Off to California for Harold Lloyd at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, but first some thoughts about Keaton's 'The General'

Me outside the Jane Pickens Theatre, which always does amazing promotional posters. Last Thursday night, I had the honor of doing music for 'The General' (1926) for a very appreciative audience at the Jane Pickens Theatre in Newport, R.I.In introducing the film, I tried a new way to explain what an innovator filmmaker Keaton was.I asked everyone to look for a short sequence early in the film when Buster jumps on and starts riding one of those old-fashioned bicycles sometimes called 'penny-farthings'—the ones with one big wheel (which has the pedals) and a tiny trailing wheel.Buster pedals for a short while, and finally falls off and down an embankment. It takes all of 10 seconds of screen time. Buster gets laughs for the sheer futility of his efforts.But the startling thing about the sequence is the placement of the camera. Once Buster hops aboard the bike, the view switches so that Buster is followed from above as he struggles to maintain his balance over rough ground, and then…