Ep. 133: The Princess Bride, Grease & More at the Alabama Theatre Summer Movie Series

Bye. Bye. Hey, y'all. It's me, Tara Strong, a.k.a. Miss Minutes for Bama Geeks. I hope you're ready to watch, and if you don't, I will have to prune you. Stay on your sacred timeline. And happy Sunday. Good evening. It is the final weekend that somebody's going to have ten fingers. Yes. So send one up. Pour one out for whoever's holding the fireworks this upcoming weekend. Happy birthday, America. Happy semi-sesquicentennial. You didn't know what you were talking about. I'm like, what? What have I gotten myself into? And then I got Jess's America. Put it in reverse, Terry. That's right. Back it up, Terry. I hope Terry has a wonderful happy Fourth of July coming up. Celebrate in style, Terry. That's right. Hopefully he's got sparklers on his wheelchair. He's ready to go. Yeah. Well, good evening. Good happy Sunday. Happy last weekend of June. We're the Bama Geeks. I'm Brock, and over there is my wife, Jess, and we've got Bo and Kevin, and we are thrilled tonight to have Gary Jones with us from the Alabama Theater. The honorary Bama geek. That's right. Very much. That right there would be my greatest honor. That's right. By the way, Brock, I'll have him on one more time. Don't we got to do like SNL and give him a jacket? Yeah, the jacket. Absolutely. The Five Timers Club or whatever. Don't get excited, Gary. It's going to be one of those rain ponchos that you put on. We'll just draw the logo on it very crudely. Yes. That's even better. Hey, we love nostalgia. We're going to get them a members-only jacket. Exactly. That's right. Yes. Broken jacket. Like Rosario. Now that I would wear. Say the word, Brock. I'll go to the thrift store. We'll find something for you. There you go. I need a Jumbo Petite. Jumbo Petite. Okay. All right. I'll get the wife on it. We'll find you something. That's right. That's right. We're on it. So we got to know, you know, what do a leather jacket, a red velvet armadillo, and a six-fingered man all have in common? They're all coming to the Alabama Theater this summer. We're going to talk all about... We're going to talk about the Princess Bride and still Magnolias and the Grease sing-along. Everything else is going to happen. I've got another surprise for you that we'll talk about at the end. Okay. So stick around to the end, everyone. I failed to mention it when we initially talked. And today it was pointed out to me, you better mention, and I was like, oh, crap. Oh, I'm intrigued. Yeah. So there you go. I think at least two of you in this group are going to love it. Oh. We'll see. We'll see. I've got my notes. You brought notes this time. I brought notes this time. These three films have so much... I don't even know where to start. There's just so much love for these three films. There's so much... I hate to use the word timeless, but these are all, we all watch over and over and over and over. And I can. for the most part show to the great grands that are here now, my nephews, children spend a lot of time here with us and they, they, they enjoy watching these, these funny old things. I've got one of them really hooked on Shirley Temple and we should talk about, I really want to do a discussion about her and, and do that one time that'd be great but you know we at the Alabama we've taken the last couple of summers off and so now we're back even though it's in a reduced capacity the year before last we knew that we had to have some projects worked on and these were major major major projects like where we have to take the building down for several weeks at a time and the first one was electrical because uh then we were ninety seven ninety eight years old and we still had parts of the building running on ninety seven ninety eight year old wiring The Frankenstein switches. Gary still refuses to tell me how much Novin II wiring is left. He won't tell me. Let me tell you. In the display next door, Jessica, is one of those big Frankenstein switch. Yeah. We pulled it out and they were like, darn the monster. And I'm like, no no uh history it is it is and people see that and and don't realize that up until just a couple years ago that's how we operated in certain parts of the building and and we we mercifully have now a board of directors and a management uh entity that They're not thinking about tomorrow. They're thinking five, ten years down the road. And I'm so thrilled to be part of a team now that's just not trying to get through tomorrow. We're planning, you know, five, ten, twenty years out. And it's wonderful to have people in those positions that are half my age because I know. by the time it's time for me to play my last Wurlitzer chord, that there will be those folks ensuring that this building goes on. So anyway, two years ago we did electrical and we really did, we were taking, part of us moved over across the street to the Lyric just to be able to work