Silent Films Regain Voice in Refurbished Landmark : Movies: After 11 years, a cherished theater reopens on Fairfax Boulevard. It is believed to be the only house showing the works on a regular basis in the U.S.

Following an 11-year “temporary” closing, the Silent Movie, a cherished Fairfax Boulevard landmark since 1942, resumes business today with a grand re-opening program highlighted by Cecil B. DeMille’s still-stirring 1927 Biblical classic, “The King of Kings.”

Now, as before, the theater is believed to be the only house showing silent movies on a regular basis in the country, possibly the world.

For anyone with treasured memories of evenings at the Silent Movie, the rebirth of the theater, its front so long scarred by graffiti, seems just a little short of miraculous. Yet without fanfare, the graffiti has disappeared behind a fresh coat of paint, and the theater now boasts a handsome new sign.

It is the work of Laurence W. Austin, a longtime friend of the Silent Movie’s owners and operators, Dorothy and John Hampton. When Hampton died at 80 last May, Austin, who for the past three years has been presenting silent films at a Mormon church in Studio City, persuaded his widow to let him take over the theater as a memorial to her husband.

“I don’t want to see all of John’s hard work go unrewarded,” said Austin, “and now I’ve got my fingers crossed.”

Austin’s timing may be right, because the past decade has seen a new appreciation of silent films, sparked by the film preservation movement highlighted by the widely publicized restoration of Abel Gance’s “Napoleon.” Austin, whose mother designed and made all of Cecil B. DeMille’s clothing for more than 30 years and whose father, William, was an actor, explained that Hampton never intended to close his theater permanently.

But one thing led to another, starting with the death of his mother-in-law in 1979. In the spring of 1988, Hampton announced that at last he would soon reopen but was prevented from doing so by his deteriorating health.

Hampton was a rural Oklahoma youth when he fell in love with silent movies about the time he and a friend saw a serial starring Elmo Lincoln, the screen’s first Tarzan. Eventually, Hampton went to work for theaters in Oklahoma City, but by the late ‘30s he and his wife decided to become full-time silent movie exhibitors. Moving to Los Angeles, they built the 250-seat Silent Movie expressly to show silent pictures, which for Hampton “had something like a hypnotic quality. . . . You don’t find that too much any more.”

Hampton’s observation, made 2 1/2 years ago, applies to “The King of Kings,” the film with which he planned to reopen his theater. Stately (and remarkably restrained for DeMille) it remains one of the screen’s most straightforward and moving portrayals of the story of Christ, who is played with an unshakable dignity and gentleness by H. B. Warner.

More religious pageant than profound spiritual experience, “The King of Kings” remains a potent experience. By the time the theater reopens Austin will have restored the film’s opening and closing two-strip Technicolor sequences. DeMille was a Hampton favorite, and the pioneer producer-director personally made copies of his films available to the theater.

Although Hampton sold most of his large collection to Palo Alto film collector-exhibitor David Packard, Austin sees no problem in working out a deal with Packard to show them while obtaining films from other sources as well. Austin will start with Friday and Saturday 8 p.m. evening showings only, possibly experimenting with weekend matinees. A business manager by profession, he said he intends to proceed prudently, with plans to include the installation of a pipe organ and the creation of an intermission patio at the rear of the theater.

Among the films Austin has lined up are Mary Pickford’s “Stella Maris” and “Madame Butterfly,” and “Helen’s Babies” with Clara Bow, Edward Everett Horton and Baby Peggy.

“We hope to show a lot of surprises,” said Austin, “silents that many people believed had turned to dust.”