Matinee Jr. for Libraries!

Several observations unexpectedly merged into a new project this week. Some parents attending the Parkway Theater Saturday Matinee brought very young children, pre-schoolers who looked to be 4 and 5 years old, to see Flying Deuces. I'm sure they enjoyed the cartoons in a theater setting. I hope they laughed at Laurel and Hardy and who knows what they made of the serial? The point is, we had parents who wanted to introduce their kids to the vintage films but the show wasn't quite right for the extremely young. They surely won't be back for John Wayne or White Zombie, but maybe for the Our Gang / 3 Stooges festival that follows or for Gulliver's Travels.

On Monday Bob DeFlores offered to put up a Matinee flyer in a library where he had presented a jazz program and so he knew the program director quite well. Libraries are busy these days because the economy has driven families to seek free entertainment. Most libraries do give regular special programs in all-purpose meeting rooms that happen to be equipped with video projection. Library budgets keep getting cut, but the "Friends of the Library" parent group helps fund programs they feel are worthwhile. Bob had been paid $100 to introduce and present his jazz show. A Café Roxy show goes for $25, which is a library bargain.

Duh! An idea at last -- a Café Roxy series tailored to the special needs of Libraries. Thus was born Matinee Jr.

We felt library programs needed to be a short and snappy 65-75 minutes long. The solution for attaining that is ... drop the features! Shorts only. The idea was modified to abridge some features with an onscreen note such as: "Many Matinees included westerns. This excerpt from a Roy Rogers western gives a taste of the action and fun." This will allow the inclusion of John Wayne, Gene Autry, the Three Mesquiteers and obscure comedians like Joe E. Brown and Wheeler & Woolsey. Libraries don't have time to show features but excerpts will entertain and educate just as well.

Since all Library Matinees will be free shows, I will edit and abridge where needed to make each show educational, fun and family acceptable by deleting any racial content. The fun part is easy. The educational part is explaining in an opening montage what a Saturday Matinee was. While I dislike censoring innocent stereotype material, it is simply necessary because you can't expect young kids to understand and you don't want to offend anyone in a public library. It also easy to do without destroying a short. For instance, I cut a brief scene in the Our Gang "School's Out" where Farina salivates over eating watermelon. That's a stereotype that might offend today no matter how innocent in 1931. In the rest of the short Farina is just one of the gang and good friends with Chubby, Mary, Wheezer and Jackie Cooper.

So a typical "Matinee Jr." will include two cartoons, a serial chapter, comedy short and feature excerpt. A 3 Stooges/Our Gang Festival will include one short of each, two cartoons, serial chapter and that's it. Two longer shows in "Matinee Jr." will be serial chapter and Gulliver's Travels or serial chapter, cartoon and Flying Deuces. You can see the series develop as the 12 posters gradually appear at Matinee Jr. for Libraries.

We picked "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe" as the best serial because of the science-fiction adventure, sets, spaceships, costumes, villain, and also because it has less fist fighting than a typical serial. Each chapter runs 20 minutes. Should five minutes be cut out of each to accommodate short attention spans?

The first response from Bob's library contact was great enthusiasm for the idea and the low price. They saw the value of reviving a lost chapter of popular culture -- historical, educational and, yes, still entertaining. One concern was that they could only run one show a month because of other programming commitments. That is OK with me. Run the first four shows one a month and schedule them more often if there is demand. Other libraries might be able to schedule a film show in every Saturday at 10am, noon, 2pm, or sometime.

The next step was to create a Sample DVD for libraries. Done! Like the Roxy Sampler, I will send a free DVD Sampler of Matinee Jr. to any interested Libraries. You can view Matinee Jr. excerpts that includes the library pitch, comedy and cartoon scenes, a chapter ending from Flash Gordon and a trailer for Gulliver's Travels. This is followed on the sample disc by 7 minutes from "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor," 9 minutes from Our Gang's "Bear Shooters," 7 minutes of the color Abbott and Costello film "Jack and the Beanstalk" where Lou first meets the giant, and the last 8 minutes of Roy Rogers' "Heldorado."

