As Nolan's 'Odyssey' hits 70mm, a hand-cranked silent film show comes to La Crescenta

The new Christopher Nolan epic The Odyssey opens this weekend. And purists will probably want to catch it in a theater to experience it in all of its 70mm glory.

But another film screening (albeit a little more old-fashioned) happens tonight at a park in La Crescenta.

“Oh yeah, Christopher Nolan ... In fact, he uses the same lab that I do to print my 35 [mm] — FotoKem,” said Joe Rinaudo, silent film historian and founder of the nonprofit SCAAT or Silent Cinema Art and Technology. “One time I was over there and Christopher Nolan was there and man they were hopping to it!”

Rinaudo is also the man behind Silent Movies in Two Strike Park, a special showcase of films from the era that usually takes place once a year. Tonight’s program includes Buster Keaton’s One Week (1920), Charley Chase’s Crazy Like a Fox (1926), and Laurel and Hardy’s Do Detectives Think? (1927).

Professor Rinaudo 

Rinaudo, nicknamed “Professor Rinaudo” for his vast silent film knowledge, has spent his life preserving and screening silent classics. His love of old films stretches back to when he was a kid in the 1950s. He even bought 99-cent reels at Sears and would host screenings for neighborhood kids.

Tonight, he will follow in the tradition of the itinerant — or traveling — projectionists of the early 1900s, by cranking out this evening’s slate on a 1909 Power’s Motion Picture Machine Model 6, which started its life with an itinerant projectionist.

“I bought it from the great-grandchildren of the original owner. It was found in a chicken coop and [I] did a total restoration,” Rinaudo said.

I was lucky enough to see the hand-crank process in action at his home in La Crescenta earlier in the week.

“You have to crank at the camera man’s speed,” Rinaudo said. “You have to watch the action very closely … If it slows down, and it looks blurry then you need to speed up, because you’ll betray the camera man’s shutter.”

‘Educate and inspire’ 

Rinaudo’s La Crescenta home isn’t just a showcase for his collection of antique film equipment. It also includes a 20-seat, 1910-style theater that he built. The silent movie palace is complete with an alluring red curtain and period-specific, ornate light fixtures that he manufactured himself.

Joe Rinaudo stands in front of the stage.

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Robert Garrova / LAist

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It defies logic that this huge theater, complete with a second story balcony and projection room, fits in this residential space. But there’s more just below the theater, including an 800-pipe organ Rinaudo is working to restore so that music can accompany his film screenings.

“The pipe organ will of course add a new dimension to the theater. It’s an 11-rank Wurlitzer built in 1920. It was saved from the Covell Theater in Modesto, California,” Rinaudo said.

The massive pipes of the Wurlitzer came to life thanks to a vintage air blower in the basement, their low tones enough to rattle your ribcage.

Rinaudo’s theater isn’t open to the public, but through his nonprofit, he’s thinking about how it can be preserved for all to enjoy. But you can catch his itinerant show at Two Strike Park in La Crescenta, usually once a year. And he's hoping to soon start screening films again at the Nethercutt Collection Museum in Sylmar.

"Eventually, all of this will go into the non-profit after my passing,” Rinaudo said. “I’m hoping to keep this as a private museum ... that will continue to educate and inspire younger people about our history.”