Posted on 02/26/2009 3:40:47 PM PST by nickcarraway
It doesn't take much to coax a song or two out of Bob Hartzell, owner and operator of Lodi's Harmony Wynelands.
On a recent wintry morning, by request, he sat down at the Robert Morton pipe organ that graces his tasting room and launched into a jaunty version of "Singing in the Rain," followed by the haunting "Stormy Weather."
Hartzell, 75, obliges whenever customers sipping zinfandel or riesling at his counter ask him to play. Without looking at a single sheet of music, Hartzell, who played in a dance band when he was a college student at University of California, Berkeley, can play a medley of tunes from the 1940s, '50s and '60s.
With a simple request, Hartzell's tasting room, built to house the organ, comes alive with the symphonic sounds it was intended to create.
The organ reaches its performance peak one Friday night a month, when Carmichael organist Dave Moreno puts it to its intended use: accompanying silent movies.
As the 16 millimeter film - chosen from Moreno's library of about 200 silent movies - flickers on the screen, Moreno creates the illusion of a full orchestra, providing just the right notes to capture the moment on film. This is how it was done when the organ was delivered to San Francisco's Castro Theatre in 1921.
Hartzell purchased the one-time theater showpiece in 1987. His son, Mark, designed the building that houses it, and about four years ago, his wife, Linda, suggested they open the tasting room for silent movies.
"She saw what was going on at Ironstone," Hartzell said. "She's good at organizing events."
Ironstone owner John Kautz, who had once purchased an organ with Hartzell's help, began showing silent films at his winery in Murphys in the 1990s, after the music room was built.
With that as the model, Linda Hartzell envisioned a similar program at Harmony Wynelands. Its operation, Bob Hartzell said, is the work of his wife and her son, Shaun MacKay.
Linda Hartzell's idea, coupled with Bob Hartzell's pipe organ, merged into the monthly series that sells out its 80 seats on a regular basis.
On a January night when windshield wipers couldn't hope to keep up with the downpour, every seat in Hartzell's tasting room was taken. Visitors from their 20s to their 80s battled the rain to take in a couple of W.C. Fields offerings called "Pool Sharks" and "The Old Army Game."
"It's just pure, clean fun," said Steve Weaver, who has been attending for two years. "That may sound prudish, but you don't have to think about the story. You can just get lost in the movie and forget what's going on around you. And the music is outstanding."
Weaver and his wife, daughter, son-in-law and friends from Elk Grove, Galt and West Sacramento will gather again Friday, when the series continues. It features silent screen star Harold Lloyd in "Grandma's Boy" and begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12.
Ironstone Winery will show a Charlie Chaplin Comedy Shorts program March 13, complete with a Chaplin impersonator. Tickets for Ironstone's movies are $20 and include a buffet dinner, popcorn and cookies.
Popcorn is for sale at Hartzell's show, and, so is wine even though Prohibition would have prevented the audience from sipping wine as it watched "Grandma's Boy" when it was released in 1922.
Even with wine flowing, Moreno's music and the sound of film running through the projector transport viewers back in time to the days when silent films reigned.
The music, unlike the film, isn't authentic. Many of the original scores of these films have been lost.
"Most of the time, films would go around, and they'd give you a score sheet. Sometimes it was just a suggestion," Moreno said. "A lot of guys made up their own music."
Moreno, who services pipe organs for a living and plays at Harmony Wynelands, Ironstone and other venues, spends as many as eight hours preparing for a show, watching a film, re-watching it and selecting the right music for each moment.
His only real requirement, he said, is to keep the music current with the year of the film.
When the lights go out and Moreno hits the keys, he doesn't simply play a song from the era. He unleashes a symphony.
"When I was a little kid, I wanted to play every instrument in the orchestra," Moreno said. "I (learned) two of them, and it was too much work. The unit orchestra, which is what a theater organ is, is an orchestral instrument. One guy can run the whole orchestra."
The sound one guy makes is exactly what Hartzell loves and is what prompted him to purchase the Morton and build a facility to showcase its qualities properly.
"I love the sound," Hartzell said, "and the fact one person can simulate the sounds of a small orchestra."
It was a sound he'd heard growing up in San Rafael, where he'd spend Saturday afternoons in a theater watching a double feature and listening to the pipe organ between shows.
"I'm not a film buff," Hartzell said. "I'm more of an organ buff. I love the theater pipe organ world."
Hartzell can recite the story of the organ, from its invention to the manufacture of it by Robert Morton and the Wurlitzer Co.. He's helped assemble four of them and swears he's not going to do it again.
Whether he does or not, Hartzell is keeping the theater pipe organ alive, offering it up for his film series and introducing the magic of its sound to one group of wine tasters at a time.
Performances
• Friday: "Grandma's Boy," a silent movie starring Harold Lloyd. Harmony Wynelands, 9291 E. Harney Lane, Lodi, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $12. Information: (209) 369-4184.
• March 13: Charlie Chaplin Festival of Shorts silent movies. Ironstone Winery, 1894 Six Mile Road, Murphys. 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $20 (includes dinner). Information: (209) 728-1251.
• March 20: An Evening of Comedy Shorts silent movies. Harmony Wynelands, 9291 E. Harney Lane, Lodi, 7:30 p.m. Information: (209) 369-4184.
• April 17: "Safety Last!" a silent movie starring Harold Lloyd. Bob Hope Theatre, 242 E. Main. St., Stockton, 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $8. Information: (209) 952-2750 or (209) 369-6850.
• April 18: Morton Madness, an organ concert at Harmony Wynelands and Ironstone Winery. Tickets: $50. Information: (209) 369-4184 or (209) 728-1251.
There must be a thousand jokes that can be written here...
Wow, all the excitement of an accordion.
“Wow, all the excitement of an accordion.”
Played by a one armed man, eh, Richard Kimball?????
When I was in college back in the 70’s, the school would pack the auditorium whenever an organist named Dennis James would accompany silent movies. I loved it! “Hold you hand high. The noose of the Phantom is quick!”
There was a special showing of the silent film Valley of the Giants as a fund raiser that my son took me to last year. In the absence of a organ a Accordionist filled in. It was a perfect foil...
Here is a Organ in Eureka Ca... http://www.christchurcheureka.org/music.html
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