Onward to plan the shows, design 12 posters, tailor shows to the local library time and content requests, learn how to reach libraries all over the country and... onward!



www.caferoxy.com

Laugh Out Loud!

I just finished editing comedy clips that will run in an upcoming exhibit in Tampa, Florida called "The Amazing You." It will play continuously, I assume as part of a comedy segment. They requested 10-12 minutes as the maximum time a viewer might hang around to watch in the same spot. My first version ran over that at 16 minutes, but then I heard they might want 20 minutes, so I sent the 16 minutes, a 12 minute abridgement plus an extra 14 minutes of out takes in case someone there wanted to edit further.

This comedy montage is for the MOSI project, but I was not sure what that was until after I finished and finally googled MOSI. I found it to be Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry, and also found a link to The Amazing You, a 12,000-square-foot exhibition at which guests are invited to explore the developmental stages of life, from the beginning through adolescence. Part 1 opened in May, while Part 2 (that promises to be funnier) opens in November.

Dave Conley at MOSI first broached the project to me about supplying comedy clips and later about editing them myself. I thank him for trusting my editing ability when he had no such work of mine to look at. In fact, I have only been learning how to use iMovie on my MAC computer this year, and only got a DVD ripper last month so I can take film clips off DVDs to work with. Once you import a clip into iMovie you can delete fractions of a second and move clips around easily to see how each edit plays.

Dave's only requests were that all films be in the public domain and that I include Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First" routine because he always liked it. Fortunately the boys performed an exceptional version in a 1951 Colgate Comedy Hour that was never registered for copyright. The best version of the entire routine is on Youtube here. I excerpted four segments running 41, 31, 57 and 1:32 seconds and spaced them through the montage in order.

The rest of the film selections were mine. It was time consuming but fun to pull favorite clips, trim them to the absolute minimum running time, move them around so they flowed smoothly and then watch to see if I thought people would laugh today. This must have been the process Robert Youngson went through when he made clip classics like "When Comedy Was King."

Besides the TV "Who's On First," I included clips from Steamboat Bill Jr., The Boat, One Week, The Pawn Shop, Never Weaken, Stolen Jools, Flying Deuces, Road to Bali, Fatal Glass of Beer, The Dentist, Disorder in the Court, Beverly Hillbillies and cartoons Jerky Turkey and Betty Boop's Crazy Inventions. Looking at it from another perspective, the greatest slapstick comedians are included: Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy, Hope and Crosby, W.C. Fields and the Three Stooges.

I was somewhat surprised by what I included over what I had expected to put in. In Fields' The Dentist, one first recalls the hilarious scene of the woman wrapping her legs around Fields as he tries to pull her tooth, but while editing I found the scene funnier when a piece of the ceiling falls into her mouth and she thinks he pulls out her tooth easily. "Why, it came out easily!" "Yes, yes it did. It surprised me."

I felt that splitting clips up from the same film was effective. For instance, Buster pulling his boat out of the basement and demolishing his house is followed a few clips later by Buster going down with the Damfino when the boat launches and sinks. Short jokes, quick laughs and on to the next clip. If an audience laughs the first time, then catches on that there will be more of the same later, they may well watch the entire montage. MOSI can of course edit out any clips they do not find funny. They may remove the 4 short clips from "Fatal Glass of Beer" where W.C. intones "It ain't a fit night out for man or beast." I thinks it's surreal hilarity, but someone who has never seen the film may not.

Youtube only permits films that are under ten minutes long, so here is a shortened version of my finished comedy montage minus the 4 segments from "Who's On First" that you can enjoy by itself. Have fun, and let me know if you laughed out loud!!!

Watch Laugh Out Loud! montage on Youtube!


www.caferoxy.com

Spooky Wallpaper! Ooooo!

I stopped by the Minneapolis Suburban World Theater on October 5 to see what their video projection system looked like. Monday night football was running with the local Vikings beating the Packers. The picture looked awesome. Don, the owner, said the state of the art projector had been installed that afternoon. I may have mis-heard the price Don quoted so I won't repeat it. I don't want to discourage any future Roxy entrepreneurs from buying equipment. I know projector prices have come down in recent years while quality has gone up. State of the art, however, is not cheap, especially to project from the back of the theater. Let's just say the Suburban World's system is pricey.

