Century-old ‘Phantom of the Opera’ to be shown with live organ Oct. 24

First Congregational Church of Elgin will help kick off Nightmare on Chicago Street and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1925 silent film “The Phantom of the Opera” with a special showing on Friday, Oct. 24.

The film will be accompanied live on the pipe organ by acclaimed silent film organist Ben Model. A freewill offering will be taken to support First Congregational’s concert series.

It will begin at 7 p.m. at the church, 256 E. Chicago St. in Elgin, on the corner of Chicago and Villa; ample parking is available in municipal lots and side streets around the church. Visit fcc-elgin.org/organ-tour/.

“The Phantom of the Opera” is a 1925 American silent horror film adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel of the same name directed by Rupert Julian and starring Lon Chaney in the title role of the deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House, causing murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star. Mary Philbin stars as Christine Daae, and Norman Kerry as Vicomte Raoul de Chagny.

The film remains most famous for Chaney’s ghastly, self-devised makeup, which was kept a studio secret until the film’s premiere. Chaney commented in later interviews about his makeup: “I achieved the Death’s Head of that role without wearing a mask. It was the use of paints in the right shades and the right places — not the obvious parts of the face — which gave the complete illusion of horror.”

When audiences first saw the movie, they were said to have screamed or fainted during the scene where Christine pulls the concealing mask away, revealing the Phantom’s skull-like features.

In the 1920s, the theater organ became the most popular accompaniment for silent films because it was dynamically superior to the piano and more spontaneous than an orchestra, making it the “voice of silent cinema.”

These organs, often installed in individual movie palaces and theaters, could imitate an entire orchestra and produce a wide range of sound effects to match the on-screen action, from drama and tension to excitement.

New York City resident Ben Model (rhymes with “motel”) is one of the nation’s leading silent film accompanists who creates and performs live musical accompaniments to silent movies on both piano and theater organ. He presents and accompanies silent films in a wide variety of venues and festivals around the U.S. and internationally, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Library of Congress’ Packard Campus Theatre, TCM Classic Film Festival, and Stumfilmdager (Silent Film Days) in Tromsø Norway; he carries on a tradition he learned from the late silent era film organist Lee Erwin.

Model also has a special connection to Elgin, as a number of years ago he turned up a lost silent film made by the Elgin National Watch Company in 1931 called “The House of Wonders,” for which he then wrote and performed the score. The movie can be found on YouTube and is also played by the Elgin History Museum on a monitor in their galleries.