Your Eyes Vs Plaza Theater, El Paso, Texas

14/02/2014alxkdd

Got your shades on? Yes? Ok well now you can look upon possible the most dazzling, overpowering and downright wild cinema exterior I’ve ever seen. Welcome to the Plaza theatre, El Paso, Texas circa 1962.

Yes once you actually got inside to watch Dr. No you probably wouldn’t have be able to see anything as your eyes would have been overload with all that ballyhoo showmanship outside. Now how about we all go and watch Hitchcock’s The Birds? Shades at the ready?

The Plaza Theatre started life in 1930 and operated as a multi-purpose venue, hosting theatre productions, music concerts and of course film screenings. Over the decades it had it’s up and downs but we’re happy to report that it’s still open and going stronger than ever now, thanks to an extensive refit back in 2006. The best thing? Check out how it looks now, yes it’s still trying to destroy your eyeballs with light!

Plaza Theatre, El Paso, Texas – The Duke salutes you!

Sammy Davis Jr Vs Laserdiscs

06/02/2014alxkdd

Today we’re taking a look at the great Sammy Davis Jr and his love of all things technologically new, specifically where it relates to his lifelong love of watching films. Sam’s second book “Hollywood In A Suitcase” is a great start to understanding the man and his love of movies, for not only did he like appearing in them, but he had a huge love of watching them as well.

A good example is that while appearing live in Las Vegas Sam had 35MM projectors installed in his rooms and the hip place to be every evening after his show was the film screening party he’d throw at the end of the night. A classic film would screen, the drinks would flow and everyone had a good time, so good in fact that Sam would get blamed for hogging all the show girls who’d make a b-line for his pad after their gigs had finished.

Below is a great picture of Sam conducting a business meeting in 1966, he’s sat in front of what would then be the height of technology, an all equipped desk that looks like something out of a Sean Connery Bond film.

Skip forwards 8-years to 1974 and we can see Sam relaxing at home in what looks like a basement, surrounded by very early video tapes and a wall of vinyl albums, as well as some super stylish trousers.

Now we get to the really good stuff, here we can see a much more detailed picture of what looks like the same room, but now it’s 5-years later and once again the technology has been updated, a bigger screen, smaller screens inserted into the walls, various other bits of equipment are also on display, but it’s the Laserdiscs that are really cool. Or should we say DiscoVision as that what Sam is actually holding in the bottom picture, Jaws 2 to be exact. Yes the DiscoVision was an early forerunner to the Laserdisc and helped to pave the way for the digital medium that slowly took hold through the 80s & 90s, then exploded in the 2000’s with DVD. Though if we had our way we’d still be using the name DiscoVision!

Also of note is that you can see more of Sam’s record collection, sections include: Jazz, Garland (Judy), Crosby (Bing), Cole (Nat King), Movies, proving that Sam was a man of great taste in music as well as movies.

So there you go, Sam was one of us, a true movie fan through and through and you can imagine that if his den was updated today you’d see state of the art Blu-ray players, a gigantic projector screen and who know what else in the future!

Sir Run Run Shaw

05/02/2014alxkdd

Last week our host Evrim Ersoy was on Radio 4 talking about Sir Run Run Shaw – you can listen to his brief segment here – near the 26 minute mark.

Listen to Evrim on Last Word here

Sir Run Run Shaw was a legend in more ways than one – not only as he behind the Shaw Brothers studio but he also was an incredible philanthropist, reportedly donating over 5 billion pounds into charities (mainly education) over the course of his lifetime.

His achievements in film are enough to make anyone envious – Shaw Brothers were a powerhouse of a studio – fifteen soundstages with 1500 employees, there were more than capable of matching the film industry of the West and more.

But it was their way of innovating the old Chinese martial arts classics which really cemented their position within the film industry – they took a genre which, by then, was beginning to show its’ age and rejuvenated it: it was during their height that the films started exhibiting some incredible characteristics: from violent anti-hero’s to strong central female characters, these were the wuxia films but not as the audience knew them.

Sir Run Run said it was their duty to take the 5000 year history of China and make it an integral part of their productions – and to this end he kept his word. The stories were all familiar to local audiences – it was the technique and the dedication which elevated the productions; not to mention the quality of acting, production and even style.

Their involvement in Western productions also lead to some incredible films getting made – the best known, perhaps, being ‘Blade Runner’.

The Duke cannot think of a more deserving and worthwhile figure to pay tribute to and on February 24th, for one night only The Phoenix Artist Club will become Hong Kong where the Shaw Brothers studio will live one again.

Further details will follow – until then Gong Hey Fat Choy !

It’s Protest Time!

30/01/201419/07/2016alxkdd

UPDATE – 19th July 2016 – Just found this utterly perfect cinema protest picture via ebay and had to add it to this feature:

70s80s NewYork Cinema Protest

I don’t know who these guys are as there’s very little information about the picture, but they seem to be protesting outside a porn cinema with two of them dressed as the KKK. Annoyingly the picture is slightly too low-res to be able to clearly see what their signs says, but it looks like the far left one says “Down On Pornography (then something unreadble) while the middle says “Down On This Type Shows”, hold on a minute…

FatherTed

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Here’s proof that film and cinemas can be a powerful force in people’s lives and opinions, because today we’re taking a look at cinema protests in all its different forms. Starting with this example of the furore that Monty Python’s Life Of Brian caused upon its USA release in 1979, I’m not sure which cinema this was taken outside but, as is often the case, when religion and comedy mix it up someone is always ready to get offended. Us? We’d have gladly thrown down the $ to see both Life Of Brian AND Skatetown USA!

Of course adult films have always been a hot topic when it comes to protesting, here’s a look at what happened outside the Frisco in New York city, while it was showing the porn blockbuster double bill of Deep Throat and The Devil In Miss Jones.

Interestingly it’s not only adult themed films that can cause issues, here’s a heated protest from Seattle in 1975, the contentious film being picketed? Walt Disney’s One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing. The protest is over the stereotyping of Asians in films.

Back to the world of the porn cinema with Cinema X in Baltimore which became the target of a long and ultimately successful campaign to close it down in 1981, here are the protestors in action.

Now it’s not only the general public that will protest, here’s an example of the workers protesting their own employer, it’s 1991 and the projectionists of Cineplex Odeon protest a screening of Dracula. The signs read: “Watch For: Poor Focus, Bad Sound, Broken Film plus much more”

So do protests work? Possibly, but the best thing is that people are actually out there voicing their opinions, even if you don’t agree with them it’s fascinating to see the important part that films and cinemas can play in people’s lives, cultures and neighbourhoods.