KentAllard wrote:
My favorite memory though is exiting the doors of the Drexel North at the first marathon in 1987. The theater was only about 1/3 full to begin with and I don't think many of us made it to the end. Walking through the lobby with the survivors of the previous night I felt like I had found a new group of people that I could relate to. I still feel that way after every festival even 25 years later.
I agree completely. While my wife (before she was my wife) attended the last few at the Drexel North and the couple at the Riffe, I have been unable to get her to fall in love the with the Marathon's. She mostly now just tolerates them.
I worry my older son, will not get them either. He isn't as in to movies as I was at his age 8 (almost 9.) We did watch the Raymond Burr version of Godzilla a few weeks back. He felt bad for Godzilla, thought the people were being mean to him. Yes he was destroying things, but it was usually by accident or self defense. He's got a good heart and just does not enjoy mayhem and destruction. Yet.
I used to spend every Saturday watching Superhost on Channel 43 out of Cleveland. I used to constantly check book out of the Glenmont Elelmntary Libray about Godzilla, or the Wolfman, or Frankenstein. As Kent said, I felt a community by the end of the marathon. My parents had dropped me off at the marathon, but I had to walk home when it was over. The other thing I recall about that marathon was that we had to check in after evry movie and get a different stamp on our tickets. Only then could we get a certificate and we didn't get it for weeks.
Some of the marathons run together. There are the early years at the Drexel North when I went alone. The years when I went with my girlfriend, now wife. The Riffe years. The scary years when I thought the event might die. Then the Arena Grand/Gateway years. Now the current Drexel East era.
For example,
I recall from the early years, the first time I saw Gravity. Another memory is the guy next to me commenting on the number of times Sigourney Weaver is in her underwear in Alien vs. Aliens. The later Drexel years are a mixed bag of positives, Ed Kemmer, possibly the nicest person of all time and negatives, the full pop can throwing incident which lead to the Bread films being exiled for a time. Another positive is waiting in line near Bob, who I only introduced myself to years later, who had a group with him as he read from the Nitpickers guide to ST:TNG.
The Riffe years I recall fondly Gravity live and seeing the extended ID4 trailer. Oh, and getting, sort of flashed during the costume contest. I also recall Mothra vs. Star Fleet Officer not so fondly. And lots of more Artsy films, imho. Not that there was anything wrong with them, it just seemed like there were more than usual.
The scary years included the Contient, which had one of the most pleasant line waits. The weather was great, there was space to Frisbee, etc. It also had T2 going backwards and reverse for the final reel. At the time there was talk Cameron might direct Spiderman, which caused a funny shout out that we were actually seeing the early SFX shots from that film. We also had the Trailerthon and the introduction of Spaceboy. The Grandview also had Frequency, one of my favortie premieres.
The Arena Grand made it seem like we finally had a permanent home. Yeah, we had to share the theater, but we had great sound, reserved seats (I was living in DC at the time and getting to the line at a normal time for me) was difficult. There was Phil Tippet, who was entertaining, the Batman short director, who was not, and plenty of bathrooms for a change.
After a quick stop at the Grandview again we were at the Gateway for some racist Batman, a robot movie that seemed to be related to current events, but was a tad strident and not quite cutting edge, or even bearble, when it comes to sound and special effects. I also took my nephew to his first and only marathon. Just never got into it. I could tell when we watched the series of King King Trailers that looked progressively (for the most part) more primitive. He still thinks of Peter Jackson's King Kong as THE King Kong. I also recall fondly watching the young ladies in line for the shop across from the theater who were, for the most part, very esy on the eyes.
And now, the "moder" era at the Drexel East. I volunteered more (I usually did it in the past if the weather was crappy to get inside sooner) and got to see the basement of the theater and got a chance to meet some other folks or know some of the others better. I enjoyed Patricia Neal's memorable one liner. My failed efforts to pump some life back into the costume contest with some cash prizes. The dominance of Ro-Man in the costume contest. Lady Terminator. The Yes We Kahn T-Shirt. Our dog ate mine as a puppy about 2 years ago. <sigh>
Yeah, I didn't go into a lot of detail on most of these. But hopefully I sparked a few memories for folks. Sorry I haven't been around much. A couple factors have kept me tied up, but I will see all of you on the 19th.