Built in 1927, the Suburban World is truly a unique venue. Built in classic Granada Style, the Spanish facades and original stars still shine and clouds float by giving the effect of being in an open air Spanish courtyard. Originally called the Granada Theater, this historic building was designed by local architect Jack Liebenberg. His innovative design featured stadium seating in an atmospheric theater giving the illusion that viewers are seated outdoors in a Spanish courtyard.

The photo of the screen on the right here is so clean that it almost looks like an artist's rendering, but it is an actual recent photo. Note the tables near the screen. The entire lower area has been transformed into dinner theater seating, while the raked rear section still holds traditional theater seats. A full bar downstairs center serves guests.

The theater remains much as it was when the Granada originally opened. Stars and moving clouds adorn the ceiling - making it appear as if it has no roof. Stucco facades of balconies, statues and plants further enhance the illusion. These features led the Minneapolis City Council to place the Suburban World Theater on a list of historically significant buildings in 1991. It is the only surviving example of an atmospheric theater in Minneapolis and one of few remaining in the state.

In 1954, the theater became known as the Suburban World Theater and it was during this period that extensive remodeling was completed. Wrought iron doors that adorned the front of the theater, as well as the lobby's iron chandelier, were removed and replaced by more modern fixtures. Further restoration has succeeded in restoring much of the original façade of the theater.

The Suburban World programming is in a state of flux, meaning I don't know their imminent future and neither do they! It hosts concerts by local bands, private meetings and parties, independent film festivals and a recent talk by liberal radio host Bill Press. A few years ago the theater held Saturday and Sunday cartoon brunches, which became extremely popular with the locals.

I would naturally like the World to show a few Café Roxy programs. I keep pushing, at the very least, for them to show Reefer Madness since the theater is in the hip Uptown area of Minneapolis. Charge $2 and make money off drink sales. This may happen and I will discuss the theater more if it does. Don did say he could use some Halloween "wallpaper" to run on the movie screen during an upcoming party or some event TBA on Friday, Oct. 30. Costumed party goers might watch some of the trailers some of the time, or just party through the spooky ambience.

So I put together two hours of classic horror movie trailers, including the public domain cartoons "Mad Doctor," "Wot a Night" and "Magic Mummy." The poster on the left features Frankenstein. I hope the theater runs the disc and discover that the old classic films are still fun today, or rather that "Trailers" for the old films are fun. The Monster Mania disc is for sale. Too bad it is too close to Halloween for me to find many buyers. If you know any bar, café or eating emporium in your area that will be open Halloween night -- send them my way!

www.caferoxy.com

Good Start!

The first Saturday Matinee at the Parkway Theater ran smoothly this afternoon. Cutting to the numbers -- about 50 people -- but lots of positives. The theater decor has been spiffed up since I last visited over a year ago and shortly after it was acquired by Pepitos Restaurant. In particular all the seats are in and the walls have new mural paintings. There are some tables and chairs in the lobby, presumably for use by the beer and wine drinkers before or during an evening show. Currently playing at the Parkway is "Julie and Julia."

The video projection looked good, and that was my main fear since I had not seen a test run. The sound on the Betty Boop cartoon was way too loud so I ran up to the booth to alert the projectionist, except he was downstairs selling popcorn. That got worked out so the sound was booming but not too loud the rest of the way. Even the night scenes looked bright enough and there are plenty in "The Most Dangerous Game," which mostly takes place in a jungle at night. Showing DVDs in a small theater for 400 is more than viable. The black and white Popeye looked tremendous. Radar Men looked good.

The audience clapped after chapter 1 of "Radar Men from the Moon," and the cartoons. There were some young kids who came and went. Popcorn was sold.

The Parkway did not get any free newspaper notices in various "What's Happening?" columns. The only notice I saw was the one they paid for on the page of movie listings: "SATURDAY FAMILY MATINEE SERIES. The Most Dangerous Game/Radar Men from the Moon/Toon favs Superman and more! All seats $2."

