
incredible players play
and bring these
antiques to life.
- The movie started
with all these things
to support the film.
Vaudeville and music.
And that gradually
went away and movies
just became an
automated sort of thing.
Just a machine running.
Larry was gonna bring
back a human touch.
- He'd say "so on with the show"
and he'd walk back
up and he'd start.
He'd get up in the theater
and the curtains would part.
Larry, what can you
say about Larry?
There's a lot you
can say about Larry.
- Larry was a very
interesting person.
He could be a lot of fun.
- Larger than life in many ways.
He was very full of life.
He was somebody that I
look forward to seeing,
you know, everyday.
- I think if you looked
up the word dichotomy
you'd see Larry
Austin's picture.
- Lawrence was a Mormon.
And would often sort
of sponsor events
at the Mormon church.
- He loved his mother.
I mean what his
mama said was law.
Mama hated FDR and
Larry hated FDR.
He was just a real, real
dyed in the wool republican.
- Larry and I developed
a very nice relationship.
- Our friendship was built
around collecting films
and "Murder She Wrote."
And after "Murder She
Wrote" would be over,
the phone would ring
and it'll be Larry
talking about this
scene or that scene.
- I don't wanna deal to
heavily in stereotypes.
I of all people, there you go,
Larry like myself, I think
is pretty easy to figure
out that we're gay.
- Don't wanna say I
took it for granted
but I assumed it.
- He was very defensive
about being gay.
Very uptight about that.
- He pretended in fact
that he was straight.
Talking about globetrotting
with lady friends.
Oh, what a time we had.
- He was always upfront.
He would talk about his
encounters, his boyfriends.
- Why he pretended to be
straight in my presence,
I never understood.
I mean, he was of another time.
- There are some reasons
why I enjoy doing this work.
One of them is that my
parents were in the business.
My mother worked for the mail
and my father was an actor.
- Larry did start
talking about his parents
quite a lot.
- And he would tell
these wonderful stories
about his childhood.
- His father was
actor William Austin
of probably most famous for
his role in the film "It."
- His mom made C.B.
Demille's BVDs.
That was always
his famous point.
- And then his uncle
was Albert Austin
who is in a lot of
the Chaplin films
especially the Chaplin mutuals.
He's got in those
films a big mustache.
- He would talk about walking
with his uncle on the lot.
And he was attacked
by Rin Tin Tin
and he took whatever
was in his hand
and he whacked him
right over the snout.
None of that was true.
- It was more or
less common knowledge
that he had been in prison,
that he wasn't the
son of William Austin,
that his mother hadn't
worked for Cecil B. Demille.
- These were jawdroppers.
The whole thing
was a jawdropper.
But it didn't affect
my feeling for him.
- Stories came out later.
His father was a macho sailor,
didn't care for his son
who played with dolls
instead of army men
et cetera et cetera,
that kind of stuff.
- You know, this is Hollywood.
We all despise but
also love a conman.
Anybody who can get
by on their wits alone
and Lawrence was a guy who
can get by on his wits.
- I mean I had sort
of this image of him
that's this coyote-esque
windmill chaser
and superhero who was
offering this experience to me
and the minions you
know, week after week.
I got in there and he
was a very difficult
individual to work for.
- He wasn't a saint
and he wasn't a devil.
Although there are some people
that probably think that.
Lawrence was one
of these people who
strove for respectability
or outward respectability.
- He was not exactly the most
honest person in the world.
- He would rarely tell the truth
when a lie would suffice.
And I was often asked to
back him up in his lie
and how much was
buried.
At the same time,
lavish gifts on people
that he decided to arbitrarily
and he was very
generous with me.
- The whole movie world that
was related to silent pictures
and that sort of thing
was clearly aware
of Larry's activities
and his skilfulness
at being minion.
- He wanted to be the only
guy who was bringing silence
to the modern world.
- Cinecon, which
meets every Labor Day
and he would try
to outshine them.
- Cinecon is an
organization that puts on
a festival every year,
fantastic rarities
such as early silent films.
- Cinecon brought out
the perverse in Larry.
- He would jealously
save his best material
for the week that
Cinecon was going.
- I never was
involved in the feud.
I always thought it
was kind of stupid.
I mean the biggest thing
you're gonna get out of this
is being the king
of silent movies.
And nobody cares, you know, in
the greater scheme of things.
- That was Larry's take on it.
He was out there to
cut the competition
and steal audiences if he could.
- Almost at this
very time I met Larry
I met James Van Sickle.
