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Laurel and Hardy – Kimball Organ Silent Movie with Organist Brett Valliant
Thursday, May 25 @ 7:00 pm
$10 – $12.50PRESENTED BY FRIENDS OF THE LERNER AND SPONSORED BY THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF ELKHART COUNTY AND THE MURPHEY FAMILY
Laurel & Hardy: The Finishing Touch
Run Time: 19 minutes
Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Dorothy Coburn
Released: 1928
Description: The boys are contracted to build a house in a day but they have many mishaps and run into trouble with the nearby hospital staff, due to their excessive noise.
Laurel & Hardy: Habeas Corpus
Run Time: 20 minutes
Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Richard Carle
Released: 1928
Description: Loony scientist (Carle) hires Laurel and Hardy to raid the cemetery to keep him supplied with dead bodies for his experiments.
Laurel & Hardy: Putting Pants on Philip
Run Time: 20 minutes
Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Chester A. Bachman
Released: 1927
Description: Pompous J. Piedmont Mumblethunder, greets his nephew from Scotland, who arrives in kilts. He is immediately taken to a tailor for a pair of proper pants.
Laurel & Hardy: 2 Tars
Run Time: 21 minutes
Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Edgar Kennedy
Released: 1928
Description: At a rail crossing, a small fender-bender incident turns into a major tit-for-tat retaliatory war among various motorists.
Laurel & Hardy: That’s My Wife
Run Time: 20 minutes
Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Jimmy Aubrey
Released: 1929
Oliver stands to inherit a large fortune from his rich Uncle Bernal, with the condition that he be happily married. But when Mrs. Hardy walks out just before Uncle Bernal is due for a visit, Stanley is pressed into duty (and into drag) to impersonate Oliver’s loving spouse. He’s convincing enough to earn a pass or two from a drunk nightclub, but when a stolen necklace gets dropped down his dress, attempts to recover is disclose Stanley’s true gender.

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.
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Patron bags exceeding 14 inches by 14 inches by 6 inches (14” x 14” x 6″) are not permitted inside The Lerner. The term “bags” includes, without limitation, backpacks, briefcases, luggage, duffel bags, musical instrument cases, purses, boxes, packages and carry-alls.
All bags are subject to search at the discretion of management and/or security personnel. Exceptions are made for bags used to carry medical equipment and diaper bags for customers with small children.
Guests with prohibited items will be turned away from the entrances to return items to their vehicles or to dispose of them.
No storage or “check in area” will be provided for prohibited items. Lerner management reserves the right to deny any item it deems to be a safety hazard.