Program Notes: Steamboat Bill, Jr.

PROGRAM STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. Starring:

Buster Keaton as William Canfield Jr.

Tom McGuire as J.J. King

Ernest Torrence as William 'Steamboat Bill' Canfield

Tom Lewisa as Tom Carter - First and Last Mate

Marion Byron as Kitty King - King's Daughter

Story:

Carl Harbaugh

Screenplay:

Carl Harbaugh, Buster Keaton

Directed by:

Thursday, November 8 | 6:30PM

STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. (1928)

Charles Reisner, Buster Keaton

The San Diego Symphony does not appear as part of this program.

A Fox Theatre Film Series Presentation

organ Russ Peck The approximate running time for this movie, including Screening and performance at the Jacobs Music Center's Copley Symphony Hall

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intermission, is one hour and fifty minutes.

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PROGRAM NOTES | STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. (1928) – NOVEMBER 8

ABOUT THE ARTIST RUSS PECK began his musical studies with piano in 1965, moving to the organ in 1970, while starting percussion lessons in junior high school.

Forming a band called The Young Oldtimers (with Peck on the Hammond organ), he and three high school buddies played Elks Clubs and other small venues throughout San Diego County. Peck then studied classical organ under a scholarship with Professor Stanley R. Plummer at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Returning to San Diego, Peck joined Voice and Video as a video engineer, staying with the firm for 28 years.

Specializing in the creation and performance of Silent Era film scores, Peck is currently the organist for the Fox Theatre Film Series at the Jacobs Music Center in San Diego. In addition to this solo work, he has performed with the San Diego Symphony for silent film presentations.

Peck is also the “House Organist” at the Balboa Theatre in San Diego.

His other organ work includes being an official guest organist at the Spreckels outdoor pipe organ in San Diego, and guest organist at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Lemon Grove (on a Wurlitzer Theatre pipe organ he helped install and continues to maintain). Not content with just the organ, Peck is Principal Timpanist for the Tifereth Israel Community

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Orchestra and does “pick-up” percussion work for the Imperial Valley Symphony, the Coronado Concert Band, The Hillcrest Wind Ensemble and other bands and orchestras in San Diego County.

By day, Peck owns and operates V dash V Service, a professional audio, video and musical equipment service (including pipe and electronic organs) throughout Southern California. He is the Rodgers Organ authorized service technician for San Diego County. Peck also works for L. W. Blackinton and Associates Organ Builders. In addition, Russ also gives private lessons on all keyboard and percussion instruments. Peck operates an amateur radio station, KG6CLA, and keeps busy in his spare time by maintaining the growing pile of instruments throughout his home, including reed and electronic organs and a small Robert-Morton theatre pipe organ. He currently holds memberships in The American Theatre Organ Society, The American Guild of Organists and The Reed Organ Society.

Peck’s recent Fox Theatre Film Series performances include The Thief of Bagdad, Nosferatu, several Charlie Chaplin short films, Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last!, The Freshman and My Best Girl, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,

The Mark of Zorro, The Son of the Sheik, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Three Musketeers, The Cat and the Canary, Cyrano de Bergerac, Flesh and the Devil, Metropolis and The Phantom of the Opera. n

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