King Buster!

I am convinced that any audience will love Buster Keaton, spread the word and come back for more. In my college years, as I recall, I only happened to see the great man in COPS and BALLOONATICS and possibly SHERLOCK JR. at the U Film Society. Of course Keaton was still alive and active at the time and I had noticed him earlier on "Candid Camera" doing embarrassing stunts at a lunch counter while they filmed customer reactions. I also saw THE GENERAL at an early age but don't really remember the circumstances. It was around 1970 when Raymond Rohauer revived unseen gems like SEVEN CHANCES and all the Keaton silent features. These eventually made their way to video release by Kino on Video and sold many thousands.

The time is ripe to discover Buster anew, and this time with audiences in Café Roxy venues. Every episode of the All-Star Series (for lack of a better series name) contains one of Buster's silent comedy shorts made from 1920 to 1923. All are in the public domain and all are hilarious.

Locally, the Parkway Theater is showing a Buster Keaton Festival today and Sunday as part of their Matinee series. Silent shorts were never part of the Saturday Matinee experience, but who cares? It will be a terrific show with 4 cartoons and Flash Gordon serial. See the poster for details. All the details you need are that the 3 Keaton shorts are NEIGHBORS, THE SCARECROW and COPS.

A surprising development over at the Suburban World Theater is that they brought in a band to play every Sunday from 11 am to 2 pm. Cartoons run from 9 to 11, and then run silent behind the band. Music for movies is a natural. Remember silent movies? The band does and is excited to try playing for Buster Keaton in an unannounced trial run this Sunday. The short will come on with a Felix the Cat cartoon and the band will shift their music to accompany the films. If this turns into a weekly event they will add it to their poster. The current poster is shown here.

I have considered making Keaton wallpaper DVDs that only contain two shorts each that then repeat on the disc. That way a venue that finds success with the concept can obtain 10 different shows. They can advertise Buster Keaton night every Thursday, or whatever/whenever. A diner or bar patron may not stay longer than 40 minutes so he can catch the entire short that he happened to walk into the middle of.

I am also expanding programs of silent comedy shorts. The general public has a vague notion that silent comedy is funny and they can't easily find it elsewhere. Therefore they are likely to give it a try, or warm to the films if they walk in cold and find them playing. Meanwhile, anyone not interested will not be put out by silent films playing on large-screen TVs. The poster for a proposed showing in Oregon is a sample they will test soon. It is not yet a show that has played. Looks like a winner to me!

-- Ron Hall
ron@caferoxy.com
See all the Roxy programs at www.caferoxy.com

Harold and Me!

After weekly posts for 8 months, I fell out of the habit. Nothing wrong here, except I have been a Minnesota Vikings football fan for 40 years and they lost the big game again when they had it nearly wrapped up. I will remove this comment in a week, but in case any weekly readers have wondered what happened to me... my spirits have been down. Also been busy on a big project, and busy is always good.

I meant to talk about a hoped-for revival of interest in Buster Keaton. Maybe next time.

One love has always been silent comedy, especially Buster Keaton and watching him with an audience. I first experienced silent comedy with an audience in college at the University of Wisconsin. I recall a few showings of Laurel and Hardy silents with live organ accompaniment, outdoors as well at the student union. There was also a season where they showed Chaplin shorts during lunch in a community room, like every Wednesday or some special day of the week. The most memorable event was a screening of Robert Youngson's "When Comedy Was King" (or else it was "TheGolden Age of Comedy") in a packed classroom one evening. It was for the film history class but word got around that anyone could attend and it would be fun. No one present had seen this stuff before and they really got into it. The highlight was Laurel and Hardy's "Big Business" feud with Jimmy Finlayson -- a fall out of your chair and laugh till it hurts pandemonium. I saw later Robert Youngson compilations in movie theaters like Days of Thrills and Laughter and Four Clowns.