- A friend of Larry's who
corresponded with people
in prison, brought him out.
He had just gotten out and
was trying to help him.
- Every time that Larry would
be in the room with James,
the few times that
I saw them together,
you could just
see it in his eyes
that he was hanging on every
word that James had said.
- James had sort of
wormed his way into
a very important
position, if ill-defined.
- There were times when
I would run errands
and those errands were
paying James' cable bill.
Or paying overdue
utility bills for James.
- James in his
more in shape days
had been a Hollywood Hustler.
- He would often
use this, you know
"in my wilder days"
statement, talk about
his gay bashing days.
- Was he gay?
I didn't think so.
- They had got into
an argument one night
and James had taken
the telephone cord
and wrapped it
around Larry's throat
and tried to kill him.
- There were a number of
nights where I was asked
to stay late.
Lawrence would say "well
tell James that you,
"You can't come in
tomorrow and do your work
"so you have to stay
late tonight to do it
"because he's in
one of his moods
"and I'd really rather
there was somebody here."
- The other side of
this is Larry then,
gets to put back into prison.
While James is back in prison,
he buys and sends him
a color television,
sends him a case of oysters
and other foods that he likes.
Of course he gets out
of prison, he's back
in Larry's life again.
- I warned him once, I
had the nerve to suggest
at one point that he
needed to be afraid.
Yet he kept taking him back.
And others have warned him,
he kept taking him back.
- The best way you can
describe the relationship
is battered wife syndrome.
And Larry's the battered wife.
- I was sort of keeping a
watchful eye at that point
and I felt that maybe
if I was diligent
that maybe I could
somehow intervene
because of course the
theater was everything
and James was a threat to that.
- I never could figure
out how you could possibly
keep that place running, you
know, and even break even.
Much less make a profit
and it turns out,
he probably didn't.
- Lawrence had that glorious
situation at the theater
where money was not
a major concern.
He lived upstairs.
He took one vacation a year,
kept his gold Cadillac
with the license plate
Mr. Silent or M. Silent.
- He was buying things and
he bought James a truck.
- You know the old
saying play your cards
close to the vest?
Larry had him inside his vest.
- This sort of
incredible rumor mill
that surrounded the
theater, Lawrence.
- Larry was a little mysterious.
- Some of these stories were
true, others were false.
Others I'm still not
sure about.
- There were rumors that odd
events were going on there.
You know, sex with
maybe hired people.
- He also did some
copying of things
that were really not
on the up and up.
- He would rent films
from some of the studios
and he would backdoor
it out to the lab
to get a negative made
for bootleg prints.
- According to Larry,
they were extra prints
that John Hampton had.
- The best way to
describe this is that
a film would play at
the Silent Movie Theatre
and then three or four weeks
later, you'd get a call
saying "Do you want a
print of such and such?"
- At the time, I was
not privy to any detail.
I was however sent on these
sketchy clandestine errands
for instance at two o'clock
there would be a guy
pulling into the parking lot
of Bob's Big Boy in Burbank.
He'll be driving a blue pinto.
Don't talk to him.
Just give him this
film and this envelope
and he'll give you an
envelope and bring it back.
Lawrence was really sort
of from a proud tradition
of thieving materials that
very few people care about
but certain people are
passionate enough to steal for.
- He was a film collector.
And when you get into the
realm of film collecting
you get into this
controversial area.
- Half the films in the
archive wouldn't be there
if over the years and
decades, film collectors,
people who saw these films
as something special,
had begged,
borrowed, stolen then
whatever they had to do
from whatever source.
- I don't think that was a
cool thing for Larry to do.
But I don't think he,
it was as much of a
stretch for him to justify
any kind of behavior, whether
it would be embezzling
or illegal copying
of prints, you know.
I just think that he
was an outlaw in a way.
- There was definitely
a greed factor there.
He liked money.
And he looked for
reasons to get it.
But he was always very
selective about who and how.
- John Hampton and
Dorothy had built up
a large collection
of posters and stills
and trade magazines.
And Lawrence was busy
using surrogates to sell
all that material to collectors.
- He didn't have things.
He didn't know how to get them.
He embezzled money.
He was an opportunity,
certainly I can relate
since my dream was to someday
run the Silent Movie Theatre.
I'm sure when he was
going there, friends
with the Hamptons,
someday he wanted to be
the person that did this.
- Now there's always
been the implications
that he took a lot of money
out of Dorothy's pocket
to get it done, I don't know.
- You know the odd thing is,
Lawrence didn't
introduce me to Dorothy
as one of the owners
of the theater.
