My First Movie Show!

I vividly remember the first movie I ever saw as a child of five. It was 1951, just before the TV era, and I had never seen a moving image on TV or a movie screen that I recall. I remember the screening because I was scared to death -- by a deep fear of death -- that I have not felt since that formative summer. I covered my eyes to avoid seeing my onscreen heroes meet a certain and violent death. I really believed they got killed! Every week. First in a crashing elevator as they battled two baddies; the next week in a building that exploded. They didn't even know dynamite had been planted so how could they possibly get out? One week their car went over a cliff and crashed. Later they were trapped in an abandoned building that was blown up, and that looked absolutely real. In fact it was a real demolition. I would not become savvy to stock footage or editing for a few years. Who could, when they were seeing their very first movie ever?

Who got killed every week? Billy Halop and Huntz Hall in the Dead End Kids serial "Junior G-Men." I must have figured out the heroes never die after the last chapter of Junior G-Men, but I still remember where the movie screen was -- at the south end of the park where they set up the ferris wheel during the yearly carnival -- what kind of park bench I was sitting on -- green, slatted -- and peaking through my fingers as the elevator cable broke.

My family had just moved to Deerfield, Wisconsin where my father became the town druggist. Deerfield was a small farming community, population 610, located 25 miles east of Madison. We lived above the drugstore, between the bank and the grocery store, on the single block of retail stores. In our back yard across the street was a large expanse of park several blocks square that encompassed a baseball diamond with bleachers. There was no movie theater in town, but some enterprising gypsy had developed a livelihood whereby he brought in an outdoor movie show once a week during the summer. He set up his own screen and sound system and two 16mm projectors. He took the same show to neighboring small towns Sun Prairie, Cottage Grove, etc., on different nights of the week. Is there a word for this forgotten form of small town exhibition?

The showings were FREE MOVIES in the park. Hmm, reminds me of Café Roxy and how entrepreneurs today can....

The local merchants banded together to pay for the show. Their purpose was to bring all the farmers into town on Thursday nights so they could shop until it got dark enough to show the movies at 9:30. My parents even bought a popcorn machine. (One batch with rancid butter made me sick and I didn't eat popcorn for years.) The next morning I would roam the park with my red wagon collecting pop bottles to redeem for 3 cents apiece at our own drugstore or the grocery store that sold Nehi. Glass quarts fetched a whole nickel! My mother insisted I take a "nap" in the middle of the day or I could not go to the movies. I never quite forgave her. After all, if I fell asleep during the films, so what's it to her?

Anyway, 12 weeks of movies was a perfect venue for 12 serial chapters! What better way to get folks back every week? (It worked then and it can work today in your Café Roxy.) A later serial I recall fearing in the park was Lost City of the Jungle, mainly because of the scary revolving idol that closed out every episode behind the message: "Next Week Chapter 5, Fiery Danger." The idol was in a secret room in the lost city. Anyone who entered would step on a lever that unleashes poison gas in the room. They die. The hero enters and steps on the fatal step. Gas enters. The idol revolves. He stumbles and falls. Continued next week!

The free movie shows continued year after year through the 1950s. The location of the screen moved around and eventually was set up on the baseball diamond. That's where I recall seeing Destination Moon and The Mole Men. I don't really have a good memory. There was Francis the Talking Mule in a Haunted House and... what else? I do remember the serials and their smashing chapter endings for Gang Busters, Mystery of the Riverboat, Junior G-Men of the Air, The Black Widow and more. I don't recall the end of the park showings or if they were still going when we moved to Madison in 1961. I had certainly outgrown the thrill by then or replaced it with TV and movie theater showings.

Today babies are plunked before TVs the week they come home. It is doubtful that many remember the first films they see in a theater. Through a unique circumstance, I recall the first film I ever saw -- not a great serial but oh, so scary. Thank you Junior G-Men and the main street merchants in Deerfield, Wisconsin!

-- Ron

www.caferoxy.com

In the oven -- Golden Turkeys

Eagle Theaters are two independently owned and operated movie theaters in Illinois, the Eagle in Robinson and the Clintonia Eagle in Nearby Clinton. The manager has ambitious plans for showing many Café Roxy programmes off hours either for free or for .25 admission charge. He figures the "old-time" price of a quarter will attract more attention than free. Eric explained to me that many theaters have been using DVD projection for years, primarily for those pre-show ads for local merchants that are often mixed in with quizzes and other time killers.

