Past Events

PAST EVENTS
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Vintage Halloween show - Burbank Historical Society
A review from their newsletter:

"GHOST & GOBLINS

What a fantastic program for Halloween. We had over 100 people in attendance along with ghouls and ghosts as you can see from the photos. The Cunningham Room was transformed into the Ghoul Time theatre where you were entertained by vintage silent horror films along with the original music of the time. Our own Mari Pattito, Craig Bullock, and Carey Briggs decorated to the hilt. We had so many requests for Galen to return next year, we might just have to ask him back. Please enjoy the photos." (Photos below are Galen's, not from the article)

The audience packed the room, decked out for Halloween.

Halloween decor set the mood for the holiday program.

Galen's historic exhibit displayed music, recordings, and film memorabilia for Halloween.

THE MOVIES BEFORE HOLLYWOOD - Little Landers Historical Society

Bolton Hall, est. 1913.

Galen explains the first publicly shown motion pictures in 1894.

A hit Edison film from 1906, The Dream of A Rarebit Fiend.

Movies from 1894 to 1910 and their fascinating history. The hall was standing room only, spilling into adjacent rooms and the entry.

BEFORE THE MUSIC VIDEO - Los Feliz Public Library

The Edison Talking Machine provided the singing to song slides in Galen's program.

Slides were shot for popular songs and sung in vaudeville and movie theaters.

Songs were used for early sound movies, this one from 1905 and also shot in color.

Musical acts continued on short films with Vitaphones becoming a major source.

The history of "talking pictures" and musical shorts is traced from the Kinetophone in 1895 to Soundies of the 1940s.

FROM VAUDEVILLE TO THE NICKELODEON - Hollywood Heritage Museum

The former office and studio of DeMille and Lasky, now the Hollywood Heritage Museum.

The crowd filling the museum.

Andre Stojka, former dean of Columbia College who presented me my masters degree as a student.

Our wonderful song illustrator from 1911, Mikal Sandoval.

The history of one of the most popular - and now forgotten - aspects of early cinema, the Illustrated Song.

THE MOVIES BEFORE HOLLYWOOD - Pasadena Museum of History

D.W. Griffith shoots When Kings Were The Law at the Fenyes estate, 1912, Pasadena.

The view today.

Galen poses by the fountain used in the 1912 film.

Galen performs his score for the film, on the site where it was shot.

A program on cinema-going at the turn of the century. D. W. Griffith's When Kings Were The Law (1912) was presented, on the actual site were it was shot.

BEFORE THE MUSIC VIDEO - Mayme Clayton Museum

Another version of this popular program showing the history of musical shorts from song slides to early talkies. The room filled up and people sat out in the hall.

FROM VAUDEVILLE TO THE NICKELODEON - Mark Taper Theater