Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon, which means I must not be here all too soon so let’s just get this damn show on the road, shall we? Yes, these will be Roadshow notes and you must have reserved seats only to read them and the notes will be in 70mm and 6-track stereo sound, written in Todd-AO at 30-frames per second for astonishing clarity. What the HELL am I talking about? But speaking of Roadshow movies, I saw many, many Roadshow motion pictures in my day. I think I’m remembering correctly that my first Roadshow film would have been Windjammer at the Chinese in Cinemiracle. The second would have been Ben-Hur in 1959 at the Egyptian. After that, there was no stopping me and I attended the Roadshows of Sleeping Beauty at the Wilshire, a reissue of Seven Wonders of the World in Cinerama at the Warner Cinerama, Spartacus at the Pantages, Exodus at the Wilshire, Scent of Mystery at the Ritz, West Side Story at the Chinese, El Cid at the Carthay Circle, King of Kings at the Egyptian, Lawrence of Arabia at the Stanley Warner Beverly Hills, Mutiny on the Bounty at the Egyptian, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm in Cinerama at the Warner Cinerama, How the West Was Won at the Warner Cinerama, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World at the Cinerama Dome, The Cardinal at the Egyptian, My Fair Lady at the Egyptian, The Sound of Music at the Wilshire, Doctor Zhivago at the Paramount, The Great Race at the Pantages, The Bible (in Cleveland), The Sand Pebbles (in Cleveland, Grand Prix at the Cinerama Dome, Half a Sixpence at the Chinese, Camelot at the Cinerama Dome, Doctor Dolittle at the Paramount, Far from the Madding Crowd at the Wilshire, The Happiest Millionaire at the Pantages, Thoroughly Modern Millie at the Warner Hollywood, 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Warner Hollywood, Oliver at the Beverly, Finian’s Rainbow at the Pantages, Star! at the Wilshire, Funny Girl at the Egyptian, Fiddler on the Roof at the Wilshire. After that, it wasn’t the same. I seem to have gone off on a tangent. I did manage to watch a motion picture last evening, the first in over two weeks, I think. It was entitled Autumn Leaves, starring Miss Joan Crawford and Mr. Cliff Robertson, directed by Robert Aldrich. Those who’ve read my first novel, Benjamin Kritzer, know that I saw that movie on a double bill with The Man Who Knew Too Much at the Lido – that’s on the cover of the book, too. And here is living proof of the double bill.
I loved The Man Who Knew Too Much, but Autumn Leaves was a little too much for my eight-year-old self and in the film’s most shocking scene, I ran up the aisle and refused to come back until it was over. Watching it again was fun in its way. Miss Joan Crawford by this time was in full Joan Crawford mode. Cliff Robertson was very good, as were Vera Miles and Lorne Greene. The Cedar Court apartments (made up name) was located at 5267-77 De Longpre Avenue near Columbia Studios and shockingly it’s still there and looking almost the same as are the buildings across the street. The shocking scene is still shocking and I would have run up the aisle if there’d been an aisle in the home environment. The movie is, of course, an old-fashioned melodrama with the new-fangled mental illness angle.
Yesterday was okay. I got about six hours of sleep, answered a LOT of e-mails, had a honey walnut salad with raspberry vinaigrette – candied walnuts, chopped asparagus, crumbled blue cheese, and chicken. It was good. After that, I just relaxed until a fifteen-minute phone call with David Wechter. Zoom was doing one of its updates and was slow as molasses. Once that was done, I had some low-fat cottage cheese with season salt and that was a nice snack. Then I watched the movie and that was that.
Today, I’ll be up by eight and out the door before nine, I’ll have a light breakfast somewhere, I’ll stop at the mail place and pick up whatever’s there to pick up, I’ll do stuff, then come home and do a little work on the project with David Wechter. After that, it’s just relaxing, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is more of the same, Monday I should get one proofer’s fixes, so I’ll enter those, then it’s getting ready for casting 70, Girls, 70.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora and the Twist, because today is the birthday of our very own beloved Jrand. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own beloved Jrand. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN BELOVED JRAND!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eight and out the door before nine, I must breakfast, I must pick up whatever’s at the mail place, I must do a little work on the project with David Wechter, and then I must watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What was the first Roadshow movie you attended, and what were your other favorites over the years? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have written the very first example of roadshow notes.