'Ben Hur' Organist Dies

By Stephen M. Silverman

10/29/1997 at 12:00 AM EST

Movie theater organist Lee Erwin, 92, who fashioned musical scores for such famous silent epics as Lon Chaney's 1923 "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and the original 1925 "Ben Hur," died in his New York City home last Thursday, reports that city's Times. He worked up until two years ago, playing the organ around the country at well-attended revivals of silent movies. Besides "Hunchback" and "Ben," he also scored movies by Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin and appeared as a roller rink organist in Woody Allen's "Radio Days."