A Sentimental Aussie...
Today, Ken and I took his Mum to a concert featuring theatre organist David Johnston. David knew Ken's Mum many years ago, when they were involved in live theatre, but over the years they lost contact. When we heard David was making a one-off appearance at the Dendy Theatre in Brighton, Ken emailed him to say we would be bringing his Mum. David emailed back the next day to say he would love to catch up with her again, and instructed us to come and find him after his performance.
The Dendy theatre is one of Melbourne's oldest theatres (although it has been upgraded several times), and it has its own 'resident' Wurlitzer organ, which David has played since he was 17 (at a guess he would be 60+ now), and he is now one of Australia's leading theatre organists. Today's performance was titled "David At The Movies", and featured a number of very old black and white silent movies, to which David accompanied on the organ with appropriate music. The first half of the program had a Newsreel which showed Melbourne 100 years ago, and included the first Melbourne Cup race. Followed by some very funny short movies including "A Trip to the Moon" (1902), "The Dance Of the Seven Veils" and "Love Rides The Rails", all made in the early 20th century.
After Intermission, they showed The Sentimental Bloke - a 1919 Australian classic. This has been shown outside of Australia at various film festivals, and I do wonder what other people would make of it; you'd have to be an Aussie to understand it!! David's organ accompaniment was non-stop, absolutely sensational. Afterwards we approached him along with many others from the audience, and he was delighted to see Ken's Mum. They laughed over old memories for about 10 minutes. Ah, the good old days. They did things tough in the Depression years and WW1 and WW2, but the experiences just seemed to make people stronger. Do you ever wonder if the kids these days will have fond memories of their early years, or will most of them pass in a blur of drugs and alcohol? Ken says we need another world war to wake up today's teens and twenties, because they have been so spoiled for the good life. Don't know about a large scale war, but something's got to give...
The Dendy theatre is one of Melbourne's oldest theatres (although it has been upgraded several times), and it has its own 'resident' Wurlitzer organ, which David has played since he was 17 (at a guess he would be 60+ now), and he is now one of Australia's leading theatre organists. Today's performance was titled "David At The Movies", and featured a number of very old black and white silent movies, to which David accompanied on the organ with appropriate music. The first half of the program had a Newsreel which showed Melbourne 100 years ago, and included the first Melbourne Cup race. Followed by some very funny short movies including "A Trip to the Moon" (1902), "The Dance Of the Seven Veils" and "Love Rides The Rails", all made in the early 20th century.
After Intermission, they showed The Sentimental Bloke - a 1919 Australian classic. This has been shown outside of Australia at various film festivals, and I do wonder what other people would make of it; you'd have to be an Aussie to understand it!! David's organ accompaniment was non-stop, absolutely sensational. Afterwards we approached him along with many others from the audience, and he was delighted to see Ken's Mum. They laughed over old memories for about 10 minutes. Ah, the good old days. They did things tough in the Depression years and WW1 and WW2, but the experiences just seemed to make people stronger. Do you ever wonder if the kids these days will have fond memories of their early years, or will most of them pass in a blur of drugs and alcohol? Ken says we need another world war to wake up today's teens and twenties, because they have been so spoiled for the good life. Don't know about a large scale war, but something's got to give...
posted by Gina E. | 11:01 pm
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