The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra returns to the Longmont Museum’s Stewart Auditorium this weekend to provide musical accompaniment for a pair of silent films featuring the legendary “Queen of the Screen” Marion Davies, one of the great comedic actresses of the silent era but perhaps even better known and as newspaper tycoon William Randolph Heart’s longtime mistress.

Show People (1928) | NR

Based loosely on the careers of stars like Gloria Swanson, Marion Davies plays naive Peggy Pepper, who arrives in Hollywood expecting stardom to land in her lap. But of course, the road to stardom never ran smoothly. Working her way up from slapstick comedy to pretentious artistic roles (changing her name to “Patricia Pepoire” along the way), her arc takes her behind the scenes in Hollywood’s golden age, with plenty of cameos from other major Hollywood stars and directors.

$22 General Admission, $20 Students & Seniors, $18 Museum Members

About Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra is a five-piece chamber ensemble that revives the repertoire of silent film orchestras. Using historic libraries of music, and selecting and fitting a piece of music for each scene in the film, Mont Alto compiles vibrant and emotional scores using the original techniques of silent film orchestras. “The results are often breathtakingly beautiful and always in the strict service of the film on the screen.” — The New York Times

Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra was formed in Colorado in 1989, and has scored over 125 silent films, recording over 40 film scores for releases on DVD, Blu-Ray, and for showings on Turner Classic Movies. The Mont Alto Orchestra appears regularly at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival, the TCM Classic Film Festival, the Denver Silent Film Festival, the Chautauqua Auditorium film series, and the Kansas Silent Film Festival. They have toured the country from Films at Lincoln Center in New York to Grauman’s Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Their most recent release is “Entreaty,” a CD of silent film compositions for romantic scenes.

About the “Mont Alto” Name
The Colorado and Northwestern, a narrow-gauge railroad that lead from Boulder to the mountain communities of Ward and Eldora, was running into difficulty as the gold mines began to play out. Retooling itself as a tourist route, and calling itself “The Switzerland Trail of America,” the small railroad built a dance pavilion at Mont Alto park in 1898. On the day it opened, the city of Boulder closed for business so that all of the citizens could picnic, gather flowers, and dance the night away. In the spirit of adapting life to suit dancing, the Mont Alto Ragtime and Tango Orchestra was named in 1990.

The Mont Alto pavilion is no longer standing, but the park site is still accessible on the railway grade, and the foundations and chimney of the pavilion remain. The Mont Alto Ragtime and Tango Orchestra has occasionally played for “birthday parties” for the pavilion on the site, including on its centenary in 1998.

Show People (1928) | NR 
$22 General Admission, $20 Students & Seniors, $18 Museum Members

Purchase Tickets Online or call 303-651-8374.

Museum Events & Performances

The Longmont Museum is open until 9 pm on Thursday evenings January 25 – May 2. Come early to visit our new exhibit “Picturing the West.” Every Thursday evening we offer an adult Art & Sip class or a film, a performance, or talk in our Stewart Auditorium. View upcoming Thursday Nights at the Museum. 

View upcoming Museum Events & Performances.