Eric plans to try matinees for children and late-night horrors first and bought the All-Star Variety Shows and Horror Series. He envisions his theaters as places to hang out, have a fun time and let the kids run around, all for free under the assumption they will eat and drink a lot. I will update on audience reception once the shows commence in the fall.

Interestingly, Eric got the idea to show public domain films himself and found Festival Films through a web search. The FF website has been up for years and does turn up in search engines looking for public domain. I quickly turned his attention from public domain films offered at fesfilms.com to the public domain programs I offer at www.caferoxy.com. I find most new customers by them finding me on the web. I just added a new link for Movie Theaters on my fesfilms home page to better explain the advantages of public domain to any managers who might drop by.

Eric also suggested a series of Bad Movies. Now why didn't I think of that!? I'm hard at work on the first series of 12 Golden Turkeys. What's cooking at Café Roxy? Turkeys are in the oven, so to speak, and will be served soon. These shows are more fun for me to put together than all the others, so I expect they will be just as much fun to watch with an audience. Two posters are shown here.

Reefer Madness, I believe, invented the concept of "Campy" films in the 1970s revival. Audiences flocked to enjoy a film that was "so bad it was good." I was in one of those packed audiences. While I enjoy many camp films more, Reefer Madness is a perennial favorite with more name recognition that His Girl Friday or Meet John Doe. Although out on home video for years, it is only funny with an audience and should be even more fun as part of a program. Frankenstein is the infamous live TV show in which a drunken Lon Chaney thought he was going through a dress rehearsal instead of the actual show. At one point he picks up a chair to smash it, then carefully replaces it.

Each Golden Turkey show will feature a chapter of "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe" serial, which is by no means a turkey in the world of serials. Of course to viewers who have never seen a serial, it could well elicit laughs because of the costumes, melodramatic dialog and silly spaceships. A lively audience who expects to see terrible movies is likely to laugh at anything. Let them! That's the idea. If the action and heroics grips them like it once did, that's great too, just so they have fun.

Rounding out each show will be trailers for bad films, TV shows and episodes of the New Three Stooges that mixes live-action and color Stooges skits with rather atrocious but short cartoons.

I have a hunch that Spaced-Out Night will become one of the most popular Café Roxy shows. The Buck Rogers 1934 short is perhaps the all-time campiest ... film? ... well, it was committed to film and shown in 35mm at the 1934 Chicago World's Fair. "Return of the Androids" is one of the lesser seen episodes of the 1953 Flash Gordon TV series that was filmed in Germany, and has an appropriately bizarre design. The show makes a nice comparison to the better produced Flash serial from 1940 as well as to the 1954 American TV show Rocky Jones Space Ranger.

Most Rocky stories were first shown in 3 weekly episodes, but were later re-edited into "features" like "Beyond the Moon," which was the first in the series. I edited just a bit out of Rocky Jones, but doubt it will be missed. You still get plenty of toy spaceships taking off, landing and docking at the space wheel station. For those who want it all edited out, please exit during the opening credits!

www.caferoxy.com

Creative Boating!

By SARAH LEMAGIE, Star Tribune

A family-friendly flotilla assembled on Lake Minnetonka to take in a show.

Boaters gathered Friday evening for a screening of “Top Gun” near Big Island at Lake Minnetonka. The second annual “boat-in” movie — think drive-in without the cars — was promoted as a family-friendly event and featured a 40-foot-wide screen mounted on a barge.

Take all the ingredients in a typical drive-in movie: snacks, friends, a classic blockbuster and a weekend night in July. Forget about the cars, though: This event is on the water.

The flotilla of watercraft that tied up Friday evening on Lake Minnetonka held boaters who weren't just there to swim and grill out. As night fell, a silver crescent of moon sparkled above the 40-foot-wide movie screen mounted on a barge at Big Island, and FM radios on boats reverberated with the sound of jet engines as "Top Gun" played on the floating screen.

The second-annual event was dreamed up by the guys at a boat dealership, who see it as a way to drum up a little business while hosting a free, family-friendly event in an area that is better known as a party spot for the younger set.

Mike Andersen and Kyle Pillsbury of MarineMax in Wayzata were brainstorming events for boaters when they came up with the idea.

"We were sitting around one night and said, 'How cool would it be to sit out on the lake and watch a movie?'" Andersen said.

