Laurel and Hardy – Kimball Organ Silent Movie with Organist Brett Valliant

PRESENTED BY FRIENDS OF THE LERNER AND SPONSORED BY THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF ELKHART COUNTY AND THE MURPHEY FAMILY

Run Time: 1 hour and 19 minutes

Stars: Douglas Fairbanks, Marguerite De La Motte, and Noah Beery

Released: 1920

Description: A seemingly idiotic fop is really the courageous vigilante Zorro, who seeks to protect the oppressed.

Kimball Organist: Brett Valliant

Brett Valliant is an organist enjoying opportunities to play the music he loves on the instrument he loves.  Whether at an organ in a concert hall, a majestic church organ, or a mighty Wurlitzer in a theatre, Brett is right at home.  

Brett was inspired by the organ at church when he was just three years old.  At age 4 he began piano instruction with Ruth Cline and soon after was studying organ with Anna Jeter in Wichita, Kansas. By the age of 12 Brett was employed as a church organist having held onto the dream he had at such an early age, and at age 19 performed his first international concert tour.  For 21 years Brett was the organist and music director of First United Methodist Church of Wichita, Kansas, where he played a large pipe organ seen and heard by thousands in the midwest on the the church’s television program.  Brett is also the Artist-In-Residence for the Wichita Wurlitzer where he often performs on the former New York Paramount Wurlitzer organ now housed in Wichita. Brett Studied organ at Wichita State University with Robert Town as well as privately in the US and Australia. Brett‘s 3 recordings have been featured on National Public Radio’s Pipe Dreams as well as the National Bible Broadcasting Network.   

Today Brett is one of two resident organists at the iconic Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa, Arizona.  Organ Stop Pizza houses the world’s largest theatre organ and entertains thousands of patrons each year.  In addition to his playing at Organ Stop, Brett is known for accompanying and scoring silent films and appears annually at numerous film festivals.  In addition to regular appearances at American Theatre Organ Society and American Guild of Organists conventions, Brett has toured extensively as a concert artist throughout the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe.  
In his free time Brett enjoys sailing, skating, cooking, mid-century collection, and playing the piano and accordion.

About the Instrument:

The 1924 Kimball pipe organ located in Elkhart, Indiana’s Lerner Theatre is one of only three Kimball pipe organs currently installed in its original location. The organ was restored following the 2011 renovation of the theatre which opened on Thanksgiving Day, 1924. After the restoration, a crew of nearly 20 from Bunn-Minnick Pipe Organs of Columbus, Ohio, spent three weeks hoisting equipment and filling the two pipe chambers with more than 1,000 pipes. The project absorbed nearly 10,000 man-hours for the crew over a year.