Theatre of the absurd.
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When the not yet Mrs. Bumppo and I were dating we used to go see movies at a rundown theater called the Gothic. In its day it was quite nice - opened in the 20s and was the first theater in the Denver area to show sound films. It fell on hard times in the forties and was a dump when we were going there - but you could see it must have been gorgeous in its prime. It was refurbished in 1998 and is now a very nice mostly live venue.
On Friday and Saturday nights they would show 3,4, or 5 movies (mostly stuff you had never heard of - for a reason). But it was cheap and neither of us had much money in those days. One night we went (mostly to see an Eastern European Animation Festival - which of course was dead last on the agenda) and had a really memorable night.
The projectionist couldn't be bothered to stay in the booth and the films were in such terrible shape that they broke several times. So we got see several frames freeze and melt. Followed by the sound of the film flapping around and somewhat later the projectionist madly running (and cursing) towards the projection booth from wherever he was off smoking dope or whatever.
The theater was old enough that it had a balcony which is where we generally sat. This was back in the days when they allowed smoking up there. The place had ancient horse hair seats and someone managed to set one on fire. (Not really open flame but some pretty intense (and smelly) smoldering.) A staff member came along eventually and threw a cup water on it and went back to the dope party (or whatever). It soon started smoldering again. A few minutes later the staff member was back and threw two cups of water. You can guess the scenario. This was repeated about 5 times until two staff members came and unbolted the section of seats and carried it off to the catacombs or wherever.
The film we wanted to see finally came on (maybe about 1:30 in the morning) and it sounded like the music (there was no narration) was being played underwater. There was some lettering at the start looked goofy - but we were talking Eastern European stuff so that didn't surprise us. But whatever was happening in the cartoon made absolutely no sense and when we got to the end of that cartoon we saw what was obviously the title screen of the cartoon - the damn thing was running backwards! At which point we threw in the towel and we split.
On the bright side the floor show was much more entertaining than the movies we did see.
There are eight million stories in the Naked City - this has been one of them. What is yours?
On Friday and Saturday nights they would show 3,4, or 5 movies (mostly stuff you had never heard of - for a reason). But it was cheap and neither of us had much money in those days. One night we went (mostly to see an Eastern European Animation Festival - which of course was dead last on the agenda) and had a really memorable night.
The projectionist couldn't be bothered to stay in the booth and the films were in such terrible shape that they broke several times. So we got see several frames freeze and melt. Followed by the sound of the film flapping around and somewhat later the projectionist madly running (and cursing) towards the projection booth from wherever he was off smoking dope or whatever.
The theater was old enough that it had a balcony which is where we generally sat. This was back in the days when they allowed smoking up there. The place had ancient horse hair seats and someone managed to set one on fire. (Not really open flame but some pretty intense (and smelly) smoldering.) A staff member came along eventually and threw a cup water on it and went back to the dope party (or whatever). It soon started smoldering again. A few minutes later the staff member was back and threw two cups of water. You can guess the scenario. This was repeated about 5 times until two staff members came and unbolted the section of seats and carried it off to the catacombs or wherever.
The film we wanted to see finally came on (maybe about 1:30 in the morning) and it sounded like the music (there was no narration) was being played underwater. There was some lettering at the start looked goofy - but we were talking Eastern European stuff so that didn't surprise us. But whatever was happening in the cartoon made absolutely no sense and when we got to the end of that cartoon we saw what was obviously the title screen of the cartoon - the damn thing was running backwards! At which point we threw in the towel and we split.
On the bright side the floor show was much more entertaining than the movies we did see.
There are eight million stories in the Naked City - this has been one of them. What is yours?
Comments
Only theater oddity I have is the film broke or some kind of other malfunction when I went with a date to see Vanilla Sky. Still haven't seen the end of that movie.
Most entertaining- went to go see Fear (the one where Marky Mark is a stalker), and the dad pulls up to talk to him. The most perfectly timed "Awww shit" piped up from a black chick near the front of the theater. We all lost it!
Only theater oddity I have is the film broke or some kind of other malfunction when I went with a date to see Vanilla Sky. Still haven't seen the end of that movie.
Mrs. Bumppo and I were watching Edward Scissorhands and had to leave when a fire started in one of the other theaters in the complex. We never did see the rest of it - mostly because we didn't really like what we did see.
Also, my funniest moment at a movie theatre also involves attempting to sneak a friend into an R rated flick. Me and a buddy went to Role Models (we were over 17) and laid out a plan just in case they did card our other friend (they did). So we told my 16 year old buddy to buy a ticket for Twilight and sneak into our theatre when he was able to. Time goes on, we're enjoying the movie, and there is no sign of this kid. Turns out the usher in there wanted to be an asshole that night, and actually stood by the door in Twilight the entire time so he couldn't leave. We weren't very smart about how we went about it. After Role Models was over, we went into Twilight and saw our left behind brethren, sunken down in the front row just hating his life. He was literally the only person in the theatre. I don't think I've ever laughed that hard.