It's been a long time since silent movies were screened at The Revue, especially with live piano accompaniment. That will all change on Sunday, June 28 with the debut of Silent Sundays, a new afternoon series celebrating the art of silent cinema.

The silents reached their apex throughout the Jazz Age of the 1920s. In those days, you may have had difficulty finding a place to buy a good drink, but you didn’t have to go far to see a great film. Movie theatres were everywhere, from the opulent palaces lining Yonge St. to smaller neighbourhood houses, such as The Revue. No matter the size of the cinema, people flocked in droves to see Greta Garbo, Lon Chaney and Buster Keaton, whose 1927 film College is our first selection.

Not as well-known as The General or Sherlock Jr., College features Keaton as an academic who sparks controversy after denouncing athletics as a complete waste of time. But when his girlfriend falls for the school jock, his attempts to woo her back inadvertently make him the school's worst athlete.

Musical accompaniment was an integral part of the silent era. The Revue welcomes pianist William O'Meara, who has gained worldwide recognition for his film work. He has performed at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Italy and as far east as Perm, Russia, where he played the organ to Man with a Movie Camera, an innovative Russian silent released at a time when Hollywood was switching to sound. Earlier this year, he led audiences through a riveting retrospective of Carl Theodor Dreyer's canon at the Cinematheque Ontario.

Comedy rarely involves the dramatic intensity required in a production like Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc, but O'Meara says playing to slapstick offers unique challenges: “Musically, the palette is limited. Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd are very fast-paced,” he says, referring to the iconic image of Lloyd dangling from a clock in Safety Last. “That scene would require constant shots of musical adrenaline, but once a certain plateau is reached, you can lose an audience.” O'Meara emphasizes the importance of pacing: “You sometimes have to play against the rhythm.”

In the 1920s, the turnover was quick. Once a flicker premiered, it would be gone the next Monday. In 1921 alone, nearly 900 feature films were released in the United States. Some films came with printed sound cues but the majority did not. The theatre's musicians did not have time to create elaborate music for a film's run given the compressed time frames. They came to rely on clichéd cues, which sometimes did not respect the photo-play’s narrative structure.

These days, seeing a silent picture in an art gallery or in a cinema has given us a chance to appreciate the music, as well as the great artistry of silent cinematographers.

“It's a renaissance. We've entered a golden age of silent-film accompaniment,” says O’Meara, who finds his talents increasingly in demand. He has accompanied a majority of the great silents, but he has yet to play College.

So get a wiggle on down to The Revue for a rare treat, seldom seen in Toronto since premiering at the Loews Theatre in November, 1927. Now, that's the cat's pyjamas!

Ticket prices are $8 for members/seniors/children & $10 for non-members