Jax-made silent film ‘The Flying Ace’ to soar with new score performed by Jacksonville Symphony

The Flying Ace, a 100-year-old silent film made in Jacksonville originally for Black audiences, will soar again on Saturday with a newly commissioned orchestral score played by the the Jacksonville Symphony. And that brand new music was created by six composers to match the silent action in a film produced by Norman Studios on Arlington Road that still exists as a museum dedicated to its history, and the efforts of a man to produce non-stereotyped films for a Black audience who wanted them. Richard Norman’s films had none of the usual depictions of African Americans seen in mainstream films of the time. The story of a Black World War I pilot (Lawrence Griner) who rescues a kidnapped woman (Kathryn Boyd) was filmed at the studio and a now long-gone railroad station in Mayport. The only surviving feature-length film of the nine produced by Norman, it would have been played with a live piano player or band providing the soundtrack. The idea for the new score began when compos