because there's no power for days and days and days. They pulled all of that out. And that went so well that we decided we would do it again last year, except this time it was for, plumbing and HVAC conversions in various parts of the building. And so now we're really lucky that we have much more modern plumbing in most of the building. And more importantly, we have much more energy efficient HVAC that's now zone controllable, humidity controllable, because you've got all that plaster and velvet and everything. And it does not like humidity. No. The old system, basically the old system was on or it was off. Yeah. And, and now it's, it, it, it's almost, it's back to Frankenstein, Jess. It's, it's just controlled. It zones. It knows, it knows. I mean, all these HVAC people out there are going to go, we're excited because we're geeking out over this technology that goes, it knows whether there's twenty or two hundred or two thousand people in the building. Yeah. And it automatically adjusts and goes, oh, you've got body temperatures and humidity is raising because people are breathing and talking. Wow. It knows what to do. And then the best part is you put two thousand people in at Christmas and the building heats up and all of a sudden you don't need heat. And it figures out how to open dampers to pull in some outside cool air to mix in. bring the temperature into a reasonable level and it does that basically for free you're not running steam or compressors to make that happen so wow it was a significant multi-hundred thousands of dollars investment but and i've said this on this show before you know we we pay for everything as we go out of pocket meaning uh The butts that we put in seats and the concessions that we sell and the rentals that we have pay for these projects. So now we're kind of a little bit caught up. And just a few weeks ago, the executive director said, you want to do a movie series, short one? And I said, well, you've got to test the HVAC. No, I don't. So we had a little meeting, and we know a couple of things. One is the summer film series is not, never has been, and never will be as big as the holiday film series. We know that, and that's fine. We're mercifully thankful that the holiday film series is always selling out, always sold out, and we never take that for granted. Mm-hmm. but the summer is a little bit different because you've got everybody doing everything going everywhere and blah blah blah right i've just come back from one big major trip and then a very much smaller but still major trip just in the last month uh and so it's exciting to be able to put and drop these three movies in which we will to talk about shortly. I think we have to be careful when we're choosing summer films that we might not pick someone's favorite, but we are definitely trying to pick films that put butts in seats. And that's really what we've got to do is get some folks to come out and hopefully make a little money and at the very least break even. Well, with me, you talk about the announcement of the movies. So, of course, it was put out there on Facebook, on the Alabama Theater Facebook page. And, of course, here come the comments. And, Bo, you just said. Bo has gone dark. Turn my lights back on, please. Sorry, my son decided to turn the lights off on me. Thank you. Okay. Mood lighting from the boy. I don't know. I'm kind of liking that, that creepy vibe because you're really well, but then all darkness around you. In the members episode, Kevin just had sunlight pouring in through his windows. And so Kevin had about a half lit face. It was very dark. Very cinematic. Two face vibes. Yeah. Very noir. Yeah. So when y'all made the announcement on your Facebook page, I wanted to... Getting to know you and getting to know more about the theater and the operations of the theater. It almost sent me on a very defensive mode for the Alabama. Because, again, it's like anything else. You can't make everybody happy. And everybody always has their suggestions and comments. And some lady, she just threw out a whole list of ideas. Which I wanted to say, that's great and wonderful. But... do you understand it's all about butts in seats yes i mean so we we had uh this was four or five years ago we had one person who just got i i don't want to i don't want to say obnoxious but i'm just going to say it he was just pushing obnoxious levels about things and and i always point this out and i pointed it out to him and i said look there's a solution to this problem and that is that the theater is available for rent every day of the year if you would like to self-produce a movie i can help you uh with the costs and share with you what to expect and then you can show your favorite film anytime you want but It gets really cost prohibitive in a lot of cases with these three films. And of course, there are others. We really feel like that these will have a good, decent showing of folks that want