The Silent Clowns Film Series is New York City’s longest-running regularly-scheduled showcase for classic silent film comedy. Our screenings are presented in Manhattan’s Upper West Side at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space and at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the NYPL Library for the Performing Arts, and in Brooklyn, NY at the Cobble Hill Cinemas.
The Silent Clowns Film Series is a production of Silent Cinema Presentations, Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to presenting silent movies with live musical accompaniment to audiences of all ages, in order to preserve the experience of silent cinema. We produce silent film shows at a variety of venues around NYC on a year-round, monthly-basis.
Forgotten Clowns
Sunday, November 30, 2025
2:30pm
Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space
The demand for comedy was so immense during the silent film era that the list of performers who were slapstick regulars is mindboggling. This program is a salute to some very funny comics who have gotten lost in the shuffle due to the passage of time, and the scarcity of their surviving movies. Headlining as our overlooked trio are comedienne Louise Fazenda in her 1924 short Dizzy Daisy, Douglas MacLean in the feature Bell Boy 13 (1923), and the irascible Max Davidson’s two-reel classic Pass the Gravy (1928).
NOTE: admission for our Friends of the Silent Clowns members at this screening is FREE – but you must email tickets@silentclowns.com or leave a voicemail at (212) 712-7237 to reserve your seat ahead of time. If you are already one of our members, you will be sent an email or mailer with reservation info. If you wish to make a donation and become a member, click here.
Buster Keaton: 4 Classic Comedies
Sunday, October 12, 2025
2:30pm
Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space
Buster Keaton was perhaps the hardest working of the silent film comedians. From his start as a child in vaudeville as one of The Three Keatons, he never stopped making audiences laugh until his passing in 1966. Entering films in 1917 under the tutelage of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Buster was launched in his own series in 1920 and had an amazing run of silent comedies that lasted until 1929. Although known for his dead pan and stoic countenance, the “Great Stone Face” was much more expressive than many of the over-emoting stars of the day. For our tribute to Buster we have the two-reelers Coney Island (1917), The Scarecrow (1920), Day Dreams (1922) and Cops (1922).
NOTE: admission for our Friends of the Silent Clowns members at this screening is FREE – but you must email tickets@silentclowns.com or leave a voicemail at (212) 712-7237 to reserve your seat ahead of time. If you are already one of our members, you will be sent an email or mailer with reservation info. If you wish to make a donation and become a member, click here.
Roland West’s “The Bat” (1926)
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
7:30pm
Cobble Hill Cinema
Thrills and chills mixed with comedy has been a cinematic staple since the movies began – even before with optical toys and magic lantern shows. In the mid-1920’s Hollywood embraced the horror comedy with films about mysterious doings in spooky old houses. Features such as The Gorilla (1927), and The Cat and the Canary (1927) followed, and for this program we proudly present the newly restored The Bat (1926). One of the most popular of the genre, the bravura design, camerawork and feeling of dread from German Expressionism meet the slapstick antics of Louise Fazenda. Opening the show is Koko the Clown with his own spooky problems in Koko’s Haunted House (1928).
“The Bat” (1926) preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, new digital restoration courtesy of Undercrank Productions. “Koko’s Haunted House” (1928) courtesy of Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored.
NOTE: admission for our Friends of the Silent Clowns members at this screening is FREE – but you must email tickets@silentclowns.com or leave a voicemail at (212) 712-7237 to reserve your seat ahead of time. If you are already one of our members, you will be sent an email or mailer with reservation info. If you wish to make a donation and become a member, click here.
“Her Sister From Paris” (1925)
Saturday, September 13, 2025
2:30pm
Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space
During the 1920’s the Talmadge sisters were the movie equivalent of the twin masks of theatre – Norma being the dramatic diva, and Constance the comedienne. Having started her career as a teenager in Vitagraph’s Brooklyn studio, Connie became one of the most popular players of the day in features such as Dulcy (1923) and The Duchess of Buffalo (1926). Never taking herself seriously, Her Sister from Paris (1925) is a deftly played farce with a young Ronald Colman as Connie’s co-star and sparring partner. Since many of her films are lost or unavailable, her talents have been neglected, so this program gives us the opportunity and pleasure to highlight her work. Our extra added attraction is the equally overlooked Wanda Wiley in her two-reeler A Thrilling Romance (1926).
NOTE: admission for our Friends of the Silent Clowns members at this screening is FREE – but you must email tickets@silentclowns.com or leave a voicemail at (212) 712-7237 to reserve your seat ahead of time. If you are already one of our members, you will be sent an email or mailer with reservation info. If you wish to make a donation and become a member, click here.
