The silent movie era may have given way to the talkies long ago but Clearview Township residents have a chance to relive the art form later this month.

The Stayner Heritage Society will present a recreation of the long-lost 1919 silent movie Anne of Green Gables on Tues., Nov. 18.

The presentation will start at 7:30 p.m., at Centennial United Church on William Street.

Bob Charlton, a member of the society, said the production is courtesy of Bala, Ont., residents Jack and Linda Hutton.

The husband and wife are big fans of Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author of the Anne of Green Gables books.

So much so that after they were married in 1990 they bought the Bala home where Montgomery had her meals during a holiday in 1922.

The Huttons restored the home to how it appeared in the 1920s and since 1992  have operated it as Bala’s Museum, showing several items related to Montgomery.

And, for the last seven years, the Huttons have worked to recreate the 1919 Anne of Green Gables movie.

The movie was produced by William Desmond Taylor and starred Mary Miles Minter, an upcoming actress, as Anne.

So why did the movie eventually disappear?

Well, the tale is as interesting as one of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s stories, if not more so.

Taylor, also the director of the movie, was murdered in February 1922 in Los Angeles.  The 49-year-old was shot in the back. His body was found by his cook and valet, Henry Peavey.

Police never pinned the murder on anyone but in the course of the investigation, a package of love letters from Minter were found inside Taylor’s home.

Jack and Linda Hutton said the press learned of the relationship, which was viewed somewhat scandalously because Minter was just 19 and had only recently portrayed the wholesome Anne Shirley on the silver screen.

“They really blew things out of proportion,” Linda Hutton said.

And so, because of the murder and the relationship between Taylor and Minter, the movie was never seen again.

Jack Hutton, a retired journalist, said people have looked everywhere for a copy of the film but one has never surfaced.

“Unfortunately, it was destroyed or lost,” he said.

But given the couple’s interest in Montgomery and her stories, the Huttons said they’ve done their best to recreate what moviegoers would have seen years ago had they attended Taylor’s version of Anne of Green Gables.

Jack Hutton said their interest in the movie was sparked about seven years ago when they discovered sheet music for the production on eBay, the online auction site. They bought the music and later found a book published after the movie – one that contained 24 still images from the production.

Using the images from the book, along with others they were able to dig up, the Huttons have put the movie – or what they can of it – back together.

To present the movie, the couple uses a PowerPoint program.

“I also narrate to give people a better feeling of what they are seeing,” Linda Hutton said, adding she also uses her voice for the different characters.

Jack Hutton, a piano player since the age of eight, said he plays the music – the very same music people would have heard when the movie was in theatres.

For all intents and purposes people who watch the movie are the first to do so since it was last on the big screen, he added.

Linda Hutton said that in the course of their research the couple discovered two plot synopsis for the movie – each one different and also different than what Montgomery wrote in her 1908 book.

“So we had to decide which one to follow,” she said, not wanting to divulge any details.

She said that while the 1919 movie is about Anne Shirley, the 11-year-old orphan who comes to live with Marilla Cuthbert and her brother, Matthew, at their farm, Green Gables, the story, filmed in the small town of Dedham, Mass., has been somewhat Americanized.

Nonetheless, the Huttons said they think the movie is a real treat because it’s the first film story about Anne. The movie is also special, they said, because it’s a silent picture, something most people who have no real experience viewing.

Linda Hutton, 60, a Sarnia native, said she fell in love with the Anne story and Montgomery’s writing in Grade 6. She explained her teacher read Anne of Green Gables to the class.

Jack, 75, said while he appreciated the stories they weren’t something he read until the couple were married and honeymooning in Prince Edward Island, where Montgomery was born and based many of her books.

It was on a return trip to the island province in July that the couple ran into Stayner’s Bob Charlton and his wife, Agnes.

The Huttons were in P.E.I. to attend the Lucy Maud Montgomery conference at the University of Prince Edward Island, where they unveiled their recreation of the 1919 Anne movie.

The two couples met when they were visiting the Bideford Parsonage Museum, a provincially registered historical home that was built in 1878.  Montgomery boarded at the home when she was 19 and first working as a teacher.

“We had a conversation and I asked if they’d present in Stayner and they said they would,” Charlton said, later adding the society formally decided to proceed with the presentation in September.

He said because of the movie’s historical nature and the other stories connected to it the event fits the heritage society’s mandate.

Charlton said the movie is about 40 minutes long.

The society is hoping to attract about 100 people to the event, Charlton added, noting the church can hold 150 people.

“A lot of my generation and older grew up with this [Anne] literature and so I think it will appeal to a wide portion of the population,” he said.

Tickets to the event are $10 for adults or $8 for seniors and children. Children age six or younger will be admitted at no charge.

For more information, call Bob Charlton at 428-6943 or Myrna Johnston at 428-2540.

For information about the 1919 movie Anne of Green Gables, click the link provided and type Anne of Green Gables into the search engine. Readers will also find links for William Desmond Taylor and Mary Miles Minter.

 mgennings@simcoe.com