Saturday, April 14, 2007:
Pillow Talk (1959) at The Cabin (1956)
"Footloose bachelor...beautiful career girl...and the world's most fascinating pastime!*"
* Apparently, this refers to talking on the telephone.
Rock Hudson is some kind of composer, and Doris Day is some kind of interior decorator with elbow gloves and whatnot, and they totally hate each other except on the phone, where they have HOT SIMULATED SPLITSCREEN BATHTUB ACTION!
Rock Hudson pretends to be lots of different people on the phone, including a naked bathing Texan named "Rex Stetson":
The Venue: Funky, Faded Fifties — Fieldstone Fireplace!
The Apiril weather was TERRIBLE and really variable, so we showed this first movie inside (I'm not sure if this is going to be a precedent.) The Cabin was completed in 1956; it's one of those private-school function venues that you ignore for a really long time and then you come back to it and realize "wow, this was utterly SWANKY once!" And still is, in a shabby, fifties, forty-cup-coffeemaker way.
The cabin is a Y-shaped building(!), built AROUND a tree that has since been cut down. It's got sloping ceilings, recessed lighting, a stone fireplace, and more legit Fifties Funkiness than you can shake a pastel rendering of the UN Plaza at. You can click the images to zoom.
Tech Report
Nothing blew up, hurrah! A bunch of key components weren't in use this time around — the AM transmitter, the sidecar, the moon and stars.
The most important bits, though — the projector, the aura of faded swankiness of the Cabin, the ROARING FIRE — were all
great.
The audience of 21 people (eleven of whom I met for the first time) were friendly and helpful, spontaneously fixing the projector when it needed it. Nicole Valentine even
wore elbow gloves for the win!
Pictured at left is my brother-in-law, Guerilla Drive-In Head Roadie Matt Smith, in front of the Emergency Backup Sound System, which is a full-stack Ampeg Lee Jackson model; the official amp stack of hair metal. Matt put it together and covered it with camo for his 2000 punk band Shark Attack. You can (sort of)
see the GDI E.B.S.S. in action here. Matt is also holding the Emergency Backup Chihuahua.
Check the
schedule page for dates and times of future showings.