I also saw Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy in a theater when I was still in high school (double-featured with Jack the Giant Killer!) This pre-dates the above U. showing. Which reminds me that Harold came to the U. to test his second compilation "Funny Side of Life." I got to meet him and shake his hand at a reception. He was very thankful for the laughs at the screening and ate up reassurances that we enjoyed the show, which the audience did find hilarious. The IMDB lists "Funny Side" as a 1963 release but I am positive I saw it in college which would be after 1964. I would not have gotten invited to the reception if I was not in college. My guess is Harold made the film earlier but took it around to campuses in 1965.

From IMDB: With the success of his first compilation film, HAROLD LLOYD'S WORLD OF COMEDY (1962), it was only natural that a sequel would soon follow. It is important to remember that for decades these two films were the only way in which to enjoy Harold's classics, as he was adamant that they would not be butchered by television.

We are shown Harold's shipboard confrontation with the villain and a romantic interlude in the woods from THE KID BROTHER (1927). Harold's desperate dash to his own wedding while in charge of a group of drunken bums is shown from FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE (1926) and his taxi troubles in SPEEDY (1928) are included. As a grand conclusion, we are treated to Harold's THE FRESHMAN (1925) in its entirety. This wonderfully funny look at a determined young fellow's drive to succeed on his college football team is still touchingly poignant. The inclusion of the song ‘There Was a Boy, There Was A Girl' by Ned Washington & Walter Scharf lends a gentle, evocative touch to the movie.

Also present at the reception after the screening was movie pioneer Roy Aitken, one of the producers of "Birth of a Nation," who lived in Wisconsin and was in fact still alive (!) in his upper 90's.

From Wikipedia: "Triangle Film Corporation (a.k.a. Triangle Motion Picture Company) was a major American motion-picture studio, founded in the summer of 1915 in Culver City, California, and envisioned as a prestige studio based on the producing abilities of filmmakers D. W. Griffith, Thomas Ince and Mack Sennett. It was founded by Harry and Roy Aitken, two brothers from the Wisconsin farmlands who pioneered the studio system of Hollywood's Golden Age; Harry was also DW Griffith's partner at Reliance-Majestic Studios, who had also been fired by the Mutual Film Corporation as a result the aftermath of The Birth of a Nation's unexpected success that year, as the film also lead to riots in major northern cities due to its racial content."

I heard Harold say to Roy: "Mr. Aitken, I used to work for you when I first got into pictures, but I never got to meet you. This is a real pleasure for me." I left with the impression that Harold Lloyd was a humble and gracious man.

Visit the website at www.caferoxy.com

Gorilla Suit Day -- It's International, you know!

Plans are well underway around the world to celebrate Gorilla Suit Day on Jan. 31. Since that's a Sunday, feel free to have a party Saturday as well. International plans are being coordinated by Brett Stone out of Australia. Please visit his Facebook Page, join, become a fan and start those party plans.

Now what exactly do gorillas like to do at a party besides eat bananas? Watch gorilla movies, perhaps?

I have 3 distinct programs ready to roll on Gorilla Suit Day Weekend, Jan. 30-31. The first is Gorilla Brunch for the Minneapolis Suburban World Theater. This is a one hour program of trailers for gorilla films and monkey cartoons. Since it is usually a Cartoon Brunch, I include Superman in "Terror on the Midway," Simon the Monk in "Monkey Doodle," "Marty the Monk" and Grandpa Monkey in the color "A Busy Day" (1940). The show repeats after an hour as it is meant to be viewed casually by whoever comes to eat brunch in the theater-cafe.

The second show is a Saturday Matinee for the Parkway Theater. This is a two hour show at noon both days. Because it is a Matinee it includes a chapter of "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe" serial. Instead of the very hip "Monkey Doodle," I am inflicting a pretty dreadful Betty Boop cartoon called "My Friend, the Monkey." It is not only a late Betty from 1939, but features her cuddly dog Pudgy. A swingin' hurdy-gurdy man goes by Betty Boop's house; she wants to buy the monkey, which causes plenty of trouble for Pudgy the Pup. Finally friends. This runs first and hopefully everyone will come ten minutes late that day. The matinee feature is "White Gorilla." (The brunch only shows the 4-minute trailer for "White Gorilla.")

