The Stanford Theatre

In February/March 1998 the Stanford Theatre will be screening a festival of restored epic silent films over three Saturday nights (see their schedule).

The Stanford Theatre Foundation is run by David Woodley Packard (son of one of the co-founders of Hewlett-Packard) and was established in 1989 with funds from the Packard family foundation. The foundation is dedicated to the preservation of films from "Hollywood's Golden Age". This not only includes showing films the way that they were intended to be shown, in a beautifully restored 1925 theatre that seats 1,175 people, but also includes the preservation of old films. The Stanford Theatre funds film restoration at the UCLA film archives and at the United States Library of Congress (yes, the theatre is providing substantial financial assistance to the United States Government for film preservation!).

The theatre's main silent film star is Harold Lloyd. The Stanford Theatre foundation has already financed the restoration of many Harold Lloyd films and has pledged to restore whatever is restorable. (A couple of years ago, Harold Lloyd's daughter attended a screening of "Safety Last" at the Stanford Theatre.) Also in previous calendars of silent films shown have been Buster Keaton and Douglas Fairbanks.

All silent films are accompanied by the Mighty Wurlitzer. The theatre has a goal of having the finest theatre organ in the world and is progressively enhancing the organ.

A local Palo Alto newspaper has had several articles about the theatre.

Thanks to Nic Osmond for providing the above information.