Join Classical 89 (KBYU-FM) on Friday, February 19, for a screening of the silent movie classic Safety Last! (1923) with Harold Lloyd. Mike Ohman, premier theatre organist, will accompany the film.
The “Classical 89 Silent Movie Night,” first in the series of events celebrating the station’s 50th anniversary, will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the de Jong Concert Hall, in the Harris Fine Arts Center, on the BYU campus. The evening also includes pre-movie entertainment and a sing-along that hark back to the 1920s.
Tickets may be purchased at the Harris Fine Arts Center Ticket Office, by calling 801-422-4322, or visiting online at
www.byuarts.com. Two-for-One admission is available with a KBYU Membercard (through box office only).
Photo credit:
©2010 The Harold Lloyd Trust
Film Background
When Safety Last! opened on April Fools’ Day in 1923 it was a huge success. It earned Harold Lloyd the title “king of daredevil comedy.” The movie is the story of an industrious fellow who climbs a skyscraper to win his girl. One of the highlights of the film features Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock on the side of a building many stories above moving traffic. Harold performed this stunt all by himself with only one complete hand. (He had lost a thumb and a forefinger in a film accident four years earlier and used a prosthetic glove to disguise the deformity.) There were no fake backgrounds or computer graphics back in 1923. Strategic camera angles created the dizzy drops. At no time in filming could Harold have fallen more than three stories, but as Harold liked to remind his critics, “Who wants to fall three stories onto a mattress?” (from
“Harold Lloyd: The Official Website”)
Mike Ohman Bio
Mike Ohman, who will accompany the film on February 19, said he chose Safety Last! because he got to know Harold Lloyd when he lived in California.
"Harold Lloyd was a real gentleman and a great physical actor," Ohman said. "The visual excitement of his films still stand up today. There is a scene where Harold climbs up the bricks of a building, and it is really him. He did all his own stunts despite losing a piece of two fingers when a cherry bomb exploded in his hands early in his career. He always wore a glove that included simulations of the missing fingertips; in still photos, he always kept that hand in his pocket. His films still communicate well, and his exuberance was real. I remember when he won an Academy Award. He shimmied down a rope onto the stage to accept the award."
Mike’s love for theatre was ignited when he heard the famous George Wright perform at the Fox Theatre in San Francisco. “It opened my eyes to theatre organ,” he said. “It changed my life. I took lessons from him for several years.”
He has written and recorded the sound track for many silent films – giving more than 450 performances at Telluride Colorado Film Festival (Telluride, Colorado), American Film Institute (Alhambra Theatre, Los Angeles, California), American Eagle Productions (Elks Lodge, Los Angeles, California), and others.
He has played organ concerts at numerous venues including The Organ Loft (Salt Lake City), Wiltern Theatre (Los Angeles, California), Harold Lloyd Estate (Beverly Hills, California), San Sylmar Museum (Sylmar, California), John Ledwon Studio (Agoura Hills, California), BYU in Provo, BYU-Idaho, the Provo Tabernacle, the Salt Lake Tabernacle, and many others.
Mike also owned and operated Pipes and Pizza where he accompanied silent movies on pipe organ and served pizza. He started the restaurant in Salt Lake City in 1970, moved to Provo in 1974, then, took it to LA in 1976.
He is currently Assistant Director of the BYU School of Music and also teaches classes in Music Dictation and Theory.