Unknown 1928 talkie: "The Nazarine"?

[lgroebe]

I'm researching this history of movie exhibition in my town, Grapevine Texas. Now it's a basically a large bedroom suburb of Dallas/Fort Worth, but until they built the DFW airport it was it's own tiny little farming community. It had a movie theatre (using the term very loosely at first) as early as 1913.

In late 1929 Grapevine's Palace Theatre was officially wired for sound -- but in December 1928, for one night, advertised "A Talkie Picture Titled THE NAZARINE" (note the spelling) showing on a Thursday evening -- and then went right back to showing silent films. (the Friday night show was "Four Sons" , a John Ford picture - and it wouldn't have been the movietone version.)

So -- what was "The Nazarine" other than (presumably) a religious picture, and how did it get to a silent theatre for a single night - a theatre that had only just bought a "Symphonola" player piano? "The Nazarine" is not listed in IMDB, and I've been searching other newspapers around that time period without success as well.

If anyone can provide clues, it would be Nitratevillians.

grapevine-sun-19281213-p-1-nazarine.jpg (67.38 KiB) Viewed 997 times

[silentfilm]

Larry,
A search of the Media Digital History project does not turn up any films titled The Nazarine (sic) or The Nazarene that were released in the 1920s. (Of course DeMille's King of Kings (1927) had been released the previous year.) There is no way that this was a film from a major studio.

However, there were definitely European films of the "Passion Play" that circulated all throughout the silent era. Many of these were presented by traveling exhibitors who traveled from one town to another and presented educational or religious films (usually at schools and churches). At least one traveling exhibitor, Lymon H. Howe, was known to use actors behind the screen during his film screenings. I suspect that this was not really a film with recorded sound. The fact that Grapevine was so small back then also leads me to believe that this was a traveling exhibitor.

[Spiny Norman]

It couldn't be by any chance this title?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424106/

[lgroebe]

Bruce -- That's as good a guess as any, and the direction I've been leaning.

With a one-night-only show, it would almost have to be a traveling production, and I can't imagine them hauling around 1928-era sound reproduction equipment successfully. Plus, if this had been "real" talking picture, I think they would have made a bigger deal and shown it on multiple nights.

Traveling tent picture shows were not unknown to Grapevine - I found a few in the previous decades, including the filmed-on-location "Passion Play" from 1913. By 1928, the Palace Theatre was usually playing regular Hollywood product - "Sunrise", for instance, would be shown in early 1929, and other big features like "Peter Pan" and "Ten Commandments" had played a few years before. The town was particularly fond of westerns and serials.

When the theatre installed real talking picture equipment in late November 1929 , it was front-page news: "Realizing the people of Grapevine and community like best entertainment, Mr. J.W. Harrison, owner of the Palace theatre, has installed TalKing Equipment and it will be their intention to show pictures that will entertain. The first all Talking and Singing Picture will be Ken Maynard in "The Wagon Master" and will be shown Wednesday and Thursday night of this week."

[CoffeeDan]

It couldn't be by any chance this title?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424106/

Remember, the film in question is a talkie . . .

[Mike Gebert]

Do I detect a little fudge room in "Talkie picture" vs. "talking picture"? That might make sense if what you got was a silent movie-- and a talk over it. There were plenty of Christ movies over the years, enough that someone (aptly named Shepherd, but not that David Shepard) edited a book about them:

https://www.bookdepository.com/Silents- ... 0415741699

[CoffeeDan]

Have you tried the back pages of Variety and Billboard? Both of those publications regularly covered the progress of circuses, exhibitions and other traveling shows, and they sometimes advertised their touring schedules. Look in the issues immediately preceding and following the Grapevine, Texas date, and see what you can find.

[MaryGH]

Is it this Palace Theatre in Grapevine?:

https://www.grapevinetexasusa.com/palace-theatre/

Any possibility this is Buñuel's Nazarin?

[silentfilm]

According to Cinema Treasures, the current Palace Theater was built in 1940. So it was an earlier theater with the same name (and probably the same owners).

And since it screened in 1928, it is way too early for the Buñuel film.

[Scott Eckhardt]

Could this be a demonstration of one of those unsuccessful systems that proliferated around that time?

