Rosa Rio, Silent Film and Soap Opera Organist, Dies at 107

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On Oct. 6, 1927, the day “The Jazz Singer” splashed noisily across American movie screens, Rosa Rio broke down and wept. Al Jolson was talking, and the very sound of him, she knew, would put her out of business.

But Miss Rio’s fears went unrealized, and for the next eight decades " until her final performance, last year " she built a career as one of the country’s premier theater organists.

Miss Rio was undoubtedly among the very last to have played the silent-picture houses, accompanying the likes of Chaplin, Keaton and Pickford on the Mighty Wurlitzer amid velvet draperies, gilded rococo walls and vaulted ceilings awash in stars. She was also one of the few women to have made her way in a field dominated by men.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/15/arts/music/15rio.html

In my town, there was a tiny lady, dressed beautifully, and always talking animatedly. I learned that she was Rosa Rio, and had played the organ to accompany silent films.

No one knew how old she was, but no matter how I tried to do the math, I could not figure out how this vivacious woman could be the age that she had to be, considering the era in which she started her career.

Finally she 'fessed up, at age 105. A few days ago she passed away, a few weeks short of her 108th birthday.

She had played the organ for silent films. After the talkies came in, she was the accompanist for many soap operas.............no small feat for a woman in the era where many careers were closed to females.

In her "retirement" she would play the Wurlitzer to accompany a silent film in the old Tampa Theatre..............a throwback to the old movie palaces. A few years ago, I went to one of her shows, and was amazed at her ability to play perfectly to set the mood of the film.

I would suspect that her death marks the end of an era. May she rest in peace.