Movies, Movies, Movies: Summer at the Heights

A highlight of my summer thus far has to be going to movies at The Heights Theater in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. The theater is advertised as "the classic cinema experience". It opened in 1926 and is the longest continuously running movie house in the Twin Cities.

My grandma moved to Columbia Heights from Western Minnesota in about 1924. The McMahon family lived just a few blocks off Central Avenue on 40th Avenue, so she must have seen the theater go up. She didn't mention going to the movies very often as a kid, but it's cool to get back to her old stomping grounds this summer. My great-grandparents and a host of cousins are buried in St. Anthony Cemetery, down Central Avenue from the theater. So, in an odd way, I am returning to my roots this summer.

I've seen several first-run movies at the Heights over the last few years. I am not a big fan of the multiplex experience. They are too loud and I don't care for stadium seating and those rocking seats kind of make me motion sick. Most recently I saw the delightful Brooklyn at the Heights. It felt appropriate, seeing the film, set in the 1950s, in an old movie house. Mom, Regan and I are on a roll. So far we haven't missed a Thursday night show this summer.

My family has seen White Christmas several times over the holidays in recent years. That is a fabulous experience. I have seen the movie so many times (thirty? forty? more?) but there is something special about watching it in an old theater with crystal chandeliers on a snowy December afternoon (or evening). The theater is packed with other people who love the movie and/or love the season. People laugh out loud and it is always a great atmosphere.

In June, I saw Singin' In the Rain for the first time. To be honest, I am not a huge fan of musicals (other than White Christmas!) so I wasn't expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised. Even the part three-quarters of the way through the movie which seemed to be stuck in just to show off what a great dancer Gene Kelly was (duh...we don't need convincing!) Debbie Reynolds was adorable and Donald O'Connor's acrobatics mesmerizing. 

GREAT WOMEN OF COMEDY SERIES

The Women kicked off the Great Women of Comedy series on Thursday, June 30th. First time for me seeing this movie. Love Rosalind Russell, not a huge Joan Crawford fan, but all the women were great. The Heights site describes the movie: "Famously avoiding any male actors, George Cukor's The Women is a brilliantly acidic comedy about gossip, affairs, marriage, and, ultimately, how to endure a male-dominated world. Featuring a star-studded line-up of some of the best actresses of the era, including Norma Shearer, Paulette Godard, Joan Fontaine, Rosalind Russell, and, perhaps best of all, a young Joan Crawford (displaying all her talons), The Women is a fabulously entertaining comedy." HIGHLIGHT: The fab clothes!

Next up was Auntie Mame - the 1958 version with Rosalind Russell. My mom couldn't believe that I had not seen this movie before. I am not sure which I wish for more: To have had an Auntie Mame or to be Auntie Mame! My favorite line? Of course, "Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving." Unforgettable movie. 

The hilarious Long, Long Trailer came next. I had seen this one on cable in the 1980s, then I watched it several more times on VHS. Mom had quite a library of taped old movies, and this was one of my favorites. Lucy and Desi are magic on screen. I was struck by how exquisite Lucille Ball was. The camera truly loved her. The theater was sold out for this showing, which added to the fun. 

The next film was The Awful Truth. It is my opinion that Cary Grant almost always steals the show, and he and Ralph Bellamy out-act Irene Dunne in this one. She had her moments (like when she poses as Grant's sister) but I wasn't impressed by her performance. As a "Great Woman of Comedy" I expected a little bit more.

And the final movie of the series? Pillow Talk. Of the five movies in this series, I think I laughed the most at this one. I had not seen it before and fell in love with it immediately. Doris Day was a joy to watch. She manages to steal the show, although she has stiff competition from Rock Hudson and Tony Randall. I had only seen Randall in the Odd Couple on TV. Thelma Ritter, as Doris Day's housekeeper, was perfect. Great chemistry, all around. Pillow Talk may just be one of my all-time favorite comedies!

My rankings for Great Women of Comedy series (#1 is my favorite):

5. The Women
4. The Awful Truth
3. The Long, Long Trailer
2. Auntie Mame
1. Pillow Talk



What's Next?