to come see these things. The pre-ticket sales are very encouraging, so I'm excited about that. We all thought we knew what was going to be the leading movie when we first announced what was going to sell the fastest, the mostest, the quickest, and we were all wrong. Anybody want to venture a guess as to what they thought would be number one? Of the three we have? Of the three we have. Of course, I've assumed Grease, right? That's what we assumed, yes. But it's still Magnolias. It's not. Oh, so Princess Bride. It's Princess Bride by about fifty percent more. OK. Wow. Which is exciting because, you know, I got to be careful going down this path here. There is a certain demographic that enjoys Greece and they're always going to come to Greece. Mm hmm. And then there are a couple of three demographics that enjoy Steel Magnolias, and they're always going to come to Steel Magnolias. But when it comes to Princess Bride, it sometimes will startle you that the number of people that want to see what I consider to be that gloriously simple movie that is so well crafted. Mm-hmm. that it's very encouraging to think that that's the one that's leading the pack. Now, we don't know what's gonna happen on opening night. But I just, I am so excited that that is in first place. Well, it's got the same feel of Die Hard. I mean, obviously, Die Hard, with the people coming and it being kind of like people just talking along with it and everything. I mean, it's the same kind of feel, you know? Well, come on, and let's face it. Let's just face it. I'm a sucker for Carole Kane. And read the phone book and I'm there. Yeah. And everybody's got that's the that's the beauty of it. Everybody's got their favorite character or their favorite scenes or their favorite sayings. But I'll tell you, it's just a winner. Yeah. On all aspects. Yeah, it is. yeah that movie's just it's it's it's special like i it was one i used to remember able to catch it always it either be on like cable somehow and it's just you you stopped and watched it it's yeah just whatever you were doing that's yeah right there and watch the rest of it yeah well i am uh probably gonna surprise everybody and say i've not seen it Here we go, Jess. Yeah. Oh my gosh, dude. This is the second time in our career with Brock. Is it not? Yeah. Are you ready for the third time? I've not seen Still Magnolias either. Okay. You can't use the excuse that it was when you were deployed. Not Still Magnolias or Princess Bride. I can't use that excuse. Yeah. All right. So here we go. Brock, you've got, you know, of course, great opportunities here. I'm I'm I'm certain you're going to enjoy Princess Pride because it is just so good. yes it's it's it's just so good and it it it appeals to such a broad uh audience right uh young and old male and female there's there's just there's something there for everyone it's hysterical it's funny it's adventurous uh it has a couple of little twists in it and and i know you're going to enjoy it um let's talk about steel magnolias um And by the way, Jess, I'm so sorry to say this on this cast, but I think your Weezer is much happier than my Weezer. Oh, do you think? Let's just get that out of the way. Yeah, so Gary and I, unbeknownst to each other, we both had the I Slapped Weezer Boudreaux shirts. I was going to surprise Gary, but then I found out that before I got on that Gary had a shirt. I was like, good, okay. Here's what's going to happen at Steel Magnolias. There's no spoilers here, I promise you. it is a complete and total roller coaster yes um you if if you were born in the south and grew up in the south more of that movie hits you harder than if you didn't. I think it is a southern rite of passage. I'll agree. To watch that movie. You're going to laugh hysterically and in the same drawn breath. If you don't cry, we can't be friends anymore. And here's the problem. Here's the problem. You're going to cry more than once. And you're going to laugh and snicker throughout the whole thing. So that's all I can say. And that's all I can tell you in that it is, it is again, especially as a Southern, boy who grew up around these kinds of people. It reminds you of somebody you're related to. Yes. Everybody has those characters in their family. If you were born in Cottondale, you knew half these people. Or Jasper. Same. and you want to talk about quotable to the this movie i i mean i can i can just throw out the quotes the memorable quotes of this movie and i'll refrain because you know we have one in attendance of us and it's not i i can't wait to see him before and i can't wait to see him after he's never seen we we've gone through this with brock before and and even with last year with greece he had not fully watched greece like last year he knew them he was familiar with the musics you know the music that was more popular that you hear you know from the movie and he seen bits and pieces but he never sat down and watched