And don't call me Shirley.
Well that was an interesting evening. (This may get long.)
The denizens of Ohana House and many others in the suburbs here are frequent flyers at Hollywood Boulevard. Unlike most theatres, this is a smaller showhouse (four full screens and two "half-rooms" called The Marilyn and The Benny) that uses office chairs instead of theatre seating, and offers a full dinner menu for each show. It's not super remarkable food, but it's certainly better than being restricted to popcorn and sugar bombs.
As well, the owner is a film buff in and of himself, and after a decade or so he's built up some ties in Hollywood. For example, Hollywood Blvd has one of the original Batman statues, a series of exceedingly rare movie posters including Sunset Boulevard and the "Performing Live" poster from The Blues Brothers (it was actually handed out to Illinois residents during the relevant scenes--that was the ONLY way to get it), walls coated in replicas of the "handprint" sidewalk from Wuzzisnames Chinese Theater, and even Michael Madsen and David Carradine's Honzo swords from Kill Bill. It's the only theatre in the area that sitll does Rocky Horror once per week, and there are regular guest stop-ins--one night, the aforementioned Mr. Carradine and one Ron Jeremy stopped in to pimp some low-rent National Lampoon flick they were both in. (This was not what I was there to see!) The twins from Harry Potter stop in once per year, as does the last surviving cast member from It's A Wonderful Life, and surviving Munchkins from The Wizard Of Oz--Hollywood Blvd held a petition campaign for years to get the Munchkins a star on the Walk Of Fame, eventually succeeding in 2007.
I finally gave up and went to one of the bigger nights (by my standards anyways)--September 27th was An Evening With Leslie Nielsen. Anyone who knows me knows how I feel about Mr. Nielsen, so it goes without saying that I looked forward to it. Yes, he's starting to age ungracefully--the stone jaw and swooshy hair are long gone, but he's entitled to that at 82 years old--but it was worth it to see him come out and ham up with the crowd. Genuinely seems to enjoy being funny and appreciated for it.
But moreso: as part of the guest appearance, Hollywood management dug two films--and I mean films--out of their vaults for a one-time-showing: The Naked Gun, and...Airplane!.
They found a virgin, untrimmed copy of Airplane!. With all the gags that Turner and cable have cut since. We got to go through the "what you really mean is you want me to get an abortion!" gag, the old woman did her lines of coke, the jive dialogue with Barbara Billingsley was not subtitled, there were random bare breasts after "does anyone know how fly a plane?", the excess scenes with the Coffee Kids were left out but the woman trying to apply make-up were left in, the poor chap in a turban still applies the gasoline, they left the entire "reinflating Otto Pilot" scene in, and oh all the scenes while Lloyd Bridges is tripping on airplane glue are there. No "Hi Jack!", and yes they kept in the sped-up version of Stayin' Alive instead of Genero Disco during the first flashback.
I'd forgotten how damn funny that film was, damaged celluloid and all. It's aged wonderfully, even if we did get to play "the kids aren't gonna get that joke" with things like "checking the radar range" or talking about Kareem playing with the Lakers.
Oh, that's right. I had the lasagna.
The denizens of Ohana House and many others in the suburbs here are frequent flyers at Hollywood Boulevard. Unlike most theatres, this is a smaller showhouse (four full screens and two "half-rooms" called The Marilyn and The Benny) that uses office chairs instead of theatre seating, and offers a full dinner menu for each show. It's not super remarkable food, but it's certainly better than being restricted to popcorn and sugar bombs.
As well, the owner is a film buff in and of himself, and after a decade or so he's built up some ties in Hollywood. For example, Hollywood Blvd has one of the original Batman statues, a series of exceedingly rare movie posters including Sunset Boulevard and the "Performing Live" poster from The Blues Brothers (it was actually handed out to Illinois residents during the relevant scenes--that was the ONLY way to get it), walls coated in replicas of the "handprint" sidewalk from Wuzzisnames Chinese Theater, and even Michael Madsen and David Carradine's Honzo swords from Kill Bill. It's the only theatre in the area that sitll does Rocky Horror once per week, and there are regular guest stop-ins--one night, the aforementioned Mr. Carradine and one Ron Jeremy stopped in to pimp some low-rent National Lampoon flick they were both in. (This was not what I was there to see!) The twins from Harry Potter stop in once per year, as does the last surviving cast member from It's A Wonderful Life, and surviving Munchkins from The Wizard Of Oz--Hollywood Blvd held a petition campaign for years to get the Munchkins a star on the Walk Of Fame, eventually succeeding in 2007.
I finally gave up and went to one of the bigger nights (by my standards anyways)--September 27th was An Evening With Leslie Nielsen. Anyone who knows me knows how I feel about Mr. Nielsen, so it goes without saying that I looked forward to it. Yes, he's starting to age ungracefully--the stone jaw and swooshy hair are long gone, but he's entitled to that at 82 years old--but it was worth it to see him come out and ham up with the crowd. Genuinely seems to enjoy being funny and appreciated for it.
But moreso: as part of the guest appearance, Hollywood management dug two films--and I mean films--out of their vaults for a one-time-showing: The Naked Gun, and...Airplane!.
They found a virgin, untrimmed copy of Airplane!. With all the gags that Turner and cable have cut since. We got to go through the "what you really mean is you want me to get an abortion!" gag, the old woman did her lines of coke, the jive dialogue with Barbara Billingsley was not subtitled, there were random bare breasts after "does anyone know how fly a plane?", the excess scenes with the Coffee Kids were left out but the woman trying to apply make-up were left in, the poor chap in a turban still applies the gasoline, they left the entire "reinflating Otto Pilot" scene in, and oh all the scenes while Lloyd Bridges is tripping on airplane glue are there. No "Hi Jack!", and yes they kept in the sped-up version of Stayin' Alive instead of Genero Disco during the first flashback.
I'd forgotten how damn funny that film was, damaged celluloid and all. It's aged wonderfully, even if we did get to play "the kids aren't gonna get that joke" with things like "checking the radar range" or talking about Kareem playing with the Lakers.
Oh, that's right. I had the lasagna.