Very cool, if you ask Margie Vechell, one of the several hundred boaters at Friday's movie. "It's just relaxing," said Vechell, who was bringing burgers and hotdogs for her kids and an assortment of their friends and cousins. Families tie up "boat-to-boat-to-boat," as she put it, then wander about to visit.

"We grew up boating on the lake, my family and I, and now I get to take the kids out," said Stu Francis, who brought 4-year old Isabel and 2-year-old Isaac to the movie along with apples and Gatorade.

"It's a great way to get to know other boaters," said Eileen Manning, a MarineMax customer who brought her boat out to grill burgers and make s'mores with relatives from Chicago.

Hot summer weekends can find Big Island hopping with boaters who often show up on Friday and stay until Sunday, said Lt. Kip Carver of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Water Patrol.

*************************************
Ron Notes:

This event happened last night about 5 miles from where I live. I don't know any boaters, nor did I hear about it in advance. Probably some connection between those two. Neither would I have gone out of my way to see Top Gun, but it's a fabulously different movie event worthy of publicity.

Moral for Café Roxy followers with a TV or movie screen... Be innovative! Have fun! Show free movies!

Posters Galore! Two favorite sites!

I love finding movie posters I have never seen before. My source is various internet sites whose burgeoning inventories never fail to delight. I re-purpose lots of movie posters for the Café Roxy Posters, on the DVDs I sell and on this blog. Finding specific and high quality posters has become much easier of late. For example, it only took seconds to find one for "Francis Goes to West Point."

This week I was researching "A Fig Leaf for Eve," an obscure public domain film currently on ebay, and found this poster. The poster isn't great, but it is the only image for the film that I could find anywhere. At 48 KB, one could download the poster direct from Moviegoods.com and blow it up into a DVD cover. Just double click on any posters in this blog to see their size and outstanding quality.

Moviegoods has become my #1 go-to source for poster images. I suggest visiting and typing your favorite film into their excellent search engine. It may not be your favorite, but the 60 posters for "Metropolis" are endlessly fascinating. You need to click a second time on the 1927 film because the first screen offers variations on the word "Metropolis," as in this great art deco "Cafe Metropole" that I discovered for the first time just this minute!

Most Moviegoods posters are for sale at $19.95 in the 11"x17" format. I mainly use the JPEG images that are all top quality and most important for my use do not have any logos over the pictures. Each poster gives the option to view larger, share via email, Face Book, etc., or Buy Now.

Another site I recommend exploring just for the fun of it is Carteles de Cine. Carteles specializes in foreign posters, whose design styles are often more vivid and arresting than U.S. posters. I don't think they sell them. The site is in Spanish so I don't really know! I think they just collect rare and obscure posters for our enjoyment. Check their "Metropolis" page for even more great posters you may never have seen before. The "Phantom of the Opera" poster shown here on the left is new to me, as is the striking one on the right for "This Gun For Hire." A search on Lon Chaney will lead to their Phantom page, but otherwise you need to know the Spanish spelling to get there: "El Fantasma de La Opera." Exploring is half the fun with all the unexpected finds along the way.

Here are some more posters from Carteles de Cine.



I have to stop now or I'll be finding and adding posters all day!

www.caferoxy.com

Kinescopes!

In the 1952 film "Francis (the Talking Mule) Goes to West Point," there is a scene where Francis is watching a horse race on TV late at night. I was initially confused, not over how the mule could talk or how he got a TV in his stall, but by how a horse race could run on TV in the middle of the night. Francis explains by saying, "Cheesy kinescope. Turn it off." When was the last time you heard anyone refer to kinescopes? This drove home the message to me that in 1952 everyone knew what kinescopes were, although the word today is as archaic as spats, limburger cheese or mustard plasters.

From Wikipedia: Kinescope (pronounced /ˈkɪnɨskoʊp/) – kine /ˈkɪni/ for short, also known as telerecording, a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor. Typically, the term can refer to the process itself, the equipment used for the procedure (a 16mm or 35mm movie camera mounted in front of a video monitor, and synchronized to the monitor’s scanning rate), or a film made using the process.

In the 1950s TV viewers could only see programs live, from 16mm films that were sent to individual stations around the country or from kinescopes. Again, kinescopes were filmed by a 16mm or 35mm camera that was focused on a studio TV monitor while the live show was being broadcast to one portion of the country.