Developing the 2 shows for 2 specific venues led to the ultimate hybrid Gorilla Suit Day Video. I dropped Betty Boop and the serial and added Monkey Doodle and more trailers. The result is the show in the poster above. You can download the poster for your showing here and email it to all your guests. Here is a run-down of every film in the program:

1) Opening with a segment of "White Gorilla" Trailer and credit to Don Martin for creating the insanity.
2) Trailer for "Bride of the Gorilla" (1951) that makes the film sound more exciting than it actually is. Name a trailer that doesn't work this way! A decent cast includes Raymond Burr, Tom Conway, Lon Chaney Jr. and Barbara Payton. Most of the gorilla scenes are in the trailer.
3) A five-minute or so segment from "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla." (1953) Two goofy entertainers meet a mad scientist on a jungle island. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis look-alikes get mixed up with two gorillas in pretty good suits.
4) "White Pongo" (1945) -- the climactic fight between white and black gorillas. Made the same year as "White Gorilla" and with Ray Corrigan inside one of the suits, Pongo employs more tree bashing than "White Gorilla," so I would guess it was made right afterward or by a more creative director. "How can we top that White Gorilla bash-a-thon? Hmm...."
5) Simon the Monk in "Monkeydoodle" (1931). One of the strangest and rarest cartoons you will ever see, animated by Les Elton.
6) Ape climax from "House of Mystery" (1934). Secret corridors, mystery, murder and a rampaging ape. Great ending when the detective tries to take off the head of the dead ape to see what mystery villain is inside the suit. "His head won't come off. Why, this ape's the real mccoy!"
7) "The Bride and the Beast" trailer (1958). This one is wild and campy from the demented pen of Ed Wood, Jr. "On her wedding night her husband's love brought the beast to raging fury." Why they keep a caged gorilla in their bedroom is not explained in the trailer.
8) Superman in "Terror on the Midway" (1942). Guess what escapes?
9) The awesome trailer for "Robot Monster" (1953), which needs little introduction.
10) Trailer for the original "King Kong" (1933).
11) Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour and a gorilla suit in "Road to Bali" (1953).
12) Tribute to Ray Crash Corrigan with the clip from "Come on Cowboys" (1937) that you can view right this second on Youtube.
13) White Gorilla complete and uncensored! It only runs 61 minutes and has nothing objectionable that anyone would cut. I first saw this film in the Minneapolis Walker Art Center, presented by William K. Everson in a program called "Movies out of nothing." Ray Corrigan spends half the film in a tree or behind a bush watching footage from a 1927 serial, all the while pretending to be in that movie. It is great fun and features two gorillas, as you can see in the White Gorilla trailer.

How can one see this ape-or-ific grandiosity on Gorilla Suit Day, one might ask? Here is how! I normally sell shows for $25, but will ship Gorilla Suit Day to you for a mere $5 bucks, which includes shipping. I just want it to be seen and enjoyed on the day of days. Money back guarantee if you don't love the program. What else will you be doing at your gorilla day party?

All films are in the public domain. You can show them publicly, advertise and charge admission if you like. The special contents of the program are copyrighted by me, so you can not copy and re-sell the disc. The $5 complimentary price to cover shipping and handling is meant for home showings where no admission is charged. If you manage to show it in a theater that rakes in the dough (!), kindly send me a modest cut of the take. I am not really joking here. This program has enormous potential to find a cult audience, but that will only happen when it is widely shown and earns a reputation.

I take Paypal to fesfilms@aol.com, personal checks made out to Ron Hall or a $5 bill in the mail sent to:

Ron Hall
6115 Chestnut Terrace
Shorewood, MN 55331

Or contact me at:
952-470-2172
email to ron@caferoxy.com or fesfilms@aol.com
Visit the website at www.caferoxy.com

How does this all work, anyhow?

It started with a question: "How can I find a new audience for vintage films?"

I still enjoy them immensely -- Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons, silent comedies, serial chapter endings and B-films of all genres. There are many like-minded fans out there who already watch Turner Classic Movies, buy DVDs of classic films, rent from Netflix or watch free downloads. How about everyone else? How about the next generation? How can I get one child to watch one Felix the Cat or Buster Keaton?

