“The greatest airplane thriller ever filmed” plays at Somerville Theatre with live score by Jeff Rapsis on February 2nd at 2pm
Billed as “the greatest airplane thriller ever filmed,” The Flying Ace (1926) stars Laurence Criner as Capt. Billy Stokes, a World War I pilot who returns home and resumes his former job as a railroad detective. Kathryn Boyd co-stars as Ruth Sawtelle, the beautiful daughter of the railroad station master. Having valiantly served his country in war and returning a hero, Stokes must again prove the hero by solving the mystery of a missing payroll agent and a satchel holding $25,000 and saving Ruth’s life in a fiery air drama.
The Flying Ace was inspired by Bessie Coleman, America’s first black female licensed pilot, with whom filmmaker Richard Norman had discussed making an aviation movie. Unfortunately, Coleman was killed in an April 1926 plane crash while practicing for an air show. Norman based the character of Ruth Sawtelle on Coleman, produced and released the film later that year.
Films such as The Flying Ace, that used an all-African-American cast in non-stereotypical roles and were shown specifically to African-American audiences, were known as “race films.” Norman Studios was one of the most prominent studios creating films for black audiences in the silent era, honing in on the untapped black filmgoing market and the plethora of talented performers unable to get work in mainstream films. In Norman Studios films, the stories often took place in a world without the racial barriers that existed at the time.
Norman Studios
Norman Studios is the only surviving studio complex of at least 30 studios that operated in Jacksonville, Florida during the silent film era when Jacksonville was dubbed “The Winter Film Capital of the World.”
From 1919 to 1928, Norman Studios, created by white producer/director Richard Norman, self-distributed shorts and features like Green-Eyed Monster (1919), The Bull-Dogger (1921), The Crimson Skull (1921), Regeneration (1923), and the company’s most successful and only surviving film, The Flying Ace (1926), which has been restored by the Library of Congress.
Norman focused his efforts on distributing both his films and the work of other producers, like pioneering black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, across the United States.
When the rise of talking pictures made its own system to sync sound and video obsolete, Norman Studios transitioned to distribution and promotion of Joe Louis fights and films featuring performers like Lena Horne. No longer able to compete in an industry that was now centered in Hollywood, the studio eventually closed. More recently, its remaining facilities have been reimagined as a museum honoring the location’s place in silent and race film history.
EVENT DETAILS
EVENT DETAILSThe Flying Ace will screen at Somerville Theatre on Sunday, February 2nd at 2pm. Supplying music will be silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis, who specializes in creating live scores for silent film screenings at venues around New England and beyond.
In the tradition of theatre organists of the 1920s, Rapsis improvises each film’s score on the spot, making up the music as the movie is screened. Rapsis uses a digital synthesizer to create the texture of a full orchestra.
Tickets are on sale now.
Prices for our Silents, Please series are as follows:
Adults: $17 ($13 for Members)
Seniors and Children: $12