the full movie all the way from start to finish and the the thing about greece is you you have i mean we're just jumping around here You have the main story and the main characters, but there are so many, many, many good guest appearances that just pop ins and pop outs. Fanny Flagg is the nurse, the school nurse. And the first time I saw it, I was just like, Fanny? So there's our Alabama connection to Greece. There's our Alabama connection to Greece. That's right. And that whole office scenario just kills me every time. I have to contain myself and not laugh too loudly because it's just funny as it can be. And it's clever. If you cannot be an athlete, be an athletic supporter. Yeah, it's funny. And I do want to point out to anyone who has watched. seen this perhaps broadcast on television that we are showing the theatrical version which is uh the original i guess uncut version uh which can shock a couple of people every once in a while yeah there's a lyric or two that are a little racy but we do we do show that original theatrical version yep Much like with Die Hard. Yes. When kids bring, people bring their kids to see Die Hard. You realize we're showing, we are showing not the edited version. We are showing. Not edited version. Motherfudgers. That's right. Motherfudgers. I mean. Good grief, you'd have to cut half the movie out. You would have to cut half the movie out, wouldn't you? Yeah. It's just like when they showed snakes on a plane, like TNT or TBS. It was those monkey fighting snakes on the monkey fighting plane. Yes. I love it. Monkey. Well, we've had a lot of... Brock has never seen the movie, and his first time to see it has been... Look, I'm taking full advantage of the fact that I've not seen these movies. I would much rather see them for the first time on the big screen. And I would much rather see them at the Alabama. Yes. Well, we're glad about that. That's for sure. What was the last one? What was the last one we saw? And Gary called you. He was like on. He was at the organ. It's like, OK, aside from Brock Parker, who in this theater? You know, this is the first time to see the Christmas movies. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think it's White Christmas. Oh, here we go. Yeah, I think so. It was one of them. Yeah. White Christmas was the only one last year that I didn't had not seen yet. Right. Right. Yeah. So here's here's a funny story. In the early part of this month, I got to travel abroad for the very first time ever. I had never Left the country and I got to take a quick, quick, too quick little trip to London. Oh, nice. And so going out, it was Birmingham, Philadelphia, Heathrow. And coming back, it was Heathrow, Chicago, O'Hare, Birmingham. And I land in Philly. And I get the quintessential snippy gate attendant who does not want to see my passport card. He wants to see the physical passport. And then I've got the card in my pocket, but I don't have the passport. It's in the bag. And so I'm digging, digging, digging, digging, digging. And then the middle of this, in the middle of me, and he is not happy with me. In the middle of this, this lady taps me and goes, are you from Birmingham? And I said, yes, ma'am. And she said, do you play at the Alabama Theater? And I said, yes, ma'am. I'm Gary. The usual exchanges were so thrilled to meet you. I'm so happy, blah, blah, blah. What's your favorite movie? What did you come to see? And she said, oh, no, no, no. We do it. We play your white Christmas drinking game every time. The coffee scene. uh because i always mention that that you should you should do that and yes we do that well of course by this time i'm about to be put into a holding tank because they are not happy happy with me looking for this passport that's funny that i thought oh my god in philadelphia of all places uh What are the odds? What are the odds? And I'm so humbled and thrilled to be recognized. But more importantly, I'm so excited that that's her favorite thing to do at Christmas is to play my white Christmas shot game. Speaking of drinking, David Jaffe Games, welcome into the stream. Shelby, drink your orange juice. It's very important to have orange juice when Shelby is around. Yes, she needs her juice. If you guys want to jump in the chat like David, please do. We'd love to hear from you. Got any questions for Gary about the Alabama theater or the summer movie series, the holiday movie? It doesn't matter. We'll just talk. Whatever. I will answer any questions. Yeah. Don't say that. No, do. What is it? No, Steve M. You cannot see my feet. See, here we go. He said, ask anything. Boy, we better be prepared for that one. Bring it on. I mean, these are not spoilers, Brock. There's so many of these one-liners, Drink Your Juice, Shelby. Just this right here. Just this right here is enough. um and it and and you know the moment that it it's like i said i can't spoil anything for brock but the moment that it happens