Accompanist Finds Challenge in the Sound of Silents : Film: The organist who will play at screening of ‘The General’ says a musician can add to the audience’s enjoyment of the old movies.

There are times when Robert Israel can’t help but feel like a throwback, a dinosaur at the keyboard.

It’s not his age--he’s only 28. It’s more his job. Israel is among a small group of musicians who make a living accompanying silent movies.

Israel, who will play organ at the screening of Buster Keaton’s “The General” at the Wilshire Auditorium tonight, is a modern reflection of Hollywood’s early boom years, when organists were nearly as essential to a film’s success as its stars.

That all changed with the advent of recorded sound, but Israel still believes there’s something special in experiencing a silent the way it was originally intended.

“A silent without sound can be unending, almost unbearable because the music adds so much in moving the story along,” he said, “and when it comes to live music, a good accompanist can bring so much to the enjoyment of it through the fullness of the sound.

“Besides, there’s the (element of) spontaneity, where the musician creatively interprets a scene. It can really help an audience’s appreciation.”

Although work is “sometimes sporadic,” Israel stresses that it’s a career he wouldn’t give up. The Pacific Palisades resident has composed scores for talkies and television (he did part of an episode of “21 Jump Street” last year), but he always returns to the silents.

“Luckily, there are enough people who still like these old films; there are festivals and revivals on a fairly regular basis,” said Israel. “I’ve done as many as 18 engagements a month before, but sometimes it’s as few as two a month.”

Israel’s own appreciation began when he was 13 and his father took him to the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles and other venues that showed silents. He noticed immediately how important the music was and soon found his piano and organ studies moving in a direction that would encompass film.

After studying the silent classics and such veteran accompanists as Gaylord Carter, who has played for silents since the ‘20s, Israel took on his first job at 17, backing a Caltech festival screening of “The Phantom of the Opera” starring Lon Chaney.

Since then, he has performed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, UCLA’s Melnitz Theatre, the Cultural Hall in North Hollywood and at Loyola Marymount University. Israel also has accompanied screenings for film and Hollywood history classes where, he’s found, students are surprised at both his age and endurance.

“They usually expect someone really old, and some are amazed that I can play for a two-hour movie,” he said. “What happens is that I pick up the energy from the film, get tuned into it,” and that carries him through.

Israel will be performing for more than two hours in the ongoing “Comedy Tonight” program sponsored by the North Orange County Community College District. Besides “The General,” the bill includes two shorts: Charlie Chaplin’s “The Immigrant” and Harry Langdon’s “His Marriage Wow.”

For “The General,” released in 1926 and widely considered Keaton’s finest movie, Israel starts with “the basic skeleton” of a score that historically has accompanied the film. That leaves plenty of room for “my own artist’s creativity.”

The challenge with Keaton, Israel noted, is in finding the right flow that does justice to the master comedian’s energetic pace while not overpowering the subtlety of many of his gags.

“Although Keaton has so much energy and his humor can be so visual and epic, he never gets swallowed up by any of it,” said Israel. “What I like to do with comedies, and especially with Keaton, is find music that bridges scenes without being too loud or too soft. I’ve had the luxury of doing this one before, so I expect it will go well.”

* Buster Keaton’s “The General” will screen tonight at 7:30 at the Wilshire Auditorium, 315 E. Wilshire Ave, Fullerton. The “Comedy Tonight” series continues Oct. 4 with “The Awful Truth” (starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne); “Hail the Conquering Hero” (Oct. 25, starring Eddie Bracken and William Demarest); “The Lavendar Hill Mob” (Nov. 8, starring Alec Guinness); and “A Shot in the Dark” (Nov. 22, starring Peter Sellers). Tickets: $3 and $4 per film. Information: (714) 779-8577.