Why Be Good?

Cast:

Colleen Moore – Pert Kelly

Neil Hamilton – Winthrop Peabody Jr.

Bodil Rosing – Ma Kelly

John St.  Polis – Pa Kelly

Edward Martindel – Winthrop Peabody Sr.

Louis Natheaux – Jimmy Alexander

Eddie Clayton – Tim

Lincoln Stedman – Jerry

Collette Merton – Julie

Dixie Carter – Susie

Synopsis:

Peabody Jr. (Neil Hamilton) and his friends prepare to frolic into the night before he must begin work the following day at his father’s department store.  Before departing, Peabody Sr. (Edward Martindale) lectures his son about the women of the day and that all the “cuties” at the store are off-limits.

In the meantime, Pert Kelly (Colleen Moore), after winning a dance contest is being wooed by gentlemen of questionable character.  All parties end up having a wild time at “The Boiler” where Pert catches the eye of Peabody Jr., who gives her a ride home and schedules a date for the following night.  Pert is tardy to work as she was up until 3:00 and must report to the personnel office where she is surprised to find Peabody Jr. working.  Peabody Sr. is there, figures out what’s going on, and terminates Pert’s employment.

Peabody Jr. must wait several hours past the scheduled date before he can talk to Pert and explain he did not do the firing.  They schedule another date.  Lavish gifts arrive for Pert to wear to the next date.  She gets lectured by Pa Kelly (John St.  Polis) about the lack of virtues of the “modern” man.  Similarly, Peabody Jr. is again lectured about the “modern” woman by Peabody Sr.

On the next date, Peabody Jr. has devised a test of Pert’s virtue.   When he tries to push her past her personal limits, she protests, in the process passing his test with ease.  They are married that night, and they arrive back home to prove her virtue to Peabody Sr. who now cannot refute it.

Colleen Moore

Colleen Moore was an American film actress who began her career during the silent film era.  A huge star in her day, Moore became one of the most fashionable (and highly-paid) stars of the era and helped popularize the bobbed haircut.

Approximately half of Moore’s films are now considered lost, including her first talking picture from 1929.  What was perhaps her most celebrated film, Flaming Youth (1923), is now mostly lost as well, with only one reel surviving.

Moore took a brief hiatus from acting between 1929 and 1933, just as sound was being added to motion pictures.  After the hiatus, her four sound pictures released in 1933 and 1934 were not financial successes.  Moore then retired permanently from screen acting and ultimately spent her later years living on the Central Coast in northern San Luis Obispo County.

After her film career, Moore maintained her wealth through astute investments, becoming a partner at Merrill Lynch.  She later wrote a “how-to” book about investing in the stock market.

Moore succumbed to cancer on January 25, 1988 (aged 88) in Paso Robles, California.

Christian Elliott

Christian Elliott is one of today’s premier theatre organists who specializes in presenting historically authentic silent film accompaniment.  The protégé of legendary silent film organist Gaylord Carter, he was fortunate to have had the tradition of silent film accompaniment passed down to him from one of the foremost film accompaniments of the silent film era.

He has done extensive silent film accompaniment, including at the Packard Foundation’s Stanford Theatre (Palo Alto, California), UCLA, the Cinequest and San Francisco Silent Film Festivals, San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, as well as the San Diego Symphony, Los Angeles Conservancy, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  He has been scoring and presenting silent films for the Seattle Paramount Theatre’s popular silent film series since 2015.

As a solo artist, he has recordings available on iTunes and CDBaby.com and performs silent film presentations all across the United States.  He was named “Organist of the Year” by the American Theatre Organ Society in 2009.

A classically trained organist, Christian graduated with honors from Vanguard University of Southern California with degrees in Music and Business Administration.  He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1980s to become Senior Organist for Menlo Park Presbyterian Church and study with celebrated organist and composer Richard Purvis.

In addition to his classical and church organ training, he was privileged to be mentored by world-renowned theatre organists Lloyd G.  Del Castillo, Gordon Kibbee, and Lyn Larsen.  Being particularly identified for his association with organist Gaylord Carter, the ‘dean’ of silent film accompaniment, Christian worked extensively with Mr.  Carter, who proudly claimed Christian as his protégé.  In 1995 at Carter’s gala 90th birthday celebration and farewell performance at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre, Christian and Gaylord shared the stage in a moving performance that garnered several standing ovations.  Excerpts from this event were featured in the documentary “Pulling Out All the Stops: The Pipe Organ in America” seen on PBS television stations.

Why Be A Silent Film Accompanist?

Christian Elliott has spent over thirty years honing his craft as a solo film accompanist, extending the nearly lost art of providing silent films with period-accurate music using either the original scores issued with the films or historic photoplay assemblages prepared according to historical industry practice that is performed in a carefully researched style and fully rehearsed professional manner.  Elliott brings these exciting revival scorings to Cal Poly’s Forbes Pipe Organ, recreating the accompanying sounds heard by audiences when these films were first shown in the 1920s.

The experience of watching a silent film today is enhanced when the accompanist reproduces to the greatest extent possible the style of accompaniment that the film would have received in its day by the best cinema musicians.  A film that was released in 1927, for instance, deserves to have a musical accompaniment that is performed in the same style as a fine cinema pianist or organist would have given it in 1927.  This means that all the music used in compiling the score will have been published prior to 1927.  All score playing is in the context of the picture.  One does not use progressive ‘50s jazz or exaggerated modern percussion rhythms for a ‘20s picture if he has any respect for his art.  It is best remembered that we work with a powerful and historically important medium, even if it is dated, every time we attempt to score a film.

This approach honors the film and demonstrates respect for the era during which the film was produced.  This approach enables modern audiences to imagine they have been transported back in time.  Thus, not only can they enjoy the film on its own merits, but they can experience the added richness of a live musical re-creation.

Elliott finds accompanying silent films to be very satisfying musically because the music is so key to the experience.  Watching a silent film is a collaborative experience for viewers and musician.  It’s a fun musical tightrope as the musician expresses his own creativity while still supporting the narrative and emotional structure of a film and presenting an art form that is still relevant to audiences of today.

For the first thirty or so years of cinema’s existence as a medium, virtually all films were accompanied by musicians.  From a strictly musical point of view, the trend towards a complex and sensitive approach to film accompaniment was, not surprisingly, a gradual, evolutionary process.   Because silent films lack dialogue or other sounds, the musical score is critical to the experience of watching the movie.  In fact, in the heyday of flashy urban movie palaces, the accompanists were sometimes billed above the film, and audiences opted to see a movie accompanied by one particular musician over another.  Try watching a public domain print of a silent movie with an arbitrary and irrelevant piece of music tacked on, and you’ll immediately understand the importance of the score.

A successful, hist