in the movie is just it's monumental the shift in in the the shift in that one scene it's it can't spoil it for brock but you know i i just i i it almost, well, I'm going to not say almost, it absolutely catches you so off guard. Yes. Yeah. It just, in an instant, I should shut up. David's also got another comment here. Grew up in Bama. Total geek. Moved to California to make movies and games, but I miss home, so I love listening to you guys when I get a chance. Thanks for the shows. Well, thank you, David. Thank you. Thank you so much. That means a lot. Appreciate you. joining us all the way from California, and glad we can give a little bit of home back to you. Yeah. And do you want to hop in with some housekeeping really quick? Yeah. About Bama Geeks Info? Yeah. Before we let Gary loose, then he just... Yeah. That is fine. That's how we love Gary. Just wind him up, let him go. We're bouncing all over the place. It's like, have you ever been on our show before? We're always all over the place. Like I said, he's the honorary Bama Geek. That's right. He's one of us. But yeah, if you're just joining us for the first time, go over to BamaGeeks.com. That's our website with all the episodes and videos and whatever you want to know about the show. That's where you can find it. Also on social media at Bama Geeks. And if you're on Facebook, you can join our front porch, the Bama Geeks front porch. Just search for that. We'll let you in there. It's our little private community where we share just a bunch of random things like the Waffle House thing that... That's been going on with all the world cup attendees. They are, they are loving everything to do with America apparently. So that's good. I'm glad you guys are here. Ranch dressing episode? Yes. Anybody tell them, you don't have to take ranch dressing home. Just take the powder. Take the ranch powder. You can make your own. You can make your own. They have buttermilk there, I know. They're not going to keep you from taking the powder home unless you open it up and they think it's some other kind of powder. There was one TSA board I saw that said... Zero days since last ranch dressing incident. Yeah, we've been all about these World Cup videos with the reactions that people are having coming to America for the first time. The Scottish guy that was like, if you are not Scottish, the Australian guy that was like. If you guys brought Waffle House to Australia, you would rule all. Well, maybe that's our end and it could be our saving grace once this is all over. Maybe so. Waffle House Melbourne. Hey, uh, if you want to help us buy some ranch, be like Jamie and Mike and Darnay and Jack, they've been our longtime Patreon supporters. So thank you guys so much membership for that. Never, uh, never needed, never required, always appreciated. We just, uh, we're happy you're here. that's right um and also we're talking about like me to get on here that's right that's right um we're talking about not to sidetrack either but as far as also people that are putting a good eye on america and the south i know that brock and i are big fans of jack and page ainsley i don't know gary have you seen them they're they're out and about they've made videos being in tuscaloosa and birmingham they're from england and they have just like birmingham alabama and birmingham has just adopted this british couple and they are a delight to watch um they they come back and forth to alabama quite a bit That's awesome. They go from Birmingham to Birmingham. Birmingham. They've done videos walking around downtown. I was just waiting at some point that they were going to make their way around where the theaters were. They haven't yet. They haven't. But they're all about learning things about Birmingham. Maybe one of their trips. Maybe one of their trips they can I was going to say, if you're in contact with them or if they're coming through or anytime and we can all kind of gather and meet at the theater, I would love to show them through. They would love that. It would have to be like our Bama Geeks group. Yes. Yeah. Well, let's see if we can find them and reach out to them. I know they're in Georgia right now touring around. Oh, did I say that out loud? Our peaches are better than yours. Yeah, it is so true. Those are great words, man. Yeah, let's hear it. Clanton peaches are better. I'd like to make that happen. I'm just saying who has a peach water tower and who doesn't? Well, South Carolina's got one too. Do they? Yeah. But do they have a go to church or the devil will get you some? That's ours. That is ours. So if you want to see Jack and Paige at the Alabama, why don't you give this video a thumbs up? Give it a like. Subscribe to the channel. Help us make that happen. That's right. I think they would love it. Lincoln looped them in. That's fine. I'm trying to. They were just in here. They were back here a couple of weeks ago. They love going to the Legion, the