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‘The Mark of Zorro’ Is Z-lightful
College Information and Publications 9/25/06 zorro_01.jpg: This content expired on 05/05/2008 at 02:54PM. zorro_02.jpg: This content expired on 05/05/2008 at 02:54PM. Douglas Fairbanks was and always will be the definitive Zorro. Although the swashbuckling actor never spoke a word in The Mark of Zorro (1920), Fairbanks’ dashing good looks, daring swordplay and contagious smile set the standard for Don Diego Vega/Señor Zorro for every actor to follow.
In Zorro, the score sets the stage for Old Spanish California, and Fairbanks creates the prototype for the modern action-adventure hero, performing all of his own stunts. Slashing his trademark “Z” on the consciousness and sometimes the posterior of the corrupt administration of Gov. Alvarado, Señor Zorro (Mr. Fox) is the champion of the people. He protects the poor from rich landowners and the oppressive colonial government in 19th century California. When not hiding behind his mask, Zorro is Don Diego de la Vega, a foppish son of a wealthy ranchero who courts the beautiful Lolita Pulido. When The Mark of Zorro opened in New York, it the was the largest single-day grossing movie up to its time. Fairbanks became the box-office star of 1920, and the film launched his career as romantic hero. Zorro also launched a series of remakes and take-offs including a female Zorro in 1944 and the 1981 spoof, Zorro the Gay Blade. A Juilliard-trained tuba player and a pioneering researcher of music for silent films, Benjamin has searched for the original orchestral accompaniments to the great motion pictures of the 1910s and ’20s. He has acquired the music libraries of several noted theaters and silent film conductors, building a personal collection of nearly 1,000 period cinema-orchestra scores. Benjamin and his orchestra have performed the original scores to silent films for about 20 years with “regulation” theater instrumentation – five strings, flute, clarinet, two shepherd’s crook cornets, vintage small-bore trombone and a 1900’s-era trap-drum set with calfskin heads and gut snares. Benjamin and his orchestra have performed three times previously at the Carlsen Center – Victorian Christmas in 2000, the Clown Princes (silent films of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd) in 2002, and the world premiere production of Benjamin’s historically accurate orchestration of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha in March 2004. Tickets for The Mark of Zorro are $20 for adults and $10 for youth (12 and under), available by calling the Carlsen Center box office, 913-469-4445, or online at www.jccc.edu/CarlsenCenter. |