The surprising answer was Café Roxy -- show movies wherever people gather to eat, drink and have fun! Everywhere and anywhere means bowling alleys, American Legion posts, sports bars, ice cream parlors, pubs, cafés, coffee houses, restaurants, libraries and even neighborhood movie theaters. Attract audiences to public places where they can enjoy the films together while they eat or snack on popcorn, hamburgers, beer and soft drinks.

In theory, venues in every city can benefit by an idea that will generate publicity, good word of mouth and new patrons. Small towns without theaters can bring back the movie-going social experience. My goal is to help anyone try movie shows once and then succeed in the long run. Here is what I have come up with to make Café Roxy inexpensive, attractive and easy to try:

1) Show FREE movies! Make money off food and drink sales. Free = Fun! Free = Affordable for Families! If it's a free show in a place you eat/drink anyways, seems like one might give the movies a try and bring the family. In the spirit of FREE, I offer a free Roxy sampler show of shorts.

If you are a movie theater where people expect to pay, then only charge $1 or $2, which sounds like a bargain, and profit off concession sales.

2) Café Roxy offers VARIETY PROGRAMS with shorts, TV shows, commercials, trailers, cartoons and serial chapters. If a patron doesn't like the cartoon playing, it will be over in 6 minutes. Matinees contain cartoons, shorts and serials before the main feature. It seems reasonable to come for the shorts, follow the serial each week, then sample the feature and walk out if you don't care for it. However, anyone leaving early likely did eat or drink something, which was the main idea.

3) Colorful POSTERS. The posters make the event sound exciting. Posters are instant advertising that merchants can print out and put in their window or on their website. If you use the poster shown here on the right, will an audience come to watch?

4) PUBLIC DOMAIN films. None of the Roxy films are protected by copyright so you don't need to pay royalties. The DVDs are yours to keep and use forever after the initial purchase. Proof as to why each film is in the public domain is included.

5) Youtube TRAILERS for Saturday Matinee and Cartoon Brunch that can be linked to from any website. This is just one more tool that some are using to promote their showings.

Put it all together = Café Roxy. Show movies anywhere.

********************************************************

Each venue has it's own special challenge. You need an area to show the films and you need a large screen TV or video projection system or banks of TVs everywhere. Movie theaters are ready to go since they video project the pre-shows with ads for local merchants and those trivia quizzes. Every sports bar is equipped and could easily try Movie Night or a Cartoon Room. Many pizza places, ice cream parlors and bowling alleys might have party rooms with video in place.

Tailor shows to your audience.

Ask your regular clientele which film programs they would attend. Make sure a few friends will attend the first show and then open it up to all with the poster invitations. If there is a senior center next door, program classics from the 1940s. If you are on a college campus, try Reefer Madness or Plan Nine from Outer Space or a film society series of Film Noir classics. Will this program featuring The Most Dangerous Game attract the college students it is aimed at? Neighborhood theaters with families might try the Saturday Matinees. Coffee houses -- try Cartoon Brunches.

Do not run continuous films as they will quickly lose their appeal. Schedule shows at specific times and promote them with the posters. The hope is to gather audiences who will enjoy the films together. The dream is to inspire the next generation. Vintage films can be fun!

Café Roxy is an idea in search of entrepreneurs who think outside the box. Let's work together to figure out what will work for you!

-- Ron Hall
952-470-2172
email to ron@caferoxy.com
Visit the website at www.caferoxy.com

End of Year Revue!

It's retro-look time for me to document the first year history of Café Roxy's birth, rise, etc. This blog is for me. I hope it fails to bore.

1) I got the idea to put together Programs of public domain films for coffee houses, etc., in February of 2009 during discussion with Susan Bosin who was opening a Cafe Revue film/performance room that adjoined her coffee shop in Fresno, CA.

