Press release
The community is invited to begin Holy Week with a screening of Cecil B. DeMille’s 1927 silent film The King of Kings in the sanctuary of St. John’s Lutheran Church, 203 East Mansfield Street, in New Washington on Palm Sunday, March 29, at 6:30 p.m. Acclaimed organist Clark Wilson will provide the live soundtrack for the film on the church’s organ. Admission to the show is free. Refreshments will be available during the intermission.
The King of Kings is the Greatest Story Ever Told as only Cecil B. DeMille could tell it. Working with one of the biggest budgets in Hollywood history, DeMille spun the life and Passion of Christ into a silent-era blockbuster. Featuring text drawn directly from the Bible, a cast of thousands, and the great showman’s singular cinematic bag of tricks, The King of Kings is at once spectacular and reverent–part Gospel, part Technicolor epic.
Clark Wilson is one of the most prominent and recognized scorers of silent photoplays in America today. He works exclusively with the organ in developing accurate and historic musical accompaniments as they were performed in major picture palaces during the heyday of the silent film.
Wilson began his scoring career in 1980 and has successfully toured North America with hundreds of film presentations at schools and universities, performing arts centers, theatres, film festivals, and conventions. His work has led to performances for UCLA; the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where, in addition to other pictures, he has repremiered Wings for Paramount Studios’ 100th Anniversary; the Chautauqua Institution; Cinequest and San Francisco film festivals; the Los Angeles Conservancy; the Packard Foundation’s Stanford Theatre film series; the Atlanta premier of the restored Metropolis and annual presentations at the Atlanta Fox Theatre; and for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Society at the Walt Disney Concert Hall organ.
He is the organist of choice for many of the American Theatre Organ Society’s international convention silent film presentations, and he has scored pictures for Kino International for public DVD release. His performances have received the highest marks from colleagues and professionals, one commenting that his was “the finest use of a theatre pipe organ that I have ever heard.”
The presentation of this film is made possible by grants from the Northwestern Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Thrivent Financial; and the estate of music-lover Kenneth Cummins, director of the New Washington Town Band from 1934 through 1997.