- I mean there are
accusations that at the end
he didn't treat her
like he should have.
He wasn't generous
enough with her.
I didn't necessarily
see this firsthand
but she seemed delighted that
he had reopened the theater.
- I don't think any of us
were aware until much later
that he had essentially
tricked her out
of it by getting her to
sign a quick claim deed.
- Larry at one time
asked me to be a witness
to the changing
of Dorothy's will.
So I got there and he
brought the paperwork out
and I said "Where's Dorothy?"
- He said "Well, nobody
sees Dorothy anymore."
- I said "Well, Larry, I
can't witness a signature
"that I didn't
see Dorothy sign."
- I knew her and
she was not senile.
And she knew what was going on.
And I think that she wanted
Larry to have the theater
because it kept John
Hampton's work alive.
- People have said Larry
took advantage of Dorothy.
I don't know about how
true any of this is.
And I don't give a damn.
Because I never saw Dorothy
more radiantly happy
ever in the whole
time I knew her
as when Larry
reopened that theater.
- Once a year,
Lawrence was invited
to be a guest in Japan.
Lawrence would take a
player along with him
and oddly enough,
his hairdresser.
- He was just thrilled.
He was just thrilled to go.
And I'm sure he's
thrilled to get back
'cause he loved
his cats so much.
And he loved his theater.
- Probably the thing that
Lawrence was most connected to
in the world besides the theater
was his beloved cat that he
gave the name Sir Purity.
- Beautiful cat, long hair.
- He'd always said
that when he died
he wanted Sir
Purity put to sleep
and rested on his chest
in his crossed arms
as he was lowered
into the ground.
- He used to hug this
cat and he used to say
"He knows nothing of the
evils of the outside world.
"He is safe here, he
will always be safe
"here in this theater."
- James was able to use the cat
because he knew that the cat
was an Achilles
heel for Lawrence.
He would often sort
of make threats
against Sir Purity to get
leverage with Lawrence.
- He called me
one night and said
"Well James pulled a
Trall Rodbury on me.
- A phone call came
through and it was Lawrence
and he said "Oh you'll never
imagine what just happened.
"James came in
with these two guys
"and they threatened to
throw me down the stairs
"if I didn't give them all
the money in the place.
"I called the police,
police are on their way."
Well I saw them out side,
I saw them out front.
I saw them acting
very suspiciously.
Do you want me to come back
and talk to the police?
" No, no, no, don't come
back, don't get involved.
"I'll talk to the police
"and I'm having the
locks changed today.
"We won't see James here again."
- Later in the day
James called and said
you know, they put him up to it.
- I said well boy, James sounds
pretty dangerous, you know.
He said "Well I've gotten a
restraining order against him."
- He did get a cellphone
so he had a cellphone
by the bed in case he
had to call the police.
Because at that point he
did fear for his life.
- So for the next
several months,
it was Lawrence and I.
I became a lot more
involved in every aspect
of running the place.
I was loving it.
I mean I was learning
new stuff every day.
Really I felt like
I was being groomed.
I still think it was the
greatest time of my life.
Of course, it couldn't last.
- By 96, he was still showing
some interesting stuff
but not as much.
I had heard he was thinking
of pulling the pin,
selling the theater or
just closing the theater
within a couple of years.
- The phone rang in the
lobby during a show.
And I picked up
the phone and next,
somebody on the other end
asked in a gruff voice,
"Is Lawrence Austin there?"
And I knew instantaneously
that it was James
and my heart froze.
And I said "He's not available."
And James said "You know
who this is, don't you?"
- That was the
point that I started
getting really scared for Larry.
I mean I'm really
getting scared.
- And the next day I came
in and the first thing I did
was I told Lawrence
I had to leave.
He acted very
strangely and he said
"Oh well, fine", he said,
"Well we don't need you here.
"We've been here a long
time and we'll be here
"long after you're gone."
- Larry said to me
"Oh, I'm not afraid.
"I'm not afraid", he said.
"God will protect me."
- Every week he'd
call and he'd say
"I know you miss this place.
"You're not gonna be
able to stay away."
He was right.
Boy, I wish I could
change reality.
But you know,
- The feature that was gonna
be shown was "Sunrise."
- As usual, Lawrence
started out with his march
down the aisle to "Pomp
and Circumstance".
- One of those standard nights.
- That night I came
here to see "Sunrise."
- First it opened with
Felix the Cat goes hungry.
And the second short that
run was called "The Golf Bug"
with Monty Banks.
