I spent much of last weekend (27th and 28th April) at the Kennington Bioscope in the Cinema Museum as one of six pianists accompanying silent films on the Bioscope’s ‘Silent Laughter’ weekend. Full houses, big laughs, and some very interesting material, not least some recent discoveries which I was lucky enough to play for. These included a delightful comedy short made by Frank Wilson for the studio of British film pioneer Cecil Hepworth (see photo), ‘The Joke That Went Wrong’. I also played for Harold Lloyd’s feature ‘Grandma’s Boy’, which has challenging chase sequences, to say the least. David Robinson, film historian and writer, whose ‘World Cinema’ fired my interest in film many years ago, was a pleasure to meet and listen to.
Colin Sell 