The Hoosier theatre salutes Charlie Chaplin’s illustrious character The Tramp when live silent cinema returns for Whiting audiences with the iconic Chaplin’s own 1921 comedy-drama “The Kid,” accompanied by veteran photoplay organist Jay Warren at the historic Hoosier Theatre on Sunday, April 24th at 2p.m. located at 1335 – 119th Street in Historic Downtown Whiting, Indiana.
Written and directed with all the inimitable trademark flourishes by Chaplin, “The Kid” tells the deeply poignant story of The Woman (Edna Purviance) who is down and out seemingly regretting the birth of her newborn child. She decides to leave the child in the back of an expensive car with a note requesting his safety and love, but unluckily the car is stolen by two thugs who ditch the baby in the alley of a poor neighborhood. The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin), with all his luck finds the child and is forced to keep him when he can’t pass the infant off to others. For the next five years he raises the boy (Jackie Coogan, best remembered from his adult role years later as Uncle Fester from the Addams Family TV show) as his own, and indoctrinates the lad into the finer art of “raising funds.” When the lad becomes ill, Charlie races for help but instead runs into people that want to take the boy away. What strange paths lie ahead for The Tramp, The Child, and The Woman?
Jay Warren- Chicago’s foremost photoplay organist- brings all the color, excitement and glamour of the silent film era back to life with his original scores for the silver screen. As a regularly featured photoplay organist for the Silent Film Society of Chicago, he as accompanied most of the great silent films throughout his forty year career in his famous rousing style and has been featured annually for the society’s highly reared Silent Summer Film Festival since its inception in 2000. For twelve consecutive years he held forth playing the huge E.M. Skinner pipe organ for silent films at the University of Chicago’s famed Rockefeller Memorial Chapel.
The Hoosier Theatre opened on February 15, 1924 presenting high-class vaudeville shows and movies. Seating 650, it impressively rivaled its big-brother movie palaces of that era. Designed with a Neo-classical motif, the auditorium is a true movie palace with rich relief plaster embellishments, tasteful pendant chandeliers, and a high ceiling dome accented in hidden colored lights. In 1987, the theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Now refurbished, and still a single-screen movie house with a massive screen (one of the few classic movie theatres still in operation in all of Northwestern Indiana), the Hoosier Theatre screens both first-run and classic films, as well as hosting the occasional concert or other live entertainment on its stage.
Tickets are priced at $ 10.00 for all seats. For more information about this special silent film screening of “The Kid,” call 219-588-9980 or go to http;//www.HoosierTheatre.com
Susie Young Baxter, CEO, has published PanoramaNOW Magazine for 31 years. Her hobbies are Camping, Boating, Hiking, Nature, Gardening and Outdoor Activities. She is an Artist, Graphic Designer, an Avid Seamstress, Dabbles in Homemade Crafts and Landscaping. Since her Father was a Health Teacher, she also likes homeopathic Health Solutions. Since blogging started over 10 years ago, PanoramaNow has been added to Newsbreak – a national news affiliate.