The next thing I notice
is somebody has come in
and sat down at the end seat.
"School Days" comes on.
He abruptly gets up and goes.
I mean abruptly.
- And as I'm coming
out of the bathroom,
it was only like a
minute or two later,
- All of a sudden there
was this enormous noise.
- Bam!
- What I thought
were firecrackers.
- And then there were
two more, bam, bam.
- And I remember this
woman walking out
and I remember jumping
on her to keep her down.
- I can remember
thinking to myself
"What the fuck was that?"
- And I heard you
know, bam, another one.
- Then I stopped playing.
- Dean Mora jumps up
immediately from his bench.
- And at that point I see
someone bursting through
the curtains on the other aisle.
- And it's my former
seatmate there.
- Running down and
starts shooting.
- It's this very theatrical
move on his part.
- Bang, bam.
And I just saw
like orange flame.
- The gunman stopped
shooting and I heard him
go out the door.
At that point, I
ran into the lobby
and saw the candy counter girl
standing there and crying.
At that point I knew, something
terribly wrong happened.
And that's when I
looked over the counter
of the snack bar and
saw Lawrence was shot.
- The first thing I
spot is Mary Giles,
the concessions girl,
she was lying on the ground
with her knees drawn up.
She had a white t-shirt on.
There's red in the
front of her t-shirt.
- I remember trying to help Mary
who was bleeding, a lot.
- Looked over the candy counter
and there's Lawrence's body.
- It was on his right side.
And there was this
oval, I mean like this.
- First of all, there was a hole
where his right eye had been.
- And I remember
thinking I didn't realize
that the human body had
so much blood in it.
Because there was
just blood everywhere.
- The phone rang and
it was Dean calling.
I just said, "You know,
it was James, wasn't it?"
And he said "No, no."
- Received a phone call
that there had been
a homicide in
Hollywood Division.
And it was possibly going
to be a double homicide.
- And there was a
lot of people there.
A lot of crowd of people.
The street was all blocked
off with police cars
and yellow tape.
- We're informed that
Mary had been transported
to the hospital in
extremely critical condition
with a gunshot
wound to the chest
she sustained at
point blank range.
- We went down to talk to Mary.
We still to this day honestly
do not know how she survived.
And the bullet somehow
went around her ribcage.
- There were a few things
that initially didn't add up.
Generally when someone
comes in for a robbery
they're gonna take
everything that they can.
- The money was still
there which was strange.
- Most people that commit
a robbery are not going
to run out where
they could be seen
and cause any kind of attention
to be brought to themselves.
- The night after
Austin was shot,
I drove by the theater
and there was like
a candlelight vigil outside.
There were a dozen
candles burning,
flickering out there.
And people had put
up all these notes
on the wall that said I
came here when I was 14
or I came here when I was 23.
Really personal
experiences that were like
telling the world or
anybody who wandered by
what the theater meant to them.
They just started crying.
This mass, spontaneous
outpouring of love
for this building which I took
as love for John
Hampton's creation
but it was also for,
thank you Mr. Austin
for bringing it back to us.
- Our first clue that
was making us believe
that something
wasn't exactly right,
this wasn't a robbery.
A handwritten will that
just didn't look right.
- James claimed he
owned the theater
because he had the will.
Handwritten will on
a cocktail napkin
supposedly scribbled by
Lawrence at an airport.
- Lawrence Austin
who hated flying,
traveling to Japan.
He said "Hey if something
happened to either one of us,
"you know, we should
make sure we take care
"of the business."
- Couple of days
after the murder,
and he says oh, when they find
that will, I'm in trouble.
- The more information
we got about James,
the more we started keying on,
he was more involved in this.
- Why?
I mean why would
someone do this, okay?
And there's really
no explanation.
I mean think about it.
- We initially found that
he had been on parole
and that he had been convicted
of an attempted murder.
- He had been in
prison for beating
a gay man, an older gay man
that he had kind of befriended.
And so that was kind of
similar to what we had here.
- Mr. Van Sickle
would never admit
to being homosexual, only
saying that he was a hustler
and he did what he
had to do survive
and to make money.
- Sex always comes up
in Hollywood cases.
I don't care what it is.
You know, a guy could get
hit by a motorcycle on Mohol
and somehow sex gets into it.
- He advises that because
of the shady dealings
that Mr. Austin had
had over the years,
he had more than likely
had a number of people
who would be not so displeased
if they would have
seen him dead.
He covered everyone
from the Yakuza
all the way down to
the homeless people
that live down the alley.