No TV coverage, which is not surprising. However, Return of the Saturday Matinee is the kind of story the media likes to report -- neighborhoody, cheap, different, historic, fun, etc., so I bet someone wants to do a story soon. That is my number one suggestion for promoting the show. In particular the free "Sun Newspaper" would be ideal to get a little article in since it goes to neighborhoods. That goal is being pursued.

My second suggestion is more posters. The poster at the top promotes the next 3 Matinees, and it will go in 3 comic book stores next week. The promo that splits into two half-page posters will be handed out at a big Twin Cities Comic Book convention next weekend, which is why it promotes Flash Gordon in the third week. The Parkway needs to get poster/flyers in 2 coffee houses only a block away, and in the Used Book Store might help as well.

Next Saturday is Laurel and Hardy, who have been phenomenally popular in the Twin Cities for decades, so if we can only get the word out...

www.caferoxy.com

Counting Down to Next Saturday!

One week from today the Saturday Matinee series starts at the Parkway Theater. It's been a quick learning experience preparing shows which will actually be seen by an audience in a 400-seat theater, and helping promote the series at the same time. Since last week....

Program Changes. I replaced the Kid's TV Show (that did not really fit with Matinee fare) with Gulliver's Travels, as you can see by the new poster. I moved White Zombie to Halloween and added the Buster Keaton short "Haunted House" to the same show for obvious reasons. You can see all 12 posters here.


Trailer for each week. I already had theatrical trailers for Ghosts on the Loose, Gulliver's Travels, White Zombie and House on Haunted Hill. I created "Coming Next Week" trailers for the others. Flying Deuces contains the song and dance number "Shine on Harvest Moon," a few shots of the boys flying wild and appropriate "Coming Next Week" words over the pictures. Terror By Night, New Adventures of Tarzan and Rocket Ship also contain scenes from the films. John Wayne, Roy Rogers and 3 Stooges / Our Gang shows are composed of stills or movie posters with music and "Coming Next" blurbs.

Press Release. I wrote one up as shown on the left below. You can read it full size at the new Press Release Page. Also at that page is a sheet of Free Passes. Pepitos will give out a limited number each week to those who eat in the restaurant. A poster inside the front door and at the cash register tells them to ask for passes.

The publicist for the Parkway is sending out normal releases to newspapers and TV station. We are hoping one will see the "Return of the Saturday Matinee" as a news item worthy of additional coverage. Film clips are available to TV stations, who like to promote new, fun and family activities.

Radio Discussion. This past Wednesday Bob DeFlores talked about the series for more than a half hour on the educational channel KFAI-FM radio. Bob had already been scheduled to talk about a Ginger Rogers series at the Heights Theater and was happy to have more to discuss during the hour and a half he was on. Bob was so good I wanted to go. Although that promo was ten days before the first show, KFAI plans to discuss the Matinee series each Wednesday since they have a good history with the Parkway. The Parkway has supplied food for KFAI fundraising drives and a benefit jazz show will be staged this fall in the Parkway.

Series Trailer in the Theater. Just yesterday I thought to give the Parkway a trailer for the series that they can run before their regular features. This is very close to the Trailer already accessible from the website. I gave them two versions on DVD for video projection -- one with and one without the Giant Claw Trailer. I was happy to hear that whenever they plan to project DVD shows, the projectionist runs it in advance and watches every single second to make sure the disc will not freeze.

Thanks to Tracy Tolzmann for plugging the series in the Laurel and Hardy club announcement for the October 5 meeting. 350 movie fans got the newsletter only yesterday. Some must live in South Minneapolis. Some might want to see Flying Deuces for the tenth time, but this time in a movie theater with a live audience. Hmm, does that mean "Blockheads" audiences are zombies? In the spirit of the club, Who Cares!?


www.caferoxy.com

October 3!

