On Friday, February 21, at 1:00 PM, I’ll accompany the silent film The Flying Ace at the Plaistow, NH Library. Admission is free. My plan is to record the accompaniment and combine it with the movie in a YouTube video, if no technical problems arise.

I chose this movie for Black History Month. In the silent era and for some time afterward, black actors couldn’t hope for leading roles in mainstream movies. Some studios produced “race films” — movies with black casts for black audiences. One of them was Norman Studios in Florida. As far as I know, the only film from it which is still available is The Flying Ace, released in 1926.

In spite of its title, the movie has only a slight connection to aerial combat. The hero of the movie, Billy Stokes, was a distinguished pilot in World War I, and he’s returning to his old job as a railroad detective. His assignment is to figure out the disappearance of the paymaster and $25,000 in payroll money at a small station. It’s a nice detective movie, though viewers may find it easy to guess who is behind the crime.

The movie presents how black people should have been able to live, rather than accurately portraying their lives in those years. The railroad’s general manager is black, which wouldn’t have happened then. No black pilots flew in combat for the USA in World War I. The audiences knew what real life was like. They wanted to see what it ought to be like.

There are a few low-budget flight scenes. For the most part, the planes stay motionless on the ground while a wind machine gives the impression they’re flying. The movie culminates with an airplane chase that has some resemblance to the early Mickey Mouse cartoon, “Plane Crazy.” I don’t know if Walt Disney saw this movie, which came out about a year before the cartoon was produced.

If you’re close to Plaistow and like silent movies, I hope you’ll come.