- I've heard that Larry had
people that disliked him
but I'd never classify
them as enemies.
They were just collectors,
people that maybe he screwed.
I mean in a monetary way.
- Certainly Mr.
Austin was no angel.
I think we were
pretty clear on that
in our investigation.
Not a whole lot there
that would warrant
a contract hit though.
We kind of got a whole
different dimension
of Mr. Van Sickle at this point.
It became very clear to us
that he was very manipulative.
A couple of things
that came out,
he didn't like me at all.
But he did like
Detective Miller.
- Because I had more
in common with him.
I was from the Midwest,
I was in the Marines,
I was white.
I played like I understood.
- I was very
straightforward with James,
let him know right
upfront that since we,
there were a number of people
that we hadn't eliminated
as suspects, and I informed him
that he was on that list.
He was pretty close to the
top, and working his way up.
- What's kind of interesting
is at the funeral,
James was acting very distant.
Yet he drove up in
Larry's Cadillac.
- Michael and I went
to Lawrence's funeral.
And it was all very odd.
- There's all these
people at his gravesite
and I feel just, I was so moved
that people did appreciate
what he was doing
and they loved him.
- Immediately upon
completion of the service,
he came over to me and started
pumping me for information.
Had I spoken to the
police, he said, oh.
Did you say anything to the cops
because, man they were
really sweating me down.
- Well then we got Moreland.
The secret service actually
called us about Moreland
and he had information.
He had met Van Sickle
at a party in south L.A.
And he said he
thought it was strange
that this white boy
was down at the hood.
- He apparently approached
some Compton gang members
about doing a contact killing.
And they were willing
to take the money
but they were totally turned off
by his lack of professionalism.
Apparently there are
certain protocols
that he violated in
the world of hitmen.
- And we met with Moreland.
And he started
giving us information
that made sense to us.
He described the place.
- We're pretty sure at some
point that they dry ran it.
We're pretty sure
that at some point
they had discussed
the viability of them
taking on the contract.
- It's like the line out
of Alice in Wonderland.
Curiouser and curiouser as
we go down the rabbit hole.
- Since there had been so much
media interest in the case,
we're contacted by the producers
of America's Most Wanted.
- And this is where
we got very lucky.
- They sent out Jeannie
Borland to do a composite
of the shooter.
- And when she was finished,
she had this composite
that really looked
like a person.
- So we blasted that
out to the media
and we went live with that.
Very shortly thereafter,
we're contacted
by the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department
and they informed us that an
informant had come forward.
- He said you know that
he was out with a friend,
Christian Rodriguez
and another friend.
And he had the paper.
And this composite
was on the front page.
And he said, god this
looks just like you.
And Rodriguez said in return
"They'll never make me
"off of that picture."
- This is someone that
you would never expect
coming from where he came
from would be involved
in this type of activity
but then we learned
of his life situation where
he had just had a baby.
He was a teenager.
And he had no visible
means of support,
no desire to support himself.
- We finally decided,
okay, what we need now
is we're gonna take
both of these guys down
as quickly as we can,
but we want Van Sickle first.
So we placed him on round
the clock surveillance,
24 hours a day with our
Special Investigations Section,
it was known as SIS.
- And we said okay,
we're gonna get Moreland
to meet with Van Sickle,
we're gonna have him wired.
- And followed him
all the way back
to his residence in Lakewood.
I had prestaged Mr. Moreland
at the residence in Lakewood
so he can confront
James when he arrived
at his residence.
- And I mean Moreland
did a fantastic job.
He like jumps out in front of
him, and "Hey motherfucker.
"What you doing
coming into the hood
"and the hood gets
none of this money
"and you're paying it to this
Mexican from the eastside?"
- He was able to elicit
statements from Mr. Van Sickle
about how the deal was
made with Rodriguez
and discussed how he was
gonna eliminate the hitman.
And he wanted to know
if he knew anyone
that would be able
to take that job on.
- So as soon as they broke off,
our units took Van
Sickle down in his truck
and arrested him.
And then we went over
to Rodriguez's place.
We had it staked out.
- There was a short pursuit
in the city of Southgate
and he was taken into custody.
- He immediately, as
soon as we got him
back to the station, confessed.
- I couldn't drive down Fairfax.
I couldn't drive by the theater,
it was too heartbreaking.
I mean I was trying to
distance myself emotionally
from the situation.
Because not only had
I lost my friend.
But there was the tragedy
of the loss of the theater
to Los Angeles.
I was never again, I thought,
going to be able
to go back there.