Well, this week at the Heights is the start of The Magnificent Obsessions of Douglas Sirk series. Over the next four Thursdays, this series " celebrates Hollywood's greatest practitioner of melodrama. Often relying on bold color, at times hysterical and overwhelming plots, and actors often considered more pretty than complex, Sirk was able to craft emotionally devastating films that were also supreme entertainments." (Heights website)

All That Heaven Allows is the first Sirk film showcased  this Thursday at 7:30pm. I will let you know what I think. I reckon this is going to be a different side to Rock Hudson...maybe just a little heavier than Pillow Talk!

Sis had the day off work today for Shavuot, so we took a little road trip to Stillwater. Thought we'd look around a little, then grab some lunch. But after we picked up some cool notebooks at the delightful Mara-Mi and some fudge at Tremblay's and sat by the river for a spell, we decided to split. Stillwater was seeming a little ragged, run-down and dirty.

Main Street -- Stillwater, MN

Unsure where to go next, we headed back to the Cities and ended up in our old neighborhood in South Minneapolis. Of course we had to drive by the house. There was NO ONE around on our street. Seriously not a soul. We had driven by the old place many times, but for the first time we parked and walked up the sidewalk a bit to check things out more closely.

The house looks great, except they painted it a bluish-grey, which is wrong. It is supposed to be white. It was white for over 85 years and it should have stayed white. It looks nice enough, it just blends in more, looks less special. I am not sure it was so striking on its own or if it was the contrast between the paint choice of our next-door neighbors. I remember telling people coming to my house for the first time: "Go to 41st and Wentworth, it's the big white house fourth from the corner...next to the green house." Don and Bev's electric green house is now beige. 

The lilies of the valley still line the depth of the house on the north side, along the path to the back, but the lilacs have all been removed from the south side. The house looks so bare and exposed. And they've added some sort of central air and ugly external duct work. The lilacs would come in handy to cover some of that up. Now there are just some hostas, or something. 

It was so quiet in the neighborhood. We remembered summer afternoons from our youth on Wentworth Avenue and: kids running through sprinklers in the front yard, playing tennis in the street, running games through neighbors' yards, shooting hoops in the backyard, digging up worms, riding bikes and just "playing". 

Sis said she felt like some septuagenarian recalling her childhood in the 1950s. We decided our youth was more like our parents' than kids today is like their parents'. I don't actually care about all that. When I go to the old neighborhood, it is all about my memories. They play through my head, not like grainy home movies (as you might expect) but like crisp, highly produced scenes. I don't see myself, but I know I am there.

To cap off our trip down memory lane, we had lunch at Harriet's Inn on 40th and Lyndale. Great spot, but hard to get around the fact that I am eating fish tacos and drinking a craft beer in the old Super America convenience store...

Harriet's Inn -- South MInneapolis

Summer Begins

Absolutely gorgeous Sunday afternoon in Minnesota. We had a delightful lunch at Admiral D's in White Bear Lake, followed by peach cobbler, tea and inspirtational conversation on the front porch of The Cottage. 

We discussed several summer road trip possibilities including Lanesboro, MN, Itasca and Mineral Point, Wisconsin. 

A few potential screenplays for Hallmark Channel movies were mapped out - fascinating story lines involving illiteracy, a one-hit-wonder, lost love and Vietnam,

Bernadette Peters as "Aunt Carol" a one-hit-wonder from the 1970s who is in danger of losing her crumbling lake-side estate, but instead of telling her niece who comes for guidance and inspiration of her financial woes, Carol takes off for Portugal, leaving her niece to pick up the pieces. An illiterate son of a Vietnam War veteran college English professor figure in somehow...

Great day today, and I look forward to many more like it this summer...

Just like riding a bike, right?

My six-year-old niece asked me the other day if I knew how to drive.

I explained to her that I don't drive because I am legally blind.

"Yeah, I get that," Ainsley said. "But do you KNOW HOW TO drive?"

I told her that technically, yes, I did know how to drive. When I could see, I used to drive. I had a driver's license, I even drove a manual transmission.

She shook her head. She didn't know what a manual transmission was, nor did she care about that right now.