2) Named the idea Café Roxy to combine vintage movies conjured up by "Roxy" with the eating & drinking suggested by "Café." I rejected the first idea of "Café Bijou" because I am involved with a group bringing back the 1980s PBS TV show "Matinee at the Bijou" and did not want to imply that both projects were related or divert any googling away from MATB.

3) In March I discussed with my Festival Films website advisor Andy Lehrfield about starting a new website just called "Café Roxy," rather than adding an extension to the Festival Films website. While I don't recall the exact start date, Roxy was surely up and running in April.

4) Started with the tiny coffee shop logo depicted above. I found the image on Flicker and am using it without permission. I am slowly switching to the grander movie theater exterior shown here on the right.

5) Started this blog on April 27, 2009 and have made one or two entries every week since. This has been most valuable since ideas crystallize for me when I put them down on paper.

6) Developed over 100 Programs that you can browse through.

7) Created posters for every Program! These are important selling tools, first for me to sell each show and second for my buyers to use to promote their showings by printing and posting them or by inserting in their own websites.

8) Improved the poster design as I went along. I do have some design experience and marvel at how bad the first posters were. You can judge the improvement from the four posters show below. The first two are from April-May and the last two from December.


9) Re-visited hundreds of public domain films in my collection to find ones that still entertain today, and also remastered them to DVD for improved quality and sound volume balance.

10) Started a Roxy Youtube channel. I learned how to create the movies to post by experimenting with iMovie on my Mac and a DVD ripper that takes film clips off my public domain DVDs.

11) Most importantly (!!!) I have witnessed audiences enjoying the shows locally at the Suburban World Cartoon Brunch and the Parkway Theater Saturday Matinee. Many comment how much they love the idea and the films.

Onward into 2010 where my hopes and expectations are to spread Café Roxy programs across the country.

-- Ron Hall
952-470-2172
email to ron@caferoxy.com
Visit the website at www.caferoxy.com

Winter Matinee Lineup!

The first show in the second Parkway Matinee series begins Saturday-Sunday, January 2-3. The title has changed from "Saturday Matinee" to "Parkway Matinee" because they added Sunday showings. Saturday Matinee in my mind stands for the kind of program with cartoons, serial chapter and a short feature that was in fact shown to kids back in the old matinees, usually on Saturday afternoon. You can schedule the programs at night or Tuesday or anytime and still call it "Saturday Matinee." However, I don't want to confuse anyone who might come to the Parkway Sunday at noon....

The first program has suddenly changed to "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" for an odd reason. A local church is staging a one-hour live play version this coming Sunday, and the unusual production got a big article in the paper this Wednesday. Go check out the complete article that starts out:

"Holiday productions typically feature little green elves, oversized Santas and festive holiday decorations. But this year the Unitarian Universalist Church of Minnetonka will add another component to its tradition: Martians. On Sunday, the church will put on its first-ever production of "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians!" Originally a 1964 movie, the offbeat story has been adapted by Minnesota playwright Jeff Hatcher into a 60-minute play for the church."

This set me thinking... Why not run the film? I regretted not scheduling Christmas shows this weekend or next at the Parkway. Jan. 2-3 are right after New Years (duh! I wrote that?) but just before kids go back to school. Think of the 12 Days of Christmas and it is still Christmas vacation and Santa is still in fashion. The movie itself is of course silly and has been camped up on Mystery Science Theater 3000 as a classic bad film. The bottom line -- it's still fun! Real little kids might even take it as a real story. Under 4? Well, some kid somewhere who has never seen a film in a theater before...? Forget that, but they might well enjoy it and adults can laugh along. The first episode of Flash Gordon makes for two solid hours of campy Science Fiction with obvious toy space ships.

Whenever Santa Conquers Conquers the Martians is mentioned, the note is added that oh, wow, this is Pia Zadora's first film!!! She plays a martian child. So who the heck is Pia Zadora? I just looked her up on the IMDB and am still puzzled with the same question. Who the heck is she and why should anyone care that she is in this film? She appeared on one episode of "Hollywood Squares," for example, and similar accomplishments.