soccer games. So I know that they were there. They went to a Barron's game this last time. They were there. So whenever they get back to Birmingham, they always try to, like Mountain Brook loves them. Yeah, the fire department's adopted them. The mayor sat down with them. So yeah, the mayor invited him to city hall to sit down and talk to him. So yeah. And over in, over in Tuscaloosa, the million dollar band invited them to practice. They got to go up in the tower and watch the band practice and everything. They took up, they brought them to the Tennessee game last year. Yeah. Yeah. That's fantastic. Yeah. Their first Alabama game was the Tennessee game. So that tell, yeah, they got to, they got to do it right. You get to really see it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we'll, we'll, we'll see if we can reach out to him and see if we can get him back in Birmingham and come to the Alabama. Oh, I'd love it. We'll make it happen. We'll let you know. Yeah. They would love the whole theater. I think they have a feeling they would love that whole theater district area right there to see that. Yeah. you'll have to give them some tito's because they do like to partake they love tito's so that that might be the hook you know they have tito's we'll get you tito's and and so i i wanted to point out that of course for each of the three movies we will have three different cocktails okay all right and and one will be uh geared and i have to be really careful here for those who might like uh a drink that is more summery and refreshing and sweeter okay And then one of them is geared for the crowd who might want something more diligent and bold and darker. And then one is a mocktail. So we're going to have something for everyone and they will be named appropriately for each movie. I'm curious for the Princess Bride, is there going to be some kind of drink of unusual size? No, but that's a great idea. There will be now. Trademark that now. We poured a whole thing of Tito's in this one. It's a pre-mix. No, I'm kidding. I'll hand crack it. I'm kidding, but maybe not. Maybe not. Sorry if you saw me. From some of the ice, the best ice machine, best made ice machine ice you can get around, right? Are you talking about my ice machine? Yes, that's what I meant to say. That's right. Gary, tell us about your ice machines. Have I told you this story? You have. That's what we're saying. That's why we always got to brag it out there. That's one of those things I always think about. You're very proud of the cleanliness of your ice machine. I am so proud of the cleanliness of our ice machine. And so is the Jefferson County Department of Health. Yes. And I think that's enough to be said about this without having to rehash that whole story. But I'll tell you what, it makes me happy to know that, you know, this just really, you know, it's everything in life, guys. It's just all the little things, all the little details. And to know that... My next t-shirt is going to say, Gary has clean ice. Sorry. I'm still trying to get over this nice little cough I've had for a couple of weeks. A couple of months. You are guaranteed to have clean ice when you go to the Alabama Theater. I was going to say, too, I still have my Coke bottle and my little straw. From last year, yeah. So I was going to say, are y'all still doing the, are you going to try to do the Coke bottles again this year? Okay. No. So this is kind of a limited time thing. This was like a limited run. That was a one-off. Yeah. Okay. It was just for you, Jess. That's right. Just for you. I still have some of those straws somewhere. I am my mother's son and my father's son. I never throw anything away. So still the straws, but you know, those, those sodas are long gone. Yeah. You had talked about the drinks. So I was like, oh, I said, I still have my bottle with the, with the long straw from Greece. You know, we'll, we'll have a pink lady drink. Okay. Of course. There's that. Yeah. Fun stuff. Did I? So you missed that whole spiel. I missed the whole thing. Yeah. Okay. So there's, there's, there's, I'll just say it. There's a girl's drink. There's a guy's drink. There's a mocktail. So something for everyone or for those who like something sweeter or not so sweet. Okay. Of course. And I'm one of those that I like all drinks. You don't have a preference. I don't have a preference. Weather drives what I'm drinking. Yeah. If we want to go down that, you can... I have an ex. God love him. And he would say, oh, it's June third. It's time to switch. Gary's going to switch. It's summer. Well, I was the last was I think last year was the first year that I did the Grease sing along and of course brought rock with me and again it's about you know you've seen these movies a million times in your life but to come to the theater and sit in the theater with an audience and especially a sing-along it is it is so much fun and and people get into it like