Art will help vets
| Wednesday, Apr 29 2009 01:37 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Apr 29 2009 01:37 PM
Charlie Chaplin's 'Pay Day'
When: 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Granada Theater, 616 Kentucky St.
Admission: $5 donation
Details: 326-1308
Dukes Memorial Concert
When: 4 p.m. Sunday
Where: First Congregational Church, 5 Real Road
Admission: Free
Details: 327-1609
The downtown art scene is about to expand again.
In addition to art exhibitions, the Center for the Arts at JP Jennings Gallery will offer classes, workshops, seminars, poetry readings, with many more ideas in the planning stages.
At 2 p.m. Friday, the Chamber of Commerce will have a ribbon-cutting to welcome the new business.
For more information about the new art center, call the Arts Council of Kern, Younger Gallery, at 622-4243.
CENTER FOR THE ARTS AT JP JENNINGS
GO&DO
Granada Theater co-owner Jim Spohn is offering silent movie buffs a unique experience on Saturday afternoon -- a genuine Charlie Chaplin movie with music and sound effects courtesy of a 1928-style pipe organ.
"Sitting in a darkened theater and hearing the organ is like stepping back into the 1920s," he said.
"It's not like watching a silent movie on TV -- it's an enveloping experience."
One of the differences is the unique sounds that can be produced from the theater's organ which Spohn, who owns a pipe organ business, assembled over a period of years.
"It's got sirens, whistles and bells, things you'll never hear from a church organ," he explained. "So when a Keystone Cop blows his whistle, you'll hear the whistle."
The organ has four ranks, or keyboards, and more than 2,000 pipes. The smallest is the size of a soda straw, the largest is 16 feet in length and 12 inches in diameter.
Chaplin wrote, directed and starred in "Pay Day," the 35 mm film to be shown Saturday. "It's not a restored film," Spohn said. "It's a fresh print made from the original negatives."
The Granada opened at its present location in east Bakersfield in 1927. In those days the theater was a popular hangout for youngsters who lived in the neighborhood, partly because it had central heating. Spohn learned that bit of history from wife Lucy's father, Marino Narducci.
"My father-in-law remembers that for a nickel, he and his brother could come here and stay warm all winter," Spohn said. "But it costs a fortune to heat up that old boiler so we usually wait for nicer weather to put on our shows."
A member of West High's first graduating class in 1967, Spohn studied piano as a youth and learned his present craft by serving as an apprentice to a Porterville organ builder.
He also took courses in lighting and sound at the Pasadena Playhouse.
Currently, he maintains about 13 different pipe organs here in town and often appears as a guest soloist in theaters in about five other California cities.
The Saturday program at the Granada also is the annual meeting of the Poorman's Organ Convention, an organization founded by Spohn. Its purpose is to provide a venue for other pipe organ players in the area.
Dukes concert
Clarinetist Mary Moore and pianist Helen Rummelsburg are the guest artists for this season's final program of the Dukes Memorial Concert series on Sunday afternoon at First Congregational Church.
The program includes sonatas for clarinet and piano by Saint-Saens, Ravel and Haydn.
Moore has been principal clarinet with the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra since 1958. Rummelsburg is a music educator and a frequent accompanist for her students and other soloists.
The concert is free and open to the public; children are welcome.
Funding for the annual concert series comes from an endowment left by Fred and Beverly Dukes, who were avid supporters of local musical organizations, and longtime members of the church. Valley Public Radio, FM 89.1, is co-sponsor.
