Russ Meyer R.I.P.
I had called Tura Satana tonight to let her know the Black Dog Press book of Harold Lloyd’s 3-D nudes was coming out soon (Bruce Goldstein showed some of Harold’s slides last night at the Film Forum screening of the 3-D film Gorilla at Large) and she called me back (at 5:30 am…) to let me know Russ had passed away on Saturday at age 82.
There will be a private service this Friday and Ms. Satana will be there.
Next year is the 40th anniversary of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Russ Meyer – March 1, 1922 to September 18, 2004.
Fay Wray – That Delicate Satin-draped Frame
‘King Kong’ Star Fay Wray Dies
Actress Fay Wray, best known for her role in 1933 movie King Kong, died on Sunday. She was 96. Born Vina Fay Wray in Alberta, Canada, on September 15, 1907, she was one of six children. Her family moved to the United States when she was three years old. Wray was barely in her teens when she began her silver-screen career as a extra. She went on to be regularly cast as a heroine in silent movies, scoring her breakthrough in 1928′s The Wedding March. In the early 1930s she made a number of horror movies, including Doctor X and The Vampire Bat, and became known as Hollywood’s first “scream queen”. After those movies, Wray won praise for her King Kong character’s combination of sex appeal, vulnerability and lung capacity as she was stalked by the beast to the top of New York’s Empire State Building. But her career fell into decline following King Kong and she retired from movies in 1942 after her second marriage. In 1953, she made a comeback in character roles and made movies until 1958 and worked in television into the 1960s. Wray had a daughter, Susan, by her first marriage to John Monk Saunders, and two children, Robert and Vicky, with Robert Riskin.
St. Louis’ The Fabulous Fox celebrates 75th Birthday
Oh, man! I can’t believe I didn’t know about this until just today! This event is so tailor-made for me! We can only hope the Loews Jersey has a similar event for its 75th Anniversary this September.
*sigh* I sure wish I could be in St. Louis on Sunday! An all-day motion picture cathedral event, and all for 75 cents!!!
St. Louis Fox Parties Like it’s 1929 on 75th Birthday
ST. LOUIS, MO — To celebrate its 75th birthday, the “Fabulous Fox” in St. Louis is recreating, as nearly as possible, its opening night program on January 31, 1929 this coming Sunday, August 1st.
The huge C. Howard Crane-designed palace on Grand Boulevard is showing the first movie it played, the silent Janet Gaynor film “Street Angel”, accompanied by the Fox’s Mighty Wurlitzer organ. The stage acts which preceded and followed the movie, including a “living tableau” of St. Louis’ history, a chorus line, opera, ballet and even a “Neapolitan festival”, will also be put on again, by local celebrities and talent.
Furthermore, during the festivities, from 2 to 7 pm, the price for admission will be the same as in 1929, 75 cents at the box office. Mary Strauss, the Fox’s owner, will be an “extra” in the stage show, and is encouraging visitors to dress up in 20s-style clothing for a parade onstage before the show.
More here in the River Front Times.
FANTASIA 2004!!!!
Man, have I just had the experience of a lifetime! After years and years of festival programmer Mitch Davis hoping I would make it up, I finally made the trip to Montreal, mostly due to being involved with releasing Battlefield Baseball and promoting Living Hell, and boy was it worth it. And I really wonder where I’ve been all these years passing up the fest. Most of it had to do with the $300 plane ticket, then wondering what to do about hotels and all. I mean, even one weekend of movies comes to around $6-700 when all is said and done. Well, now I know what it’s all about!
Opening night was Ju-On: The Grudge. I hate spoiling movies for people so I won’t detail the film, but if you’re already a fan of Asian horror, it’s something you’ve pretty much seen before. If you’ve never seen Asian horror, you’ll probably be confused, but at least scared. The next night was the mostly incredible Haute Tension, which I just refuse to get into unless everyone has seen it. I just can’t.
After that was the screening of Battlefield Baseball, which was a tremendous success. Opening up was the effluvious Mitch Davis selling us in ways we hadn’t dreamed of, even referring to us as ‘superheroes,’ which is totally wild. I revved up the crowd, then passed out t-shirts and Living Hell DVDs to a ravenous crowd. I also ended up taking out a lighting fixture in the high ceiling, by some bizarre token of chance, and apparently pegged some guy in the face hard enough to make him bleed, which helped rev up the audience even more. The guy thought it was awesome and thanked me! By the time of the screening the crowd of 450–500 were so jazzed it was hard to hear the movie. A successful screening I would say. It was like a big family function.
Saturday I joined Nikola, John and Sara from the Fantasia office in picking up Mr. Udo Kier from the Montreal airport. It was great to reunite with Udo. I hadn’t seen him since we conducted an interview at a Fangoria convention in January 2000. We had a quick dinner then saw the premiere of Ginger Snaps 3 which isn’t really my kind of movie but obviously the film’s creators have their fan base.
Sunday, Udo and I went to Old Montreal and walked to the Village for some coffee and lunch before hitting the AMAZING Eight-Diagram Pole Fighter from Shaw Bros. This film ROCKED!!! The entire opening weekend of Fantasia was just mind-blowing. And that night the festival treated Udo to a dinner and just two blocks away my friend Robbie and his girlfriend were staying at another friend’s so I got to see them for a few minutes before we ran back for Kyoshi Kurosawa’s Doppelganger.
After that the gang ended up at a strip club called Cleopatra’s, but I had already asked around and found this wild multi-level club that really was just what I needed: dancing for a couple hours. Udo made his way over about 3 am and got a half hour in before finding me at a pizza place.