Just two weeks from today on Saturday, Oct. 3 at noon, the Café Roxy concept will get the ultimate test under ideal conditions. I should say the test will begin, because the results won't be in until several weeks into the 12-week run of Saturday Matinee. We plan to promote the "Return of the Saturday Matinee" to the hilt. The "We" besides myself starts with my long-time friend and associate Bob DeFlores. Bob has been helping me find a local coffee house to debut Café Roxy but instead won the jackpot -- his friend Joe Minjares who owns both Pepitos Mexican Restaurant and the adjoining Parkway Theater.

The Parkway Theater opened for business in February 1931 and has been operating as a neighborhood cinema ever since. Although originally designed with a Spanish Mediterranean exterior, for reasons unknown it was erected with a deco modern facade which was revealed in the summer of 2006 when Joe removed the metal facing covering it installed in the 1950's. For the last four decades the Parkway Theater was owned and run by Bill Irvine who took the reins in 1972 and brought it back from the clutches of an adult film venue and turned the Parkway into one of the finest independent and offbeat film venues in the Midwest. So, now it's Joe's turn to add to the long legacy of the Parkway Theater, one of the last single screen movie houses in the Twin Cities. The theater presently has 360 set auditorium seats and 20 movable two person love seats for a total seating capacity of 400 guests.


The Minjares family first came to the south Minneapolis neighborhood at 48th and Chicago in 1971 when they bought the Colonial Inn restaurant and changed it to Pepitos. The Colonial had been in business since the early 30's serving 3.2 beer, hamburgers and pizzas in what had been a turn of the century hardware store.

Joe Minjares caught the acting bug and has had many character roles in films and TV. Read his credits at IMDB, where his mini-bio notes: Was born in Minneapolis Minnesota to Guadalupe and Benjamin Minjares. Served in Military from 1964 to 1968 with the U.S. Army intelligence corps. Founder of Pepitos Mexican Foods inc. 1971. Began acting career in 1982 in the movie Patty Rocks. Won the 1984 Minneapolis Comedy invitational as a stand-up. Worked on Stage in several productions at the Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis. Was a regular at the Comedy Store and Improv in Los Angeles. Worked as a Staff writer at Universal Studios on the "Tom" show.

So Bob got me together with Joe only this past week and Saturday Matinee is both a GO and is already being promoted at Parkway Theater Site. Just scroll down the home page to Saturday Noon Matinees. Then clicking "View Trailer" will take you to my poster page showing all 12 matinee programs. From that page there actually is a trailer posted at Youtube that promotes the series.

Because it is a 12 week series we anticipate newspaper and television coverage. We may not get much before the first show, but if it is as successful as we hope then the story gets bigger. It would be great to see a TV camera crew drop by some Saturday to film a line of kids. Yeah, we dream a lot. Last week I wrote: "I predict that every theater who is the first in their city to revive the Saturday Matinee with B-pictures, cartoons and a serial chapter will get a lot of local publicity. Crowds will build." I never expected I would find out myself so quickly if this is true.

I do expect the promotion currently in place will attract an audience. The poster on the right will be up in Pepitos windows and by the cash register a week before the second show on October 10. My poster question "If you post it, will they come?" is no longer rhetorical. (The debut show on Oct. 3 remains The Most Dangerous Game, and that poster is in last week's post.) Pepitos also plans to give away 50 or so free passes each week to their regular diners. Admission is only $2, but the theory is that a Free pass will encourage coming, and bringing a couple of kids along to see what the movies used to be like on Saturday afternoon.

The bigger test for Café Roxy and Saturday Matinee is whether audiences will enjoy the shows today. Will more come each week? Will the theater fill up? Will a second show be added in later weeks at 2:30? Anything can happen.

Check back to find out!



www.caferoxy.com

Saturday Matinee

Last Saturday I got the idea for a series of 12 programs that duplicate a Saturday Matinee from the 1940s and '50s. This would seem like the most natural series of all, and yet it is the 7th Café Roxy series arranged around a serial (Radar Men From The Moon this time). The first series were aimed at coffee houses, where I felt the shorts in the All-Star Series might work well with people coming and going throughout, or at film societies who might want a Horror Series or Film Noir Big Crimes, or at western-themed bars who might like to try Sagebrush Sagas. Next came the Golden Turkeys and companion Turkeys in Space, which are aimed at fans of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" or adventuresome 20-year-olds looking for something new to do at night (watch old but fun films like Reefer Madness while eating and drinking).

