Stanford Theatre celebrating 100th birthday in classic fashion

The Stanford Theatre is going back to the silent era for a week of films June 9-13 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the iconic movie palace on University Avenue in Palo Alto.

Known as the “New Stanford” when it opened to differentiate it from a predecessor next door, the 1,400 seat theater was built for $300,000. The opening celebration included a speech by Palo Alto Mayor E.A. Contrell and an appearance by British film star Reginald Denny, whose newest comedy, “I’ll Show You the Town,” was the first feature shown.

As you might expect, that’s also the movie that’ll be shown June 9, along with Denny’s 1927 comedy “That’s My Daddy.” The inimitable Dennis James will be at the Stanford’s Mighty Wurlitzer organ (Elmer Vincent, who also worked the keys at the Garden Theater in San Jose, was the organist on opening night.)

Of course, Denny — who died in 1967 after a long career as a Hollywood character actor — won’t be making an encore. But his granddaughter, Kimberly Pucci, will be there and will have an on-stage conversation with David W. Packard, the man who resurrected the theater in the late 1980s and has kept it alive despite the advent of TCM, DVDs and streaming — and the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pucci has literally written the book on her grandfather, “Prince of Drones: The Reginald Denny Story.” The actor had a fascinating life beyond the silver screen. He was an aviation pioneer who loaned a plane to Howard Hughes to use in “Hell’s Angels,” opened a hobby shop in Hollywood that sold model kits and inventing a “radioplane,” an early remote control drone aircraft that he hoped could be used in World War II.

On June 10, Pucci will return to the Stanford along with Suzanne Lloyd, the granddaughter of film comedy pioneer Harold Lloyd. That night’s program consists of Lloyd’s 1927 classic, “The Freshman,” and Denny’s 1926 comedy, “Rolling Home.” It’s worth noting that “Rolling Home” is considered by many online sources to be a “lost film.” I guess those sources don’t know how serious David W. Packard is about film preservation.

Advance tickets for the June 9 event will be available for $10 starting May 30, along with passes for the silent-week film for $20.

By the way, there’s some poetry to the Stanford having its anniversary celebration right on the heels of its current Fred Astaire festival, which opened this week and has “The Gay Divorcee” and “Roberta” showing this weekend. Packard rented the Stanford — then falling into serious disrepair — for a festival of Astaire’s films following the actor and dancer’s death in June 1987. That led to his two-year effort to restore the theater, which reopened in 1989 with “The Wizard of Oz.”

You can get the full lineup for both the Fred Astaire festival and the silent-film week at www.stanfordtheatre.org.

HIGH-FLYING NEWS: It’s been a while since we’ve checked in with the Peregrine falcons that roost at San Jose City Hall, but here’s an update if you haven’t paid attention in a while.