Itinerary: Silent Movies

In most towns, silent movies have long since disappeared. Movie houses with organs have been replaced by multiplexes with digital sound systems showing 70-millimeter color films. But here in the nation’s movie capital, where historians, filmmakers and fans alike treasure early Hollywood history, you don’t have to look too far to find a silent film screening or exhibit.

Friday

Start your journey through the days of silent film with a trip to the UCLA Film and Television Archive, which has teamed up with the Silent Society of Hollywood, an organization that puts on silent film events around Southern California, to present “Sibling Rivalries,” a film series that showcases notable siblings, including the Barrymores and the DeMilles. Friday’s double feature is “Daddy Long Legs” and “Bill Apperson’s Boy,” featuring Mary and Jack Pickford, respectively. The series runs Wednesday and Friday nights through Aug. 4 at the James Bridges Theater (northeast corner of the UCLA campus, [310] 206-FILM).

Saturday

Head back over to Westwood to catch “The Stenberg Brothers: Constructing a Revolution in Soviet Design” at the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center (10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. [310] 443-7020). This exhibition features more than 100 works, including movie posters, paintings, drawings and sculptures by Vladmir and Georgii Stenberg--two prominent designers of posters for the burgeoning Soviet cinema during the 1920s and ‘30s. The exhibition documents how Eastern European design concepts were shaped by the early years of Hollywood.

You can see another perspective on the silent film era by sauntering over to the Geffen Playhouse (10896 Le Conte Ave., Westwood. [310] 208-5454), which is finishing up its 1998-99 season with a play about the early days of silent movie making. Written in 1922, “Merton of the Movies” is based on Harry Leon Wilson’s serialized novel that ran in the Saturday Evening Post. The play tells the tale of a small-town boy with big Hollywood dreams who saves up his money and parks himself on a studio lot determined to break into the movies. Instead of fame and fortune, however, Merton becomes enmeshed in the wild antics of an egomaniacal director, bumbling camera crew and industrious young starlet. “Merton of the Movies” runs through Aug. 1.

Sunday

If you want to learn more about silent film stars, spend the afternoon at the Museum of Television & Radio (465 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills. (310) 786-1000). Among the museum’s collection of 100,000 programs are several documentaries on silent film stars. The collection includes a 13-part series on the silent film titled “Hollywood,” in addition to “Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow,” “D.W. Griffith: Father of Film,” “’Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius” and “Unknown Chaplin.” The public can watch these documentaries any time during museum hours.

Finally, mosey on over to the Old Town Music Hall (140 Richmond St., El Segundo. [310] 322-2592). The theater itself is just over 30 years old, but it was established so that silent films could be shown accompanied by the music of a 1925 Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ. The instrument has 2,000 pipes and 244 keys on four keyboards and was widely used in the 1920s in vaudeville and to accompany silent movies. The Old Town Music Hall starts each screening with music from the mighty organ. “Roaring Twenties” (1939), with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, will be screened this weekend.