- The actual trial for
Christian Rodriguez,
the guy who pulled the
trigger, was about three days.
- They finally came
in with the verdict.
And they had two juries.
One for Rodriguez
and one for James.
So they read it, guilty,
guilty, guilty, guilty.
- Van Sickle did not
get the death penalty.
- He has no chance of
ever getting out of prison
without, absent of escape.
- They are where they are.
And will be until
they're buried.
- There was Lawrence's
family who thought
they should inherit the theater.
And there was the
Hampton family appeared
and made the case that Lawrence
had swindled the theater.
Soon, a deal was worked
out that basically
the Hampton family and
the Austin family agreed
to sell the theater
and all of the films.
With that money, they would
pay for Dorothy's care
until she died.
At which point they
would divide the amount
between the two families.
- The theater was gone.
Specially when they
had the auction.
- It was pretty clear that
there were institutions
and other more
serious collectors
who had specific things in mind.
But no matter what you bid,
you weren't gonna win it.
- I wanted that
clip of "Thunder".
That needed to be preserved.
I tell you, that can
get mighty dangerous.
And it turned out I was bidding
against a well heeled
private collector.
Thank god my wife
wasn't with me.
And it got up to 4,000 dollars.
And I won the bid.
- Once the film collection
was auctioned off
at Butterfield and Butterfield,
it was to my mind
completely over.
The theater possessing
that library of films
was the only way that
it was going to continue
to function like it did.
♪ Pale hands I loved
♪ Beside the
shining moon where ♪
♪ Where are you now
who lies beneath ♪
♪ Your spell
♪ Who do you lean on
♪ Rapture's road way far
♪ Before you wag on
♪ I say meeting farewell
♪ Before you wag on
♪ I stand faring farewell
- It had a second rebirth.
This is now officially the end.
It can't come back
again for a third time.
So when it was reopened
by Charlie Lustman,
it was indeed an amazing event.
- You, everybody knows,
who lives in L.A.
knows that place.
But mostly I would say
99.9 percent of the people
who've driven down
Fairfax their entire life
had seen it, never went inside.
And I was one of those guys.
- He was a very dynamic guy.
He seemed very enthusiastic.
He was running
around like a chicken
with his head cut off trying
to make everything just right.
I mean the place is beautiful,
I couldn't fault him.
He seemed to really care.
- I was a purist.
I wanted it to be a silent
cinema with live music.
We're gonna run these
things every day.
- I felt it's time
to come face to face
with my demons.
I'm gonna have to go into
this theater sooner or later.
So I knocked on the
door and lo and behold,
Charlie Lustman
answers the door.
And I had known Charlie
back in high school.
- When I walked through those
doors for the first time
since I walked out on Lawrence,
I knew that I wasn't gonna
be able to leave again.
- I called him up.
And he said "No, I don't care
to subscribe to the Times."
You know.
That was our starting point.
- And before I know it, I'm
not only selling tickets
but then I'm serving the popcorn
and then I'm in the box office.
And next thing I
know Charlie and I
are running this place together.
- Charlie kept
calling me and said
we really, really want you
back, we really want you back.
And I said no, no, no.
And if I said that he brought
in a holy man or a shaman,
- You know, hard times, you
have to take tough measures.
You know?
So we brought in Maurice
and this guy comes in
and he looked like an
Indian and he was French.
And he came in with Kopal
which is like tree bark
and a big abalone shell and
he starts burning this stuff
and he had a drum.
Then we sit and we have this
kind of like seance thing,
we're all holding
hands and everything.
And then we take the crystal.
She's like all the energy's
been sucked into the crystals.
You put them into a bag
and he tied it really tight
and he hands it to me.
You must release
these into the nature.
Everything worked after he left.
Never had a problem with
the phones, the faxes,
email, you know internet.
- Charlie opened the theater
and it was quite an event.
- Just you know, it's
a complete circus.
What was interesting
to me was the fact that
I didn't know what
the hell I was doing.
- This guy bought the
silent movie theater
having never seen a silent
movie before in his life.
And through sheer force of will,
he reimagined it,
he beautified it
without understanding
what was so great
about silent movies.
- He did not know a
lot about silent films.
- In the beginning,
actually very quickly
he alienated himself
sort of from the serious
silent film fan and community.
Because he wasn't
showing any obscurities.
- And in some peculiar way we
all felt like we owned it too.
We had invested a lot,
and here was some guy
we didn't know who knew
nothing about film.
They told me that
I was a scam, I'm a sham,
a con, a huckster.
