Friday, Feb. 27, 2026
@ White Concert Hall, Jewell @ 17th St., Washburn University, Topeka, KS
A FREE EVENT
Afternoon: 1:30 PM — Short Titles /
Short: Cinderella [FR, 1899]
by Georges Melies [6 min.]
The French film pioneer brings the legendary fairy tale to life with his usual film magic. Despite the short running time Cinderella’s story is efficiently told and with some spectacular sets and costuming.
Music by Bill Beningfield
Short: Alice In Wonderland [GB, 1903]
from Cecil Hepworth [9 min.]
Cecil Hepworth, one of Great Britain’s film pioneers, created this production, the first theatrical film of Lewis Carroll’s famous fantasy story. What has survived shows us some of the more familiar scenes from Carroll’s book. Although the quality is a bit choppy, this is still a marvelous little film to watch.
Music by Bill Beningfield
Feature: Snow White [US, 1916]
Marguerite Clark [63 min.]
Based on the Brothers Grimm fairytale, this film owes more to a Broadway
adaptation in 1912 which offers a slightly different version of the story. Directed
by J. Searle Dawley the film stars Margurite Clark, Broadway’s Snow White, plus
Creighton Hale and Dorothy Cumming.
Music by Jeff Rapsis
Intermission, 15 min.
Afternoon films with guest Melissa Talmadge Cox
Short: Neighbors [US, 1920] Buster Keaton [20 min.]
Feuding families do everything they can to keep their kids apart but love finds a way in this Buster Keaton two-reeler. The film co-stars many familiar faces from Buster’s short films like Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts and his own father Joe Keaton.
Buster co-wrote and directed with Eddie Cline.
Music by Marvin Faulwell
Feature: Her Night of Romance [US, 1924] Constance Talmadge [70 min.]
A romantic comedy full of mistaken identities and several plot twists; the perfect combo for a Constance Talmadge film. She plays an American heiress who meets a down on his luck British aristocrat Ronald Coman, in the first of two
comedies they made together. Sidney Franklin directs.
Music by Ben Model
Break for Dinner (on your own)
Friday Night: 7:30 PM
Short: Love in An Apartment Hotel [US, 1913]
D.W. Griffith [17 min.]
A maid spurns the attentions of a bellboy, hoping to catch the eye of her
employer, a bachelor but he loves another and it takes a calamitous turn when a
thief shows up for the maid to see the light. Mae Marsh, Blanche Sweet and
Henry B. Walthall lead in this social drama directed by D. W. Griffith.
Music by Bill Beningfield
Short: Should Husbands Be Watched? [US, 1925] Charlely Chase [15 min.]
Charley can’t ever win; after hiring a maid to help reduce the work of his wife, the
wife becomes suspicious of Charley and said maid. What’s a guy to do? Directed
by Leo McCarey, this is another funny entry starring Charley Chase, with
Katherine Grant and Olive Borden.
Music by Jeff Rapsis
Short: Should Married Men Go Home? [US,1928] Laurel and Hardy [20 min.] “Ollie and his wife are enjoying a quiet Sunday at home until Stan shows up…” is
the beginning of quite a few Laurel and Hardy films. In this case Stan wants Ollie to join him for a golf outing. And in true Stan and Ollie fashion, the chaos grows
from there. Co-starring Edgar Kennedy and directed by Leo McCarey and James
Parrott.
Music by Ben Model
Intermission, 10 min.
Feature: Skinner's Dress Suit [US, 1926] Reginald Denny [70 min.]
Skinner can’t bear to tell his wife that he hasn’t gotten the raise he asked for; certain he got it, she begins spending it—including a new dress suit for her husband. What a fun film this is, starring the underrated Reginald Denny, with Laura La Plante and directed by William Seiter.
Music by Marvin Faulwell and Bob Keckeisen
Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026
@ White Concert Hall,
Jewell @ 17th St., Washburn University, Topeka, KS
A FREE EVENT
Saturday Morning: 9:00 AM
Intro by Bill Shaffer
Documentary [60 min.] w/ Sound.
Continuing documentary series on the history of silent film.
Short: The Law of the Plains [US, 1929]
Tom Tyler [36 min.]
B-Western star Tom Tyler seeks revenge against the men who killed his father in South America. The cast includes Natalie Joyce and J. P McGowan (who also
directs). Although the film is missing one of its reels, what is restored tells a complete story. From Undercrank Productions.
Music by Ben Model
Short: The Toll Gate [US, 1920]
William S. Hart[36 min.]
It's William S. Hart at his best, an outlaw ready to do this last "job" but one of his gang betrays him, and the rest of the film is about revenge and redemption. Based on a story co-written by Hart and director Lambert Hillyer and so-stars Anna Q. Nilsson and Joseph Singleton.
Music by Jeff Rapsis
Noon — Lunch Break
Saturday Afternoon: 1:30 PM
Short: Father Was a Loafer
[US, 1915] Billy Ritchie [13 min.]
Husband and father of four (Ritchie) discovers his wife (Alice Howell) has just
given birth to triplets and says, “enough is enough!” Can he start again? Will his wife let him? Often billed as a Chaplin imitator, Ritchie always claimed Chaplin
stole from him.
Music by Ben Model
Feature: The Wind [US, 1928] Lillian Gish [81 min.]
A tour-de-force by Lillian Gish who plays a young woman who endures a series of hardships when she travels to Texas, not the least of which is the unrelenting wind. Co-starring Lars Hanson and Montagu Love and directed by Victor Seastrom.
