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