You know they called
me all these things
like who is this guy,
he's not for real.
- They crucified Charlie.
Which I thought was unfair.
It wasn't any of
these grand filmmakers
that came forth to
save this theater.
It was this little
singer songwriter.
- Bad, are you kidding me?
I was sold out for eight
weeks straight for Nosferatu.
A public domain film that I had.
I mean it was just pure profit.
That was a great run.
Hey man, all publicity is
good publicity you know.
Even if they caught me
in bed with a hooker.
That would just be
really good for me
in more ways than one.
- Charlie's defense,
he didn't have
the amazing collection
of films that the theater
had had before.
This was a guy that had to rent
or procure from
private collectors
whatever he was gonna run.
- And he had a completely
different crowd in there.
It's not like the old gang.
You know, it's much younger.
He got more people in.
- One of the great things
about the newly reconstituted
Silent Movie Theatre under
Charlie Lustman's management was
he attracted big crowds.
- He thought of it more
broadly as more of a stage show
with him at the center.
♪ You call me on the telephone
♪ To ask if I am all alone
♪ And when I watch
a video today ♪
♪ You gotta be kidding me
- I thought that was marvelous.
He learned showmanship.
♪ So what you
♪ Take me to a
silent picture show ♪
♪ Help me
- This was a show.
And they're looking back at it
like it's some kind of artifact.
Nobody was getting it.
♪ And take me to the
Silent Picture show ♪
- The theater still had
the power to make converts.
And for that reason, I
certainly thought it was
important enough to stay
for the next five years.
- Whether you love Charlie
or you hated Charlie,
Charlie has to get the credit
that he kept the theater open.
- Those xenons would be struck
and we'd open the curtain
and people would applaud
just for the main title.
- Well Keaton was
our number one star.
Keaton really kept
me in business.
- I accept, hey Charlie
you cannot just show Keaton
and Lloyd and Chaplin and
Chaplin and Lloyd and Keaton
all the time.
- I just realized
that comedy's king
'cause I really didn't
like the dramas that much.
They were a little
too melodramatic,
they weren't that great.
There were just some
that were great.
You put on a Mernaut
picture, it was like wow!
- Charlie would
often run "Sunrise".
He ran it a number of times
as a tribute to Larry.
- I wanted to kind
of show that good
prevails over evil.
So I ran the movie on the
anniversary of the murder.
And we packed the house, right.
Ready to show the film,
we turn the machine on
and it stopped.
- The film was getting
torn up in the gate.
So I immediately
stopped the projector.
And Charlie, Charlie.
- Get on up, come on
you guys are like,
and there it goes.
And it goes back on and
they were on the picture.
At the end of the picture,
there was a bunch of
people came in the booth,
some different people.
And said "You know, we don't
like you manipulating us.
"Wow, how'd you do that?"
Projectors went down and it
was Larry up on the screen.
- People who knew Lawrence say
that for that split second,
they saw him on the screen.
- Folks, we didn't put any
picture of Lawrence Austin
on the screen.
- The films he ran
in the beginning,
"The Wedding March",
"Metropolis", "Big Parade".
It was terrific, it really was.
- Quickly he learned that
he couldn't sustain that
and profit, and in
fact he realized
he was never gonna profit on
running silent films alone.
So he beefed up his
special events business.
- What he realized by
booking these events
is that we could make more
money with one good wedding
than we could running
silent movies for six days.
- That was the only for
profit silent cinema
left in the world.
And there was a reason for that.
Because you can't live
off silents alone.
And you can't.
- The films were a
casualty of that.
We showed fewer
and fewer silents.
Until at the end it
was a few times a year.
- The last couple years
that Charlie had this place
we were making more
money than ever.
But we were burned out.
- Then I got sick.
- He felt a smooth place
above his upper teeth.
- Rare sarcoma, cancer
in my upper jawbone.
- It does seem like it's,
the theater has a
troubled history.
That's kind of part of it.
- I decided I gotta
check out completely.
And at the same time, I
finally got some interest
from one party who wanted
to take over the theater
and loved the theater
just the way it was
and wanted to run the
silent movies and so forth
and they bought it and
here they are today
running pictures and
I'm back to the music.
- Here again, the theater
continues to be surprising.
- Couldn't believe it.
I was absolutely shocked.
- Seems that the theater
outlasted everyone once again.