Music by Marvin Faulwell and Bob Keckeisen
Intermission/Book signing by Ben Model, 20 minutes
Short: The Pawnshop
[US, 1916]
Charlie Chaplin [25 min.]
This two-reeler involves Charlie as a pawnshop assistant who fights with his co-worker all day, flirts with the boss’s daughter, and thwarts a burglar. Charlie was a one-man crew on this film—he directs, writes, and stars. Co-starring Edna Purviance, Albert Austin, Henry Bergman and Eric Campbell.
Music by Jeff Rapsis
Short: You'd Be Surprised [US, 1925] Raymond Griffith [66 min.]
A comedy-mystery that shows off the screen presence of the wonderful Raymong Griffith. With titles written by pundit Robert Benchly, and co-stars like Dorothy Sebastian, Earle Williams, Roscoe Karns, and directed by Arthur Rosson, it's afun filmto discover.
From Undercrank Productions.
Music by Ben Model
5:30 PM, Annual Cinema-Dinner with guest speaker, Melissa Talmadge Cox
--Dinner Break: Event is by Reservation only.
Contact us & reserve. Special guest is Melissa Talmadge Cox, Granddaughter of silent film comedian Buster Keaton
About Melissa Talmadge Cox:
Melissa Talmadge Cox was born in southern California into a famous Hollywood family that includes Buster Keaton, Norma Talmadge, Constance Talmadge and Natalie Talmadge. Her father worked at 20 th Century Fox so her upbringing was also sprinkled with the talents of other well known celebrities of the time.
Most of her childhood memories of these relatives are of fun times spent visiting, going to barbeques, collecting eggs from the chicken coop, playing with inventions at Grandpa Buster's house and spending time at the beach home of her Grandma Natalie (Talmadge). Visiting Aunt Dutch (Constance Talmadge) in New York in her teens still brings a smile to her face and the wonderful stories Dutch told after moving to Beverly Hills are vivid.
Melissa also recalls seeing Grandpa Buster on television (“Candid Camera”) or in later movies (Around the World in 80 Days and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. It wasn't until she was an adult and his and her great-aunts silent films were rediscovered and restored that she became fully aware of their enormous talent and genius during the silent film era.
Melissa is a landscape designer, watercolor artist and mother of three grown children. She lives with her husband in Northern California and travels across the country to film festivals to help promote the wonderful legacy her family has left her.
About Ben Model:
Ben Model is one of the nation's leading silent film accompanists, performing on both piano and theatre organ, and has created and performed thousands of live scores for silent films over the course of his career.
Ben is a resident film accompanist at the Museum of Modern Art (NY) and at the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus Theatre, and is a regular at the TCM Classic Film Festival, the Kansas Silent Film Festival and at Capitolfest in upstate NY. His recorded scores can be heard on numerous Blu-Ray and DVD releases from Kino Lorder, Milestone Films and his own label Undercrak Productions, as well as on Turner Classic Movies. Ben's Undercrank Productions has released many rare undiscovered gems of the silent era that have been out of circulation since the 1920s. These discs including films starring Marion Davies, Tom Mix, and Raymond Griffith, as well as lesser-known comedians such as Marcel Perez, Alice Howell, and Baby Peggy, all released through of a co-branding arrangement with the Libray of Congress.
Ben is a regular accompanist at classic film festivals around the USA and internationally, and he performs at universities, museums and historic theaters. Ben is a producer and co-founder of The Silent Clowns Film Series, now celebrating its 28th season in NYC. Ben has co-curated several silent film series for MoMA and co-curates a monthly silents series at the Cinema Arts Centre on Long Island.
Ben has composed orchestral scores for several silent comedu shorts which are performed annually by ensembles around the U.S. and Canada. In this capacity as archivist for the Ernie Kovacs collection, he has programmed three DVD boxed sets of Ernie Kovacs television shows and is co-editor of the book Ernie In Kovacsland, published by Fantagraphics Books in July 2023. Ben is a Visiting professor of Film at Wesleyan University, where he teaches a course on silent film history. His book The Silent Film Universe was published in June 2025.
Ben was the first to take the silent film experience online during the COVID pandemic, launching The Silent Comedy Watch Party in mind-March of 2020. The show is a live-stream which Ben and film historian Steve Massa co-host from their apartments _ Steve introduces silent era slapstick shorts and Ben accompanies them on his acoustic piano. The Silent Comedy Watch Party program was presented weekly on Sunday afteroons for free on YouTube throughout the pandemic in 2020-2022, before shifting to montly streams. The show celebrated its 4th anniversary and 100th episode in March 2024, and is currently presented on a quarterly basis.
www.silentfilmmusic.com/ @silentfilmmusic
Marvin Faulwell is a very accomplished theatre organist. He has played for all previous Kansas Silent Film Festivals and our "sister project," Silents in the Cathedral, held at Grace Cathedral in Topeka. He has appeared in concert and accompanied silent film programs in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Minnesota. He also accompanied many silent films shown at the Granada Theatre in Kansas City, Kansas.
Bob Keckeisen has been principal percussionist for the Topeka Symphony Orchestra since 1989. He delights audiences at the Kansas Silent Film Festival and Silents at the Cathedral by adding remarkable percussive music and sound effects to films. Bob grew up in Wichita and studied percussion at Wichita State University. He obtained both his undergraduate and graduate degrees in history from WSU and moved to Topeka in 1982. Bob retired as director of the Kansas Museum of History in 2013 to become Executive Director of the Topeka Symphony Orchestra, a position he held until he retired in 2021.