An example I have recently become aware of is the "George Burns and Gracie Allen Show." The first 52 episodes were filmed live in a New York theater stage. The single set was the interior of George and Gracie's house in Beverly Hills. George told jokes direct to the audience from in front of the proscenium arch, and freely acknowledged that this was supposed to be a set of their home in Hollywood. The commercials for Carnation Milk were cleverly worked into the show in long sequences where Gracie would serve milk and cookies, for example, as an opportunity for lauding the flavor of Carnation. The first show was on October 12, 1950 and the last live show aired Sep. 25, 1952.

Here are questions I could use help with. If the shows were broadcast live on the East coast, when and how were they aired on the West coast? Videotape and coast to coast instant transmission did not exist. It seems like the shows would be kinescoped live, turned into 16mm negatives ASAP and 16mm positive prints would be struck that night and airmailed West. Could they even get them out west the next day? This was the very early days of television from 1950 to 1952. When did a coast to coast relay chain exist so that a film airing live in the east at 9pm would play at the same time (6pm) out west?

These Burns and Allen kinescopes were run in syndication for years to come. Numerous 16mm prints were struck and leased to stations around the country. Some were returned to central warehouses after showings, while many TV stations archived kinescopes/16mm prints for repeat showings. All of those libraries are long gone into the scrap pile or a few private collections. The first 52 Burns and Allen shows are in the public domain, but not all episodes are out on DVD. Could some be lost forever?

The quality ranges from mediocre to not bad, but the focus on the ones I have seen is soft or not sharp. This is a shortcoming of most kinescopes. Of course, 1950s TVs were far, far, far from High Def! If one could make out who the actors were, one could follow the story like filmed radio. Did the painted pool outside Gracie's kitchen window fool anyone in 1950? Possibly yes, on an average TV miles away from the broadcast antenna.

At least some of the first 52 Burns and Allen Shows are available for viewing and remain fascinating relics of early, live TV. Where are all the other episodes that were filmed on 35mm and shown from 1953 thru 1958? The IMDB researchers could not even find out how many were made or episode titles. Someone owns the shows, presumably CBS, but do they have them? Will they ever release them? If these later shows were in the public domain, then many more would be out there for the public to enjoy once again.

Gracie Allen: Well, you see one Christmas my father caught a wild turkey and he fed him corn and chestnuts. But then we didn't have the heart to kill him so we let him get away.
George Burns: Oh, I see.
Gracie Allen: But the turkey liked the food so well that he came back each year. And that way we always had...
George Burns: A turkey for Christmas dinner?
Gracie Allen: Yes.

www.caferoxy.com

Format Ramblings

25 years ago I knew a company that sold public domain feature films to TV stations on 3/4" video at $500 apiece. Nice work if you can get it! His library was on 1" video, which is a large reel-to-reel format, and he transferred to 3/4" to fill orders. I made a few volume sales to TV on 16mm at slightly lower prices. They had to make the video transfers themselves, but archived the films in case they were needed later. I sold the best available 16mm prints, but the contrast, sound and focus varied a great deal and some prints had occasional scratches. Since the 3/4" masters were made from 16mm, they had the same inconsistencies.

3/4" video format is a relic. I still have some 3/4" masters that will someday be tossed without testing if they still run. I gave my 3/4" machine to a video lab I use since theirs had broken. I doubt they use it anymore and I have not had cause to borrow it back. 1" held up better over the years, although most labs have now converted to a digital format like DVCam or computer hard drive storage. 3/4" gave way to Beta-SP as a high quality format for delivering to companies like Alpha Video that in turn author and issue the films on DVD. Beta-SP sales to TV are still possible, and their quality can be excellent, but TV budgets no longer consider it.

Today I sell public domain films to local, public access and college TV stations on DVD-R. After years of restoration, most of the films look a lot better than the old 3/4" tapes. Prices start at $30 for a feature film or four half-hour TV shows, then go DOWN with volume sales. (This is the same pricing as Café Roxy programs, except for $25 you get a feature, TV episode, cartoon and serial chapter! Wow! What a deal! End of ad.)

16mm film labs have almost vanished. I sold new prints of the Blackhawk Films collection of Laurel and Hardy, Our Gang, etc., for many years until the lab closed down in early 2008. 16mm original prints can be quite valuable today. If the movie is in the public domain, then film prints can be used to make new High Definition video transfers. If a film is copyrighted, like most are, then it may be rare. I recently sold an original print from one collector to another of Ernst Lubitsch's BROKEN LULLABY (1932). It was advertised to me as the only known 16mm print, and it may well be. Hopefully Universal is preserving it in their vault with other early Paramount talkies, but I've sure never seen it on TCM or video or any other film list.