they dress up they do the dressing up there's okay so two two things here number one is that the sing-along thing came about quite by accident uh because i remember the very first time we showed greece it was like oh we'll show greece well you know every song and i know every song except brock doesn't know every song right everybody else did and I'm sitting there going, these people are singing, not, not, not like humming. They're singing out loud out loud. Yeah. And so the next year we did it and it happened again. And I, I went to our tech director and I was like, is it possible to run the sing along version? He was like, oh yeah, sure. It's no big deal. It's just, you know, a couple of settings on the, the, the stream and, and, and there you go. Yeah. we advertised it as the sing-along version encouraging people to sing and now and now they're not just yelling and shouting they get really serious about you know production values yeah and and it's just it's so amazing and so that's why we do the white christmas sing-along and the mama mia sing-along when we do that oh and in the greece sing-alongs because everybody knows and loves those songs and it's just so thrilling to hear that huge room full of people yes singing singing they're having they're having a wonderful they're having a ball it is just it's just a ball yeah and like all the people that come and they dress up they dress up as the characters it's So, and again, this goes back to our first year or two in doing this, we had lots of Dannys and lots of Sandys, and that's to be expected. And then there was that one person who dressed half as Sandy and half as Danny. Clever. Yeah. But then the last couple of years, we've had the, what I call the la-la-las. Yeah, the beauty school dropouts. Yeah. and and and they have that that whole thing and and i pulled i took a picture with one a couple years ago like or the last time we we showed it and and i was like where did you come up with this and she said honey which is the most southern thing you can say bless your heart right and then she said the second most southern thing you could possibly say she said honey All of this came from the Dollar General. Of course. I stand corrected. Of course it did. And I just, I lost it. I lost it. Because, I mean, that is... You can get that and spray paint it, the silver colors, like the hair rollers and the capes and the things like that that they're wearing. Yeah. Dollar General. Because I think last year you had them and then you had a guy that was a teenage, like kind of dressed up similar to Frankie Avalon, like a teen angel. Yes. that went along with them. And there was another guy that was dressed up like Danny in PE class. He was carrying the basketball and had the red shorts on. If we have enough folks that have some really great costumes, you know me. I enjoy and love and have so much fun with a good costume parade. And if you're going to go to all that trouble, I think you should be recognized. Absolutely. Participate. Because that one thing that killed me, you know, killed me when we went to see Christmas Vacation is just all the people that did different versions of Clark throughout the movie. Throughout the movie, yeah. You had Clark, you know, with the bear's hat, the vest, and the plaid shirt. You had... Clark with the Santa Claus get up. You had Clark in the pajamas. I mean, they were it was like the different variants of Clark. And I was like, this this is I love this. This is amazing. I love to see when people do things like this. So year before last at Christmas vacation, I generally will don my cousin Eddie garb. And by the way, last year I got a new robe, which is a lot lighter because I would come off stage in that old robe and there would be three techs back there going, calm down, calm down. So I got a lighter robe. But it was year before last, not last year, year before last, I decided I was going to do something different. And I decided to do Clark in the attic with the everything. And I came out and did that. And I thought, oh, Gary, you're so clever. You're so smart. And I want you to know, I got out to the lobby and I had a lady in my face. about where was cousin eddie oh oh she let me have it with both dollar general barrels there you go changing up things gary in in the costume closet is the retired clark in the attic and that's how it's labeled clark in the attic Which will never be dragged out again. So don't do that. So last year I used the lighter robe and it was a lot of fun. And those Coca-Cola people out back with the RV. They're just golden. They're fabulous. Oh, yeah. So so I don't want to run out of time. Yeah, that's you got some. I got something here I want to talk about. And how long do I have? How long do we go? Oh, we're fine. So so so we do have the July movies. July tenth is Grease. And these are all at seven. Doors are at six. Mm hmm. And there is a customary sing-along. And depending