Ainsley just wanted to know if I knew how to drive AND if I would teach her when she got older.

I thought about it for a moment.

Absolutely. I will teach you how to drive, Ainsley. 

The Brickyard in Prescott

Dad and I took a rainy Sunday afternoon road trip yesterday. We ended up hungry in Prescott, Wisconsin, so we stopped in at the Brickyard Pub & Eatery.

A frosty glass of Spotted Cow and an order of Ellsworth Creamery Cheese Curds were perfect starters. Dad had the soup and we split a Jack Burger...delicious.

I think we'll have to return later this summer when it is not pouring rain to spend some time on the patio...looks nice!

Brickyard Pub & Eatery216 N. Broad St., Prescott, WI 54021715.262.3622

http://www.brickyardprescott.com/index.html

Bono: Punk rocker?

On CBS Sunday Morning today U2's Bono mentioned he wrote a song about his mother for their latest album and it's not very punk rock to write songs about your mother.

About as punk rock as this?

I've been a U2 fan for over thirty years. Saw them in concert for the  first time at the Minneapolis Auditorium on March 19, 1985. I was a month shy of my thirteenth birthday and my mom said I could go if I found an adult to take me. My Aunt Eeny rose to the challenge.

I remember exactly what I wore: dark indigo cropped jeans with deep pockets on the side legs, white v-neck tee-shirt, pink Bennetton lambswool cardigan, pink and white striped socks and black loafer-style flats.

Not very punk rock.

First Days in London - September 1995

So, I pried the drawer open and found my 1995 photo album, covered by a thick blanket of dust. I didn't realize dust accumulated in drawers. I suppose when said drawer is in a hundred-year-old built-in wood buffet, dust gets in.

The album is fairly typical of the time - brown exterior with metallic detail, housing a three-ring binder of plastic-covered sticky sheets. These pages hold photographs, postcards, ticket stubs, dried flowers, brochures, receipts, and more. I guess it's a scrapbook more than a photo alubum.

I still need to locate my travel journal. It wasn't where I thought it was, so I guess I need to go to the next layer of storage!

Let's get started looking at the scrapbook...

The first thirty-two pages of the book are devoted to five days in London. I had forgotten how super excited I was to go to London. This section of the scrapbook features A LOT of postcards. I remember us not taking many photographs while in London. I would like to think were too busy "being there", but we were most likely too busy looking at street maps, Tube maps, keeping track of our passports and getting on one another's nerves. But never fear, there are a few gems of us in our mid-1990s glory.

I won't bore you with all 32 London pages, such as the four or five pages of postcards of my favorite paintings from the Natinal Gallery, or the three pages full of Westminster Abbey brochures. I will try to hit the high points.

Page 2 made me chuckle. We took this bus from Heathrow to our hotel. If I remember correctly, the bus ride took about three hours, stopping at every single hotel in greater London. I am sure I was queasy. And tired. And anxious that Airbus Direct would forget to stop at our hotel.

Our hotel was the Ridgemount near the British Museum. It was run by a very nice couple.

I will describe the hotel and our cute little room when I get to that photo.

We didn't lose anytime, hitting the British Museum the afternoon we arrived.

Nothing like bog bodies and ancient marble monuments to perk up one's jet lag!

This is Regan, on the bottom of the page.

You can see the strap of her "pouch" around her neck. Those pouches were the biggest pains in the neck. Meant to keep your passport, money and credit cards safe and on your person at all times, they proved to be sources of much annoyance and many jokes throughout our three week trip.

That's me on the left. I sure look young...

Looks like I am referencing the guide book. Probably "Let's Go: London". I think this was one of the last times I used a guide book.

In fact, I am pretty sure this was the only time I looked at that guidebook!

Regan - what exactly are you looking at? My memory fails me...












That's all for now. This trip down memory lane might just take me forever...

And by the way, some other items in that broken drawer: a strobe light, an even older scrapbook from my first trip to Ireland in 1988, some tarnished silverware from my grandma, and the clock that hung in the kitchen of my childhood home.

Those things stayed put, covered in the dust blanket. Their times will come.






















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