Silent movies given new life at Roxy’s

Max Jacobson

Friday, May 12, 2000 | 8:54 a.m.

It must have been exhilarating to be a movie-goer back in the early days of cinema. Those were the days when silent film stars like Buster Keaton hung precipitously from buildings, while a performer played dramatic scherzos on the mammoth house organ.

Now it's possible to travel back in time to those thrilling days of yesteryear, on Thursday nights (and every Tuesday beginning May 23) at the Fiesta hotel-casino. Here it is possible to recreate what our grandparents experienced in the '20s, which is no mean feat in this new, technologically oriented millenium. Silent movie nights are when an owlish performer named Dave Wickerham tickles the console at the Kimball at Roxy's Pipe Organ Pizzeria, on the casino's silent movie night. It's a food-filled fun fest.

Before describing the nostalgia it would be remiss not to mention what is happening in the kitchen. The pizzeria features thin crusted pies, pastas and other signature dishes from Reginas Brick Oven Pizzeria from Boston, a pizza parlor that cognoscenti consider one of the country's very best.

There is also a full-on antipasto bar in this huge, barn-like room, plus good, al dente pastas and a variety of Italian gelati. This means Roxy's is worth a visit just for the excellent food alone. But it is especially compelling on a Thursday night, thanks to Wickerham and his magic pipe organ. Both the musician and his instrument are stories all by themselves.

According to Wickerham this is one of the world's great organs, and a national treasure in its own right. He is reluctant to put a price on it, but he estimates that it must be worth well over a million dollars.

The organ has more than 2,500 pipes, and those glass columns you see rising above the pipes are call swell shades, a form of bellow that serves as a de facto volume control. Fiesta owner Phil Maloof actually purchased the organ in the '70, and brought it to Las Vegas from its former home at the Classic Hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

This is considered the greatest organ ever built by Kimball, a company also known for fine pianos. It was first installed at the Roxy Theater in New York Cityin 1927, the same year that talking pictures were brought to the American public. The organ has three consoles, 29 ranks of pipes and a 60-horsepower turbine engine to supply the wind. Wickerham says that the combinations of sound effects are limitless, and that he personally can reproduce thousands of them.

He certainly has the background to do so. This man was somewhat of a child prodigy. He began playing by ear at 5, and by the ripe old age of 11 was performing to audiences on a Hammond at a place in Reseda, Calif., called Pipes and Pizza.

From there he went to a place called Organ Stop Pizza in Phoenix, where he played for more than six years. And during this time he studied French organ and jazz literature at the University of Arizona, where he achieved a more polished mastery of his craft.

When he takes the stage he addresses the crowd briefly, and then sits down to play. He starts off with a rousing rendition of "76 Trombones" from Meredith Willson's "The Music Man" and then the first silent feature starts, a movie called "Haunted Spooks," starring Harold Lloyd.

As the film progresses he is able to create sounds like a goose pecking, a heart thumping and birds chirping, as well as thunder, lightning and almost every emotion one could name. Wickerham does this through a combination of planning and spontaneity. When he plays, for instance, "In The Halls Of The Mountain King," from Griegs Peer Gynt Suite, the dramatic chords that accompany a climax in the action is well planned. But when he adds whimsical little sounds, you know he is just being a comedian.

The films are shown on the hour, and they last around 18-25 minutes. After one of the movies concludes the organist stays on to entertain the crowd. After one set he played the famous "Toccata in D Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach, and then followed it up with a medley from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera."

He also does requests, which he takes from cards distributed to the audience.

Then the whole thing cycles again. The next hour's film, on this Thursday evening, is "The Paleface" starring Buster Keaton. Once again Wickerham is inventive and calculating. The audience loves it.

Seating in this room, which holds up to 600, is at long, almost communal tables, which makes it possible to schmooze up the neighbors. The couple at the next table are retirees from Southern California, Bert and June Colodny. They are obviously delighted with the whole evening and insist that they will come back soon.

Wickerham plays five full sets on Thursday evenings, beginning at 4 p.m. The last set starts at 8 p.m., and there are different movies each hour. If you don't finish your pizza, you can always take it home and eat it while listening to heavy metal music, but it won't taste the same.

Max Jacobson covers the movie and food industries for the Sun. Reach him at max @vegas.com or 990-2454.