Why Is Plaistow's Library Adding Live Music to a 1931 Movie That Already Talks?

On Tuesday, November 10, Plaistow Public Library will show the 1931 Boris Karloff Frankenstein in the Nelson Room at 85 Main St. A local keyboardist will play live through the whole film, even though it's a sound film with spoken dialogue. The screening is the newest step in a series the library has run since October 2022. In that series, Gary McGath improvises a score on a Roland keyboard while a classic film plays.

The series lives on McGath's silent movie schedule. This one has spoken dialogue, and the reason has to do with how little music the 1931 film actually contains.

A sound film with room for a keyboard

McGath explains the choice himself on his silent movie schedule page:

"That one has spoken dialogue, of course, but it has little music, and several silent film accompanists have shown the movie, adding their live music where it's appropriate."

So the film already has its dialogue, but it leaves long stretches without a score, and that's where the keyboard comes in. The library's listing says McGath will "provide live music throughout the screening," aimed at "enhancing iconic moments" and "amplifying tension." The film is no obscure pick for this kind of experiment. The 1931 Frankenstein has been on the Library of Congress's National Film Registry since 1991.

McGath has written on his blog about how he approaches this work. He treats it as occasional and improvised. He pays attention to timing and recurring motifs, and he tries to add music that supports the film rather than overwhelming it. That restraint matters more with a talkie, where the music has to stay out of the way of the dialogue. The library's event page says plainly that every performance he gives is fully improvised. The score you hear on November 10 won't be repeated anywhere else.

The opener survives in a single print

The evening opens with a much older film before the Karloff feature. The 1910 Frankenstein is the earliest known screen adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel. The Library of Congress catalog credits J. Searle Dawley as director and writer and lists Edison Manufacturing Company as the producer.

For a long time, almost nobody could watch it. A Library of Congress curator's post explains that the only surviving nitrate print came into the Library's collection in 2014. It was then scanned and restored. The short you'll see in the Nelson Room has come close to being lost. Seeing it next to the 1931 version also shows how much the story changed in two decades. The first version had no sound at all. The second had dialogue but very little music.

Four Octobers of monsters on Main Street

This double feature makes the most sense against the series behind it. McGath's records show that Plaistow's horror title has landed in October nearly every year.

This year breaks the pattern in two ways. The monster night has moved into November. The headliner is also a film McGath himself describes as having spoken dialogue, a first for a list he keeps on his silent movie schedule page.

Between the horror nights, the series has covered a lot of ground. There have been comedies, adventure films and a few landmarks of early cinema:

• 2023: The Black Pirate in January, City Lights in April and Steamboat Bill, Jr. in July
• 2024: Phantom of the Opera in January and Metropolis in April
• 2025: The Flying Ace in February, Peter Pan in April, One Week on May 29 and The General in July
• 2026: Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood in January, three shorts in April, The Immigrant, Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde and His Royal Slyness, and America in June

The May 2025 screening of One Week was part of the library building's 25th anniversary celebration. That one detail tells you the series has become part of how the library marks its own milestones. McGath has also posted several of his Plaistow performances, including The Flying Ace, Peter Pan and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, on his YouTube silent film list. If you've never been, you can preview what a night in the Nelson Room sounds like.

The series has also grown beyond Plaistow. In February 2026, McGath accompanied Peter Pan at the Newmarket Public Library. That same month, he played live under The Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Boskone 63 science fiction convention in Boston. The Frankenstein program gets its first outing outside Plaistow on October 30 at the Rye Public Library, which McGath says is his first show at that location. Plaistow, where the series has played since 2022, gets it eleven days later.

Getting one of the 30 seats

The Nelson Room event holds 30 people. You'll need to register through the library's event page. Here's how it works:

1. Register online. The form asks for your first and last name, email, phone number and the total number of people in your party. Count yourself in that number.
2. Keep your group to eight or fewer. Each registration covers up to eight attendees.
3. Watch for the waitlist. If you register more people than there are open seats, your extra attendees go onto the event's wait list automatically.
4. Check your email. The library sends a reminder 48 hours before the event.
5. Plan for the full two hours. The program runs 6 to 8 PM. The 1931 feature alone runs 71 minutes, according to the listing, and both films are unrated.

The listing doesn't give any age guidance. If you're thinking of bringing kids to see Karloff, it's worth deciding for yourself whether a 1931 horror film suits them.

The rest of Plaistow's Halloween stretch

The double feature closes out a few weeks of seasonal events in town, most of them on Main Street. If this post reaches you on Thursday, October 22, these dates are still ahead:

• Thursday, October 29, 5:30 to 6:45 PM: The library's Interactive Halloween StoryWalk at 85 Main St. Participants move through story stations and collect objects to retell the story.
• Friday, October 30, 9:30 AM: Toddler Trick or Treat at Town Hall.
• Friday, October 30, 4:30 PM: The Town Pumpkin Lighting, listed on the Town of Plaistow calendar.
• Friday, October 30, in Rye: McGath plays live under the 1931 Frankenstein at the Rye Public Library. It's an option if the Plaistow seats fill up.
• November 2 to 20: Kids ages 5 to 18 can pick up a template in the library's Children's Department for the Help the Gingerbread Man Escape Contest. They decorate it to look like a favorite book character and return it by December 1.
• Wednesday, November 11: Town Hall and the library are both closed for Veterans Day.
• Sunday, November 29, 5 PM: The Town Tree Lighting on Town Hall Green, 145 Main St.

If your fall plans also run up Route 125, our earlier post on the Clam Bar and what actually reopened there covers another bit of Plaistow history that's easy to get wrong. More about the town is on our Plaistow page.

Some of the best things about living in Plaistow are small, like a 30-seat room on Main Street where a neighbor scores a monster movie on the spot. At Sonia Bramhall, I love hearing about local traditions like this one. If you know of a Plaistow event that deserves more attention, or you just want to talk about what's going on in town, let's connect.