New Yorker helps Oklahomans travel to the 1920s with musical accompaniment for silent films

The air was calm and the sheet music was in place, ready to give people a glimpse of the entertainment of a hundred years ago.

“I’m so excited to hear this organ playing and it’s going to be a great experience,” said visitor Mary Frances Allen.

Allen and others were excited to see the man behind the sound of the theater’s silent films.

“We are so privileged to be able to announce him as our house organist and welcome him right now, Dennis James,” said Danny Dillon of the Coleman Theater.

Dennis James learned to play the organ when he was just 14 years old. “It’s a dream come true,” he says. He said his love for the instrument came from his teacher, “her name in show biz was Melody Mack and his real name was Leonard McClain,” James said.

Based in New York, James travels the world to bring century-old instruments back to life, including the one at the Coleman Theater.

“It’s very rare to still be in a theater, and it’s very rare these days to have theaters, they’re destroying them left and right,” James said of the century-old Wurlitzer organ and historic theater.

At the time, tens of thousands of Wurlitzer organs could be found throughout the United States. Dennis said there were only 188 left so he hoped to give his audience a chance to travel back in time. “The great joy is being able to preserve something, not like it’s a museum, not like the idea of ​​conservation, but it’s real, it’s alive, people pay a ticket, they come to see it and That’s how it was 100 years ago,” he said.

As people watched, the centuries-old magic came to life, “there were just no words, no words,” Allen said, and other audience members discovered a new appreciation for this type of magic. art, “it was great because I kept reaching for the organ and he just wants to go there and I just realized that’s not part of him doing it live,” said said Bailynn Hamm of Joplin, MO.

Dennis said he loves the chance to play, especially when it takes him back to the roots of the instrument.

“These are the people these films were made for, this is the kind of setting, so there’s kind of an added authenticity to bringing this to Miami, Oklahoma and it’s kept me coming back now for 19 years,” did he declare.