Then I started getting inquiries from movie theaters who wanted actual shows tailored to their audiences. This led to the recently started and far, far from finished Just Classics, that do not contain serial chapters but do have a cartoon, short or trailers before such features as His Girl Friday, D.O. A., The Stranger, Angel and the Badman or even single films like Little Shop of Horrors that are also included in one of the series. I am all for reviving classic films in theaters and love spicing up the programs with shorts. However, classic revivals have been around for years and are not likely to attract special press coverage.

Saturday Matinees were in theaters through the 1950s, but were pretty much a forgotten footprint in history until "Matinee at the Bijou" became a hit PBS series in 1980. Bijou combined a B-feature, cartoon, shorts and serial chapter each week, introduced by a host or film montage and closed with Rich Mendoza's snappy song "At the Bijou" as sung by Rudy Vallee:

"The movies were speaking; the market was peaking. We lived off the fat of the land. But the banquet was ending, a plague was descending, the day of the locusts at hand. But at the Bijou bitter gall became as sweet as brandy, and humble pie turned into cotton candy. America was standing in bread lines, Dillinger was stealing all the headlines, but down at the Bijou people said lines like Boop Boop Be-Doop, Boop Boop Be-Doop. Thru the dust bowl the black winds were wailing, the rivers were rising, Ohio was bailing, but little Shirley Temple always had clear sailing on board the good ship Lollipop. Andy Hardy never had to go hungry. There was no bank panic at Tarzan's branch. Il Duce and the Fuehrer couldn't have been obscurer on the Planet Mongo or the Melody Ranch."


Because I am part of the Bijou Team that is working to both get the original episodes back on TV and produce a new series in hi-def, I had subconsciously avoided a matinee series. I didn't want to appear to "borrow" the format or look like a branch of Bijou or in any way confuse TV networks we approach. Of course no one would notice unless Café Roxy becomes a hit around the country and Matinee at the Bijou gets back on TV, both of which would be nice. Because Roxy Saturday Matinees are planned for movie theaters and Bijou is a TV series, I now feel that success in either venue can only help publicize the other. The main goal of both ventures is to get new audiences to watch and enjoy the vintage films. We are confident they will love the films either at home or in theaters. I hope to test the idea very soon in a local Twin Cities movie theater, so stay tuned!

The Saturday Matinee programs fell into place remarkably fast and I finished the 12 posters the next day! I had long wanted to put The Most Dangerous Game into a series but did not have enough good adventure films for a series of 12. I had wanted to use the Laurel and Hardy's Flying Deuces but did not feel other vintage comedies would have as much appeal today. 12 weeks of matinees should above all have variety from week to week and not be limited to any one genre, so there are John Wayne and Roy Rogers westerns, comedy, horror, sci-fi and Sherlock Holmes. I repeat a few shows that are in earlier series -- House on Haunted Hill, White Zombie, Rocket Ship and Ghosts on the Loose. One show does not belong -- the 1950s Kids TV -- but it's really fun, I would like to see it with a theater crowd and it sure adds variety. At this point it can be removed because the shows have not been put together yet.

The 12 programs advertised on 12 posters are not set in stone. Only The Most Dangerous Game program is finished. I will work with the first theater who runs Satuday Matinee to create the best possible line-up even if it means altering a few shows or shuffling the order.

The posters currently say $1.00 admission. My first thought was to offer "Free Admission" and make money off concessions, but a small charge seems appropriate for a theater. Everyone in a bar or coffee shop is likely to buy food and drink, but theater-goers can sneak the eats in or go without. My thinking today is to charge $2.00 instead of $1 since $2 sounds like a pretty good bargain. It also allows any restaurant or coffee house next to the theater to give away free passes, which can increase business at both. I can change the price on the posters to customize them for whatever specific theaters desire.

I predict that every theater who is the first in their city to revive the Saturday Matinee with B-pictures, cartoons and a serial chapter will get a lot of local publicity.

Crowds will build.

Sounds like a plan worth trying.




www.caferoxy.com