I actually ended up being a bit overwhelmed by all that was going on and didn’t see a complete film the entire rest of my visit. I saw part of One Point Zero, most of Blueberry, and most of Thundercrack! And also during the week I stayed at La Datcha bed and breakfast on De Maissoneuve which was just a bit too wonderful and hard to walk away from. I highly recommend checking them out if you’re ever travelling through Montreal. A very beautiful home and comfortable space await you.
I regret having booked my foot surgery for today, the 20th, because I was able to make great friends with the incredible Kim Bodnia, who I would not know if not for the great taste of Mr. Mitch Davis. After most of the Fantasia friends attended a rare screening of Friday the 13th 3-D at the remodeled Imperial theater, the former home of Fantasia, I was lucky enough to have spent a great night out on the town drinking, dancing and laughing. Sadly, tonight, the day of my surgery, is the North American premiere of The Good Cop, Kim’s latest film. I know I’ll be able to rent the damned thing on DVD, but projection is where it’s at. If I didn’t get along so well with my podiatrist I would’ve made that date change, but with the anesthesiologist arranged weeks in advance, I decided to not inconvenience others. Darn it.
A lot more happened, and I got to see a number of great friends including Marc Walkow of Criterion, along with his wife Jen, Don May from Synapse Films, Harvey Fenton from FAB Press, Mike Gingold from Fangoria, and got to meet some great new friends too like Marc Lemothe, Donato Totoro, Phil, Jocelyn, and more, but it’s all just too much to write it out in one lump, and it takes up a lot of the page.
Truly though, if you’re a fan of fantastic cinema at all, Fantasia is where you need to be.
Review of SHADE
Just like the letters section and the comic book itself of Shade, the Changing Man, it’s fun to read a review where Shade is capitalized and referred to:
Shade the Movie film review.
Shade Rupe’s Subversive Cinema Presents
Shugo Fujii’s LIVING HELL
Click here for the Fangoria mention.
Shade Rupe’s Subversive Sinema presents:
Shugo Fujii’s LIVING HELL
JULY 5TH – 7:00 PM
PIONEER THEATER
155 EAST 3RD STREET (AVENUE A)
Check the Pioneer Theater website for more info.
William Friedkin’s CRUISING at BAM!
See New York as it once was in all its sleazy ’70s glory. Nobody behaves this way anymore, at least in public, and not on film. Should be a fun evening though one day I’d love to see someone screen it outdoors at night in Central Park. From the BAM calendar:
Saturday, July 3rd at 2, 4:30, 6:45 & 9PM
Cruising
What in the world? Pacino goes undercover to find a murderer in the
underground Village S&M scene. This film provoked boycotts from gay-advocacy groups
and shocked audiences with its rawness, subject matter, indictment of corrupt
police (a Friedkin trademark), and seeming disregard for narrative logic.
Without question one of the strangest major studio films ever made, it will leave
you slack-jawed.
Tony Randall (Arthur Leonard Rosenberg) – Good Guy
February 26, 1920 — May 17, 2004
Through John I met Tony Randall and his lovely wife Heather and his two children Julia Laurette and Jefferson Savini. I would only see Tony during National Actors Theatre events and plays, though on one occasion Heather invited John and I over to read a few parts of her friend’s play and Tony arrived after a benefit he had attended.
Tony Randall was always gracious, kind, smart, funny, and cool. He was everyone’s friend and was helpful in a million ways to everyone around him. He started the National Actors Theatre with a million of his own dollars, and went out finding the rest. Through an internship at NAT, Heather Harlan and Tony met, and the rest is history. Tony had a previous marriage of fifty years to Florence Gibbs that ended with her passing due to cancer.
John and I were on 45th Street on Friday, May 20th, in front of Avenue Q when Jack Klugman and his girlfriend Peggy Crosby walked by on their way to buy tickets for Raisin in the Sun, so we offered a hello and condolences. Jack, Peggy and Tony were all on stage in 1998 at the Lyceum Theater on 45th Street for the National Actors Theatre production of The Sunshine Boys, with Jack and Tony in the main roles.
A few moments later we walked towards Broadway and walked past Eric Idle and Mike Nichols. Through John and Tony Randall and Fred Walker at NAT I learned a lot about theater and Broadway and the Plaza Hotel where NAT often had fundraising events.
I only have nice things to say about Tony Randall, and his wife Heather, and Fred Walker, and NAT.
The latest news I’ve heard is that Pace University will continue its relationship with the National Actors Theatre.
Tuesday night John and I had a nice walk through Central Park, walked by Heather and Tony’s place, and walked down Broadway to be in Times Square at 8pm for the one-minute dimming of the lights in tribute to Mr. Randall.
Thank you, Tony. A good man all around.
Mmmmmm… The Loews Jersey!
Spent Friday night and most of Saturday at the lovely Loews Jersey in Jersey City. Boy, moviegoers really were treated very well for some years in the early part of the 20th century. The Loews Jersey opened September 28, 1929 as a grand movie palace. The whole idea of these enormous movie palaces was to get people into the theater. Now the whole idea is to get you in and get you out.
The last time I was at the Loews Jersey was for the screening of the 1910 Edison Frankenstein, which was amazing to see in such a place. The Friends of the Loews Jersey have done even more work than when I was there a year ago. They meet every weekend and clean and paint and polish and all that. It’s just incredible that something so amazing was left to ruin, and even more amazing that anyone would vandalize it, but such is American life. The same American social mechanisms that produced such a glorious monster also contribute to its demise.
Off for the summer, the Loews Jersey will reopen in the fall with a 75th Anniversary of the opening of the theater itself. I’ll post some pictures at some point. This weekend was just super with Mr. Ray Harryhausen there to introduce Jason and the Argonauts, a Saturday matinee of This Island Earth, and a 50th Anniversary screening of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in the evening. Superb entertainment!
