Dickson lecture informative, intellectual

Retired Library of Congress staffer Paul Spehr enlightened a small audience in the Mount Pony Theater Saturday with a cerebral lecture on the man who made the movies — W.K.L. Dickson (1860-1935), an inventor in Thomas Edison’s lab.

A few dozen turned out on a cloudy day for the special presentation featuring a glimpse at the film pioneer’s early works. Spehr talked history, inventions, science and art as Dickson’s films flicked by; some were so short one would miss them if blinking too long.

The silent movies — replayed on Mount Pony in slideshow, 35mm and DVD format — portrayed a range of historical subjects: among them, lady sharpshooter Annie Oakley (1860-1926), heavyweight champion boxer Jim Corbett (1866-1933). Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903) fluidly blessing the masses and Dutch Queen Wilhelmina (1880-1962) at her coronation ceremony in Amsterdam in 1898.

Dickson’s movies also portrayed common and/or humorous subjects like blacksmiths, barbers and a favorite: boxing cats. His “Sioux ghost dance” from 1894 was spiritual indeed, and “Annabelle’s butterfly dance” enchanting.

The matinee presentation, though featuring the earliest silent films, did not completely lack audio. Acclaimed composer and silent film accompanist Andrew Simpson, a professor of music at Catholic University in D.C., was in the house playing the electric piano in lively torrents that always fit the scene just so, no matter how fleeting the visual action.

Mike Mashon, head of the Moving Image Section on Mount Pony, said Simpson’s performance Saturday was just the first of what he hopes to be many more. In fact, Simpson returns to Culpeper this weekend to play for Saturday’s silent matinee, “Safety Last,” a Hal Roach comedy from 1923 starring Harold Lloyd.

“For those of us who love silent film, it’s sort of a tonic,” Mashon told the audience at the Dickson lecture.

For Spehr, Dickson has been his tonic for 50-some years. That’s when Spehr started studying the inventor/moviemaker’s work at the LOC in D.C. By 1898, Dickson was the best-known filmmaker in the world, Spehr said, recognizing, “He has faded from general knowledge of even today’s avid film scholars.”

And yet, Dickson had made as many as 700 films by the time he retired in 1902. Of those, only about 50 or 60 survive today, said Spehr, in large part to the conservation efforts of the Library of Congress.

The LOC National Audio-Visual Conservation Center Packard Campus in Culpeper is also doing a great job of bringing rare cultural events our way.

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Coming soon to the Mount Pony Theater:
- Friday, 7:30 p.m. “The Winning Team” (1952, Warner Bros.)
- Saturday, 2 p.m. “Safety Last” (1923, Hal Roach Studios)
- Saturday, 7:30 p.m. “3:10 From Yuma” (1957, Columbia Pictures)
- Tuesday, 7 p.m. “It Happens Every Spring” (1949, 20th Century Fox)

Make free reservations Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. up to one week in advance of each show by calling: (540) 827-1079 ext. 79994 or (202) 707-9994. Don’t have reservations? Show up early to get on stand-by.