Sep 25, 2025 By Brad Hundt 5 min read

The first week of January 1926 in Uniontown was unseasonably warm, with high temperatures bumping up close to 60 degrees, which might have made the post-holiday doldrums a little easier to bear.

But even as residents settled back into their wintertime routines, Uniontown’s Morning Herald was trumpeting an attraction coming to the city’s State Theatre that promised to be an eye-opening – and shudder-inducing – spectacle.

Four months after it opened at the Astor Theatre in New York, “The Phantom of the Opera,” with its story of the deformed, deranged and lovelorn phantom who haunts and terrorizes the Paris Opera House, was going to be screened over four days. A score was set to be provided by the theater’s own orchestra, and students of Winona MacDowell, a local dance teacher, were scheduled to perform a live prologue as ballet girls.

Screenings would start at 10 a.m. each day and continue to about midnight. Theater management advised that “due to the importance of the engagement, ladies and children are asked to attend the matinee performance if possible.”

The movie’s image of Lon Chaney as the phantom, with his skull-like head, bulging eyes, fractured teeth, and thin, matted hair was said to have caused some audience members to faint 100 years ago. Even though a century has gone by, Chaney’s performance in “Phantom of the Opera” is still considered one of the greatest in Hollywood history.

“The Phantom of the Opera” turned out to be just one of a handful of movies released in 1925 that film buffs and historians consider to be unassailable classics, along with the Soviet-made “Battleship Potemkin,” which is a staple of college film courses, Charlie Chaplin’s comedy “The Gold Rush” and the anti-war drama “The Big Parade.” To mark their centenary, these and other films from 1925 will be shown as part of the Pittsburgh Silent Film Festival, which starts Sunday and finishes on Sunday, Oct. 5.

Now in its third year, the festival is organized by Mt. Lebanon resident Chad Hunter, who leads the Pittsburgh Silent Film Society, and spearheaded the effort to make Sept. 29 National Silent Film Day. A native of suburban Lansing, Mich., Hunter’s fascination with silent film was nurtured when he was a student at the University of Michigan in the 1990s, both through classes he took and as an employee of a specialty video store a couple of blocks from campus.

After he graduated, he started work at the George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y., as a film preservationist, “and I was off from there.”

“This is my passion project,” said Hunter, who has a vanity license plate on his car that reads “SLNTFLM.”

Movies will be shown at a variety of locations throughout the Pittsburgh region. The festival will start with an encore showing of Buster Keaton’s “Sherlock Jr.,” a 1924 comedy that was shown last year. It will be at the Maple Leaf in Millvale at 3 p.m. Sunday, with live accompaniment by pianist Tom Roberts.

That same day, at 7 p.m., the silent version of “Ben-Hur” will screen at the Lindsay Theater in Sewickley, with Pittsburgh pianist Tyler Stoner providing accompaniment.

The rest the schedule is as follows:

– “Hundreds of Beavers,” a silent film made in 2022 about an applejack salesman who tries to become a great fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers. It will be at the Parkway Theater in McKees Rocks Monday at 7 p.m.

– “The Freshman,” the comedy starring Harold Lloyd, will be accompanied by organist Eric Cook and the Pittsburgh Film Orchestra at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall in Carnegie on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

– “The Phantom of the Opera” is being presented in a partnership with the Organ Artists Series of Pittsburgh at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh’s Highland Park neighborhood on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

– The Pittsburgh Composers Quartet will accompany “Battleship Potemkin” at the Pump House in Munhall Thursday, Oct. 2 at 7 p.m.

– “The Big Parade,” with live piano accompaniment by Boston-based musician Jeff Rapsis, will be screened at Rowhouse Cinemas in Lawrenceville Friday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m.

– Inspired by the exhibit “The Scandinavian Home: Landscape and Lore,” the Danish drama “Master of the House” will be shown at the Frick Pittsburgh Saturday, Oct. 4 at 2 p.m. Live accompaniment will be provided by the Pittsburgh Film Orchestra.

– Another Lon Chaney movie, “The Unholy Three,” will be shown at the Harris Theater in downtown Pittsburgh with Stoner providing piano accompaniment Sunday,Oct. 5 at 1 p.m.

– The festival will close with a new 4K restoration of “The Gold Rush” at the Harris Theater with an introduction by Chaplin expert and Mt. Lebanon resident Dan Kamin at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 5.

Hunter already has ideas for festivals in the years ahead, and may start incorporating some early sound films into the festival as the 100th anniversary of the early sound era approaches in the late 2020s. He added that he would like to keep the festival going until the mid-2030s, then hand over the reins to someone younger.

More information and ticket links are available at www.pittsburghsilentfilmsociety.org.