And now for something interesting, one hopes.

I recently acquired a 16mm film rental catalog from the late 1940s from "International Theatrical and Television Corp." I never heard of them before and have not found anyone else who has, but IT&T obviously supplied the home market with vintage films for years before Blackhawk Films, Films Inc., Swank Films and others. IT&T had ten branches around the country and rented feature films for $17.50 to schools, churches, homes, etc. B-westerns with shorts added to make 90 minute shows were $10.00, and two-reel comedies were only $3.00. They list 60 Laurel and Hardy shorts that were circulated as rental prints all over the country for years. The prints must have come direct from Hal Roach Studios, who were still active in film production at the time.

Now there are many Laurel and Hardy fans around the world, who are kept together through the Sons of the Desert local tents and conventions. I have attended the Twin Cities Blockheads tent for years. I bought the catalog at Blockheads from another Blockhead. After awhile I noticed that among the 60 Laurel and Hardy shorts in the catalog were listed the two lost films that no one has seen in years -- HATS OFF and BATTLE OF THE CENTURY. Both are silent, but much in demand because we can't see them anymore! Portions of Battle of the Century survive, including the famous pie fight. Richard W. Bann is a Laurel and Hardy researcher who has worked for Blackhawk Films, for Hal Roach until his death, for Richard Feiner who owns some L&H rights and for the German company that owns European rights. Mr. Bann has never found or seen HATS OFF. Yet there it was in plain site, for years, for anyone interested to rent and enjoy.

I ran my discovery past archivist David Shepard, who has owned the Blackhawk Films Collection for years. David affirmed that it is not only possible that a 16mm print of HATS OFF is indeed out there somewhere (although all copies in the Roach archives were lost), but that a print of HATS OFF was supposedly sold on ebay some years ago.

Moral: Keep scouring those basements!

www.caferoxy.com

A Tip from Disney!

This picture pretty much says it all!


Install a G-G-Giant TV, design your tables like they appear to be inside 1950s cars, and you can compete with Disney World. The Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater restaurant in Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park serves American cuisine for lunch and dinner that includes burgers, sandwiches, ribs, seafood, pasta, steak and salads. Pair your meal with a rich milkshake or, for Guests 21 years of age and older, domestic beer or a glass of wine.


Fabulous B-Movie Flicks in Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater

Like a night at the old drive-ins, servers at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater restaurant bring food to vintage '50s "convertible" tables as you watch '50s and '60s sci-fi and monster flicks on the big screen.

Dine at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater under a nighttime sky filled with twinkling stars, while glow-in-the-dark ice cubes swirl in drinks. It's all part of the otherworldly ambience that's hard to beat.

On Day 2 of your Disney World vacation, how about... 50's Prime Time Café serves classic American comfort food in a TV-themed setting. The restaurant sits across from Echo Lake in Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park. The 50's Prime Time Café menu includes family favorites like golden fried chicken, traditional meatloaf and pot roast, cooked the way Mom used to make it—that is, if Mom were a 1950s sitcom star.

For a special treat at 50's Prime Time Café, grab a "TV Table" that seats up to 4 diners and has a television next to the table that broadcasts clips from popular prime time sitcoms circa 1955 including "Father Knows Best" and the original "Mickey Mouse Club."

From the mid-50s knick-knacks and memorabilia that decorate this restaurant to the dessert menu displayed through viewfinder toys, nostalgia is the main ingredient at 50's Prime Time Café.

Some comments on the obvious. Each WDW restaurant only needs one compilation show running about 2 hours. No family will take longer than that to eat, and no family is likely to eat in the same place twice on one Disney vacation. The shows are short clips that have been well tested to never become boring. A Café Roxy needs at least one new show a week to bring back your regular customers. However, two hours of Sci-Fi trailers mixed with popcorn ads might run continuously anywhere, anytime. Hmm, should I take a tip from Disney?

The bigger messages are that Americans love the old films. Dining and viewing go together. Cinema Cafés scream family fun. The movies can be shown on a large screen to many, or on individual TVs to a few at a time. Movie memorabilia, posters and decor are plentiful, colorful and easy to install in your place. Be unique! Add flair! Stand out! Become a Café Roxy.

www.caferoxy.com