Silent Sundays: The Great K&A Train Robbery

Come enjoy a Sunday afternoon with silent film classics accompanied live by professional pianist Adam Swanson! For the big Silent Sundays summer show, Adam will be presenting both a short and feature length movie. Starting with a classic Laurel and Hardy comedy, we will then screen another railroad-themed movie, The Great K&A Train Robbery, starring legendary western actor Tom Mix. 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.

We Faw Down (MGM, 1928)
Starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy

Itching to sneak off to a thrilling poker game, Stan and Ollie pretend they have a business engagement with their boss at the Orpheum Theatre. Instead, the boys end up in the apartment of two charming young ladies after gallantly retrieving their hat, only to come face to face with a menacing boyfriend. Can Ollie describe his sinful afternoon? Will a loaded double-barreled shotgun help refresh his memory?

The Great K&A Train Robbery (Fox Film, 1926)
Starring Tom Mix

Famed western star of the silent screen Tom Mix (and Tony the Wonder Horse!) are featured in this railroad-themed thriller. Cullen has hired Tom to try and stop the robberies on his railroad. Knowing Cullen’s secretary Holt is tipping off the gang, Tom works undercover by posing as a highwayman. To help him bring in the gang he enlists the help of the hobo DeLuxe Harry. Filmed on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad in the Royal Gorge in 1926!

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.