Come enjoy a Sunday afternoon with silent film classics accompanied live by professional pianist Adam Swanson! In November, Adam will present a newly-restored feature-length movie starring legendary character actor Edward Everett Horton. Although perhaps not a well-remembered name today, Horton appeared in over a hundred movies in the Golden Age of Hollywood, including such classics as Arsenic and Old Lace and Top Hat. Taxi! Taxi! is a fun 1920s romantic comedy. All films will be accompanied with original period music LIVE on the DAC’s beautiful 9-foot grand piano. These events will be family friendly, so bring your kids and enjoy this fun and unique opportunity.
Starring Edward Everett Horton and Marian Nixon (Universal, 1927)
A 16mm print of this silent movie was only discovered in late 2024! In Taxi! Taxi!, an architect, constantly in trouble with his employers, falls for the boss’s niece. When he spontaneously buys a taxicab to take her home on a rainy night, the purchase leads to more trouble. “AND THEY GOT MARRIED WITH THE WHOLE POLICE FORCE ON THEIR HEELS.” (Daily Star, Queens, NY, 31 March 1927)
Adam Swanson is one of the world’s foremost performers of vintage American popular music, including ragtime, early jazz, the Great American Songbook, and more. He holds a bachelor’s in classical piano and a master’s in musicology from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. Adam has been a featured performer and lecturer at ragtime and jazz festivals across the United States and abroad, and he is the only four-time winner of the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest. He made his New York debut in Carnegie Hall at the age of nineteen, where he performed with Michael Feinstein. Adam has performed at the Cinecon Classic Film Festival in Hollywood and the Kennedy Center, as well as in Hungary, Switzerland, and Australia. He has worked with such musicians as Toronto’s John Arpin, former rock star Ian Whitcomb, and legendary 1950s recording artist Johnny Maddox, who was one of Adam’s greatest influences. He lives in Durango, Colorado, where he frequently performs in the Diamond Belle Saloon at the Historic Strater Hotel. Adam is also the director of the Durango Ragtime and Early Jazz Festival. Visit Adam online: adamgswanson.com.
Sunday, November 16
2:00pm
