Yours truly at the Drexel North, age 17, approximately 3am.One of the topics that we often touch on in our Marathon discussions is that most dreaded of enemies for an aspiring Marathoid: sleep. We've come to devote a thread every year to advice on how to stay awake throughout the entire event, but we usually don't do a great deal of talking about past misadventures with the Sandman.
Believe it or not, in my initial years of Marathon attendance (beginning when I was 16) I was a total lightweight in the fight against sleep. Even though my powers of persistence should have been at their height, I had the hardest time staying awake once the early morning hours hit. Part of this was likely due to diet: my cohorts and I would load up on Domino's pizza and other carbs during the first part of the event, only to crash out later on when the cinematic offerings grew more eccentric and eclectic. Sure, I basically stayed awake during the entirety of my first Horror Marathon in 1993, but I also had to leave for five hours in the afternoon for a school marching band contests (and don't think I still curse any devotion I had to extracurricular activities), which gave me some respite from the non-stop Xenon bulb bombardment. Other than that, I would crash hard at some point between 1am and 3am.
Case in point: the 1995 edition of It Came From the Drexel North. After slogging my way through the (ahem) ultra-rare (ahem) and (ahem) obviously worthwhile (ahem, ahem)
First Spaceship on Venus, I was primed for a mano y mano showdown with the Columbus Premiere of
The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb. Don't remember this one? Well, check out the awesome trailer
here. In any case, those of you who remember the film know that it's very odd and langorous. Ten minutes into its hour plus running time, I was slipping into dreamland, so it was off the the rear of the theater to stand behind one of the back barriers (which were great for this purpose and have been sadly missing from many subsequent homes for the Marathons.) But even then, standing straight up and having consumed a cup of coffee during the previous flick, I was still struggling. So, in my infinite wisdom, I stood about three feet away from the back barriers, thinking "I'll never fall asleep now." This was readily disproved, as I almost fell down twice from dozing off while standing up. Resigned to the inevitable, I slinked back to my seat and slept through the rest of the film, plus
H-Man,
Mind Ripper and
Darkman. I justified this trip to sleepytown by thinking that hey, I'd make up for it next year. Little did I know that Bruce and Jeff would make that fateful, momentous announcement about the closing of the Drexel North before
Escape from New York. Agh!!!
The next year, at the Riffe Center, I was cruising along through most of the night. By this point, I was a regular coffee consumer, so I could pace myself a bit better. But then came the 6am showing of
Brazil, which I had been waiting to see for the first time at the Marathon. Over the years, I've given Bruce much guff for scheduling what should have been an anchor film at this ungodly hour, so you can imagine how successful I was at surviving it. Twenty minutes in, I temporarily removed my chair's armrest (which was already loose) and started gently hitting myself in the head whenever I started to nod. When that didn't work, I walked to the side entrance of the house and stood, again reasoning that this would keep me awake, and again almost falling down from fatigue. This was all doubly disconcerting to me, for I considered staying awake for the duration to be a much-admired badge of honor.
Over the years, my Benjamin Button-esque existence has enabled me to stay awake for much longer than I ever could in my younger days. Now, it seems to come down to a matter of motivation, as I've seen more and more of the flicks that are showing. The Drexel is a fairly tough place to stay awake, as its main back barrier is covered by the intricate spiderweb frame, forcing anyone who wants to stand to lean against one of the back walls. I've resorted to half-standing, half-leaning, while flexing most of my major muscles to try to keep the blood flowing. That being said, I've stayed awake during the entirety of the three Shock Around the Clock Horrorthons, mainly due to sitting on a padded folding chair that's just comfortable enough for back support but not soothing enough to readily sleep in.
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it was one of the angriest moments in my life. but i STILL enjoyed that marathon! and i salute bruce for dealing with the situation. it had gotten out of hand, and was really just a couple kids - he found out who they were and banned them forever.