All 12 shows in the new series are online both for the Parkway Theater with specific dates and the $2.00 admission notice and also 12 generic posters with the Parkway info removed. These posters are for the future use of whoever else chooses to run the series. My introductory write up on the two pages is different. Both include a link to the new Parkway Trailer!

Because I assume most places will not want a Christmas-themed feature in the middle of July, I hastily added an alternate show #1 -- the Gene Autry feature The Big Show. This 1936 film is around the tenth one he appeared in and is one of the most enjoyable Gene ever made. He plays two parts -- a movie cowboy star with an attitude and his look-alike stunt double who is naturally named Gene Autry. When the prima donna refuses to appear at a big Texas Centennial festival, Gene is drafted to fill in. Lots of comedy, romance, songs, Smiley Burnette, on location filming at the festival, run-ins with racketeers and the studio boss and musical acts featuring the Sons of the Pioneers and an unbilled Roy Rogers all add to the fun. Darn, that does sound fun. Maybe I can work it in yet.

Three of the programs, to be discussed later, are not typical Saturday Matinee fare: 1) A Buster Keaton festival featuring three of his silent shorts. 2) 1950's "Kid" TV shows with excerpts from Pinky Lee, The Magic Clown, Super Circus, Howdy Doody, Beany and Cecil. 3) A similar 1950's excerpt show from the great TV Outer Space epics Tom Corbett, Space Patrol, Commando Cody and the German TV Flash Gordon. These were added for variety and the opportunity to get media coverage.

And don't forget White Gorilla to celebrate Gorilla Suit Day on Jan. 30-31!


www.caferoxy.com

Santa Claus Brunch!

Today is the first of two weekends that the Suburban World Theater will run Santa Claus Brunch. It started out as a collection of Christmas cartoons, but I took out any religious ones and then realized that Santa was in most of the ones left, including a live action version of "The Night Before Christmas" from 1947. Ho, ho, ho! Santa transcends any specific religion. He's pagan, I think, and I love that. Also scary to some young kids. Love it. Ho, ho, ho! Or the bottom line -- Santa is omnipresent this time of year, a fun part of Christmas and may attract brunchers. Click on the poster to enlarge so you can read the cartoon titles.

A minor, um, glitch at the Suburban World is that they use a 5-slot, revolving tray DVD player. By coincidence it looks like the first DVD player I ever had, still have, that plays OK but is pretty old now. Anyway, there is no simple way to keep track of which DVD disc is in which slot. So while they start with the new Cartoon Show each week, once it repeats and ends the machine switches right on to the next disc that is some previous show. If the customers don't complain about seeing last week's show, I guess they weren't there, and if they do complain I assume someone will push a button on the DVD player and get back on track!

I had been giving the Suburban World a different poster to use at their website each week that listed specific cartoons on each disc. The idea was of course to run the cartoons that are advertised. That way a patron could check the website and be assured he would see an all-new show. However, the theater is not necessarily running the advertised cartoons at any given time, for the reason just explained. Because of this situation I created this generic poster they can use all the time to promote Cartoon Brunch.

I gave the Parkway a copy of Santa Claus cartoons to run on their screen silent during an upcoming party, I believe a high school reunion party. The cartoons will be wall paper! The theater has permanent theater seating except for an area of movable couches down front, so I guess that is where the party will center. I assume the lights will be on but don't really get how it might work. If it doesn't work so well, they can always turn off the films! Because the theater owner also owns the attached Mexican restaurant PEPITOS, patrons are permitted to bring wine and beer into the theater after 7 at night or during closed private parties. I wonder how they worked that zoning use out?

About three weeks ago the Parkway's Matinee series was interrupted by a special film festival that came up suddenly, which is why the dates were pushed back a week for the last four shows. Two, yes two, kid birthday parties showed up to see the movies. As compensation that must have generated some good will, they gave them all a free Mexican buffet brunch that was already set up for the restaurant!

The Parkway's second Matinee series starts Jan. 2-3. The film line-up is almost set and will be discussed next week. Here is the poster for the first show. Note that I had to change the top title from Saturday Matinee to Parkway Matinee because they expanded to Saturday and Sunday shows.


www.caferoxy.com