[lgroebe]

Grapevine Texas has had three theatres named the "Palace" - "The Nazarine" was shown in the first version, a building which may date to the 1890s and is now a carpet/flooring store(!). (The Palace opened in the space in 1924.) The town's second Palace was in a converted bank building, and the Palace which is in Grapevine still was the first one built AS a movie theatre, in 1940. (Although it has been through many many changes over the years, especially inside).

At this point it's probably going to stay a mystery as to what "The Nazarine" was. Shame the local paper didn't have movie reviewers then...

Oddly enough, the same week as The Nazarine "talkie" advertisement, there was an article in the same paper that announced "NEW MUSIC AT THE PALACE: Mr. J. W. Harrison has recently installed new equipment in the Palace Theatre in the way of a Symphonola. This affords better music and entertainment for the patrons and is certainly an added attraction for the Theatre."

As far as I can tell, the Symphonola was probably a player piano (although there was also a record player by that name.) Were player pianos considered worthy musical accompaniment to silents, even in small towns, in the *LATE* 1920s? I always imagined a live human who could keep up with the film - I can't imagine recall piano rolls that could last for a whole feature film (although it would have been theoretically quite possible to sync them to a projector). I have earlier ads for the Palace where "good music" is mentioned, but of what form they don't say.

[MaryGH]

Lgroebe, thank you for that additional information on the different Palace theatres in Grapevine.

This is just an idea - and I don't know if you've already looked here for additional information on this movie "The Nazarine", but maybe contact the universities in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, their film history/library departments if they have one, particularly the Christian schools in the area (I am looking at the list on Wikipedia):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... _metroplex

Because if this was a locally made film, one of those schools might have further information about it.

Good luck.

[silentfilm]

There are a lot of ads for the Symphonola in Photoplay magazine, but it was a fan magazine, not a trade magazine that sold to theater owners.

[lgroebe]

Because it's a phonograph, and from a few years earlier than 1928, I'm more inclined to think it's a Symphonola player piano. Here's a picture of one built in 1929...

But either way - phonograph or player piano- it seems like an odd addition to a movie theatre in 1928...
Maybe they just wanted to play Paul Whiteman records before the movie started.

symphonola_main.jpg (71.41 KiB) Viewed 553 times

[Brooksie]

It's also possible that the 'talkie' picture was simply a silent picture accompanied by music or dialogue on disc. The Church of the Nazarene was a fairly active Pentecostal church in the 1920s; it's quite possible that a branch made a film and/or accompaniment to be shown in local cinemas.

I don't know about the late 20s, but religious 'illustrated lectures', combining short filmed vignettes with slide shows, lectures or readings from the scripture, were pretty common tent show fare in the early 20th century.

[Spiny Norman]

It's also possible that the 'talkie' picture was simply a silent picture accompanied by music or dialogue on disc. The Church of the Nazarene was a fairly active Pentecostal church in the 1920s; it's quite possible that a branch made a film and/or accompaniment to be shown in local cinemas.

I don't know about the late 20s, but religious 'illustrated lectures', combining short filmed vignettes with slide shows, lectures or readings from the scripture, were pretty common tent show fare in the early 20th century.

The IMDb title I linked to earlier has a US release date of 1928.
Using Lantern I found one letter complaining that there were two different productions both called "the passion play" that year.

[lgroebe]

It's also possible that the 'talkie' picture was simply a silent picture accompanied by music or dialogue on disc. The Church of the Nazarene was a fairly active Pentecostal church in the 1920s; it's quite possible that a branch made a film and/or accompaniment to be shown in local cinemas.

I don't know about the late 20s, but religious 'illustrated lectures', combining short filmed vignettes with slide shows, lectures or readings from the scripture, were pretty common tent show fare in the early 20th century.

The IMDb title I linked to earlier has a US release date of 1928.
Using Lantern I found one letter complaining that there were two different productions both called "the passion play" that year.

It's certainly possible that's the film. Or, as suggested, some fairly local production. Either way, given that it was an obscure one-night only show in a small Texas town with tickets at a budget price, I think we must conclude that any talking was done by people in the theatre and not on film. Ballyhoo to bring in the rubes!

--Larry

[Brooksie]

In the early 1930s, there was even one report of a cinema in Europe secretly placing an orchestra and actors behind the screen in an attempt to trick the audience into thinking that talkies had been installed. It wasn't long before they worked it out ...

(I'd like to know more about that particular story, but I've split it off into another thread so as not to derail this one).