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 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.
Skinner’s Dress Suit (1926)
Saturday, May 9, 2026
2:30pm
Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space
Reginald Denny was the most popular of the “light comedians” of the silent screen. In a series of expertly made farces for Universal Pictures, the British-born Denny starred as an all-American everyman who was always embroiled in myriad problems and complications. Funny features such as California Straight Ahead (1925), What Happened to Jones? (1926), and this program’s Skinner’s Dress Suit (1926), made Denny one of Universal’s biggest moneymakers of the 1920s. Opening the show for Mr. Denny is Billy Bletcher in the rare 1921 two-reeler The Noodle Nut.
NOTE: Admission for 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 wish to make a donation and become a member, click here. If you are not a friend of the Silent Clowns Film Series you can go directly to the Symphony Space website and buy tickets for each show.
We are proud participants in the Museums for All program. $2.00 admission will be granted to those enrolled in the SNAP program, by presenting their EBT card to a Silent Clowns Film Series rep at the show.
The Gold Rush (1925)
Sunday, April 26, 2026
2:30pm
Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space
The Gold Rush is perhaps Charlie Chaplin’s most famous film, and a rare example of historical epic as slapstick. Most silent comedies magnify minutiae to ridiculous proportions, but here Chaplin did the inverse – he took an epic historical event, the Klondike gold rush, and made it intimate by focusing on Charlie’s loneliness and will to survive. Starvation, cannibalism, and isolation became the inspiration for some of Chaplin’s most memorable moments. The Gold Rush features an original score by Ben Model, and the opener for Charlie is the overlooked Hal Roach short Riders of the Kitchen Range (1925). Screening rights for The Gold Rush courtesy of Janus Films.
NOTE: Admission for 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 wish to make a donation and become a member, click here. If you are not a friend of the Silent Clowns Film Series you can go directly to the Symphony Space website and buy tickets for each show.
We are proud participants in the Museums for All program. $2.00 admission will be granted to those enrolled in the SNAP program, by presenting their EBT card to a Silent Clowns Film Series rep at the show.
Three Ages (1923)
Sunday, March 15, 2026
2:30pm
Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space
Three Ages was Buster Keaton’s leap from shorts into feature films, and chronicles his misadventures in the Stone Age, Roman era, and modern day (well …1923) in a parody of D.W. Griffith’s epoch-shifting Intolerance (1916). Buster said that as an insurance policy he could have released each era’s story as a separate short if the feature version hadn’t gone over. Opening the show is another first – Buster’s premiere movie appearance in Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s The Butcher Boy (1917).
NOTE: Admission for 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 wish to make a donation and become a member, click here. If you are not a friend of the Silent Clowns Film Series you can go directly to the Symphony Space website and buy tickets for each show.
We are proud participants in the Museums for All program. $2.00 admission will be granted to those enrolled in the SNAP program, by presenting their EBT card to a Silent Clowns Film Series rep at the show.
Lupino Lane: Music Hall to Hollywood
Sunday, February 22, 2026
2:30pm
Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space
Paths to Paradise and No Publicity
Sunday, January 11, 2026
2:30pm
Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space
Forgotten clown Lupino Lane was a huge star of the British variety stage who transferred its traditions and his talents to American movie studios. In addition to his comedy skills, along with Buster Keaton and Douglas Fairbanks he was one of the greatest acrobats ever captured on film. He worked frequently with his brother Wallace Lupino, a talented comic in his own right. Our Lupino Lane sampler is made up of Sword Points (1928), Good Night Nurse (1929), and Joyland (1929).
NOTE: Admission for 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 wish to make a donation and become a member, click here. If you are not a friend of the Silent Clowns Film Series you can go directly to the Symphony Space website and buy tickets for each show.
We are proud participants in the Museums for All program. $2.00 admission will be granted to those enrolled in the SNAP program, by presenting their EBT card to a Silent Clowns Film Series rep at the show.
Perhaps the most overlooked silent comedy classic of the 1920’s, Paths to Paradise (1925) is a clockwork-timed crook caper that presents the great Raymond Griffith in all of his smarmy elegance, not to mention being expertly directed, written and acted by a top-notch comedy ensemble. This screening is the 2023 Undercrank Productions restoration of the film, which is the most complete available. Our extra-added attraction is the fussy Edward Everett Horton in the two-reelNo Publicity (1927), where Eddie is a news photographer who will do almost anything to get a shot of a wealthy society heiress.
NOTE: Admission for 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 wish to make a donation and become a member, click here. If you are not a friend of the Silent Clowns Film Series you can go directly to the Symphony Space website and buy tickets for each show.
We are proud participants in the Museums for All program. $2.00 admission will be granted to those enrolled in the SNAP program, by presenting their EBT card to a Silent Clowns Film Series rep at the show.
