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When the Stanford Theatre opened 100 years ago on June 9, 1925, movies were pretty new: Most films didn’t yet have sound, and the Academy Awards wouldn’t exist for another four years. Even the name Fred Astaire — the dancing film star whose memory would inspire the resurrection of the downtown Palo Alto theater decades later — wouldn’t be seen on movie theater marquees until the early 1930s.
Through the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Hewlett-Packard heir David Woodley Packard, purchased and renovated the Stanford Theatre after renting out the space in 1987 to show several weeks’ worth of films honoring Astaire, following the actor’s death earlier that year. After a full restoration, the theater reopened in 1989 and has screened classic films ever since, from the silent era through Hollywood’s golden age, with music from the theater’s Wurlitzer organ accompanying the silent movies or entertaining audiences between films.
The theater regularly programs festivals highlighting the movies of classic movie stars and directors, drawing audiences of over 100,000 annually, and its Christmas Eve screening of Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” has become a Peninsula holiday tradition. In 2005, the theater opened an adjoining gallery showcasing vintage film posters and memorabilia.
The Stanford Theatre is seen at its opening on June 9, 1925. The first movie to show at the new theater was the silent film “I’ll Show You the Town,” visible on the marquee here. One hundred years to the day, that same film will show at the Stanford Theatre to mark the theater’s milestone 100th anniversary. Courtesy Palo Alto Historical Association.
To mark the Stanford Theatre’s 100th anniversary and take audiences back to the time when the theater was as brand-new as the unique art form it was built to showcase, the Packard Foundation will host a silent film festival, June 9-13, with several special events highlighting these early films.
The theater’s opening day in 1925 featured a screening of the silent “I’ll Show You the Town,” starring actor Reginald Denny.
“Reginald Denny, who was Universal’s top movie star at that time, made a personal appearance at the Stanford Theatre. He flew up in his own little airplane and made an appearance at the theater, and now we’re 100 years later, and his granddaughter has written a really wonderful book about him called ‘Prince of Drones: The Reginald Denny Story,'” said Cyndi Mortensen of the Packard Foundation, which owns and operates the Stanford Theatre.
Denny’s granddaughter, Kim Pucci, will be on hand for a June 9 screening of two Denny films, including “I’ll Show You the Town.” She will be interviewed by Packard between the film screenings. The evening kicks off with a showing of another Denny film, “That’s My Daddy.”
“He was not only a fabulous actor but he kind of is the father of the drone. Flying and also modern model airplanes, was his hobby. He was a really interesting guy,” Mortensen said. The English actor designed a radio-controlled drone for military use and manufactured a model airplane engine, according to the Academy of Model Aeronautics.
Pucci will return to the Stanford on June 10 for an appearance alongside Suzanne Lloyd, the granddaughter of silent film actor Harold Lloyd, for screenings of “Rolling Home,” a 1926 film starring Denny that had once been thought lost, and 1925’s “The Freshman.”
“Suzanne Lloyd, who is the granddaughter of Harold Lloyd, is a good friend of the Stanford theater. She’s been out many times, and it seemed appropriate to have Sue come out, because she’s been very supportive, and we love Harold,” Mortensen said.
The festival continues through the week, with “Skinner’s Dress Suit,” from 1926, starring Denny as a man whose wife is looking to spend a raise she doesn’t know he didn’t get, and the 1928 Buster Keaton comedy “Steamboat Bill Jr.,” about a young man ill-suited to captain his father’s riverboat, showing on June 11; and 1925’s “Stage Struck” with Gloria Swanson as a young woman who dreams of stardom and 1928’s “Speedy,” starring Lloyd as a baseball fan who saves New York City’s last horse-drawn trolley screening on June 12. The festival concludes June 13 with “The Crowd,” a film from 1928 directed by King Vidor, about a man and a woman struggling to make it in an impersonal big city.
All films will be 35mm prints, and accompanied by organist Dennis James on the Wurlitzer.
Mortensen said she hopes that, in addition to getting a taste of the movie-going experience from a bygone era, the anniversary events give audiences a chance to consider the theater’s role in the community.
“I think the Stanford Theatre is such a special place. I hope that they appreciate the contributions that the theater has made over the past 100 years to downtown Palo Alto. We’ve always been a major presence. I hope that they will appreciate silent film, the art form of silent film, and appreciate what Mr. Packard has done for the last over 30 years, with the restoration of the theater and the introduction and continuation of showing classic film in this beautiful environment and just what the theater brings to Palo Alto,” Mortensen said.
Following the silent film festival, the theater will host a summer festival of films by the master of suspense, director Alfred Hitchcock. The schedule begins June 14.
The Stanford Theatre’s 100th anniversary silent film festival takes place June 9-13, with the main feature starting each night at 7:30 p.m., at 221 University Ave., Palo Alto. Doors open at 7 p.m. Advance tickets for the June 9 event are $10; festival passes available for $20. stanfordtheatre.org.