♪ You can't measure love
by auto rod or meter ♪
♪ But fill your heart
with love each day ♪
♪ Your life goes sweeter
♪ So put a little love
in everything you do ♪
♪ Love will boomerang
right back to you ♪
♪ Now don't forget it
♪ Love will boomerang
right back to you ♪
- Seems like
everybody has a story
or everybody trying to get
into film at some point
would come and check
it out and maybe see
their first silent films here.
Kind of became a joke
to me for a while
because I would go to
parties and so many people
would insist that they were here
the night that Lawrence
Austin was murdered.
There were more people
here that are in the venue.
It's like Woodstock.
It is physically impossible
that as many people
claimed to be here managed
to all find seats that night.
- Hey!
Hello?
Howdy, holy fucking
shit, everybody, right?
- We may seem like
sacrilegious new punks
for trying to take
over the place.
But we love the
stuff, and in reality,
we're probably the
straightest laced people
who've ever been in the venue.
The most we ever did
was crack open a beer
and I can't imagine the things
that go on here at night.
- The guys now
look, seem amazing.
They seem to really love the
theater and it's still there
and it's still
showing silent films,
they're making room for them.
- It really wasn't as much
maybe about a nostalgia
as it has been, this theater
or it's previous film buffs
have been, you know.
There's always gonna
be a little of that.
- I don't wanna come here and
have a nostalgic experience.
I'm not even sure that I
could trust that nostalgia.
- But the experience was
as true as it should be
and probably the
best as it will get.
- The reality of it
is, it's a business.
And to stay viable as a
business, you have to look
at various avenues.
And let's face it,
they haven't been making
silent films since 1929.
- The responses actually
has been a little warmer
than I expected.
I think initially we had a
lot of email and phone calls
and a couple people who
came in and made comments
like what are you doing to
my Silent Movie Theatre?
A very kind of like
personal feeling
like how can you bring in sound,
how can you start
showing Russ Meyer films,
this kind of thing.
- We didn't wanna mess
with too much though
because the place was
so beautiful as it is.
So everything is very delicate.
Like getting a couch
that would still fit in
with the deco aesthetic.
- Sounds ironic,
but I've gotta say
this is a house of
disappointment and
compromise to me.
But I mean that in
the very best sense.
Because at least it's
within a dream endeavored.
- Within just one
week at this theater,
you're gonna see
movies that could be
up to 100 years apart.
And that's the whole
history of cinema.
And that's what's
exciting to me.
- This is the smallest
projection booth
I have actually ever been in.
And they put digital
projection in.
You know, we've got
the slide projector.
16 millimeter and 35 so
it's really really crowded.
- The number one challenge
for revival house
is getting asses in seats.
You can show the most
amazing things in the world
but if people aren't here,
it's like it never happened.
- People do have
many alternatives.
They can Netflix many titles.
They can torrent the
film and download it
off the internet.
Or they just can get caught
up in watching Youtube.
The death of the movie theater
has been predicted
for a long time now.
Television really took
a big chunk out of it
as everybody remembers.
But it didn't disappear.
- It should be a spectacle
that is overwhelming
at some level.
Until that TV set is eight
times as high as I am,
there is simply a
physical reaction
to having that face
be bigger than you
that is more totemic,
more spiritual,
more altar-like.
But the number one,
size, sound, volume,
all these other things,
the number one I really believe
is the audience itself.
I love the moment in the film
where everyone kind
of gasps together.
I sometimes go like, this
movie's not even gonna work
if I don't have 40 people in.
- If the place is
packed, it's great,
there's nothing like it.
Mr. Bob Mitchell!
- It's a nice space.
And it's a space that
you wanna hang out in.
A lot of ways, it's what's
made the Silent Movie Theatre
a great venue.
Because there is
a sort of history
of theatricality to the place
that we can continue
pretty easily.
- As we move on and on
and on into the future,
that art becomes more and
more and more valuable
to our world.
And that's one of
the only places left.
- It's about the movies.
I won't be here forever.
The Harkham's won't
be here forever.
Obviously Mr. Hampton,
Mr. Austin and Charlie,
they worked here.
And this place goes on.
- The theater just
has a magic about it.
It just hangs in there
despite all the many problems
it's had over the years.
And it's not the most
comfortable theater in the world
but it's unique.
♪ You
♪ You keep me living in sin
♪ You laugh at me and then
♪ You say that you love me
♪ But I cannot see
♪ You're lying to me
♪ Didn't care for me
♪ You said that you
were honest and true ♪
♪ Love how could anyone
ever believe in you ♪
♪ You deny the chance
of loving you ♪
♪ What could it have been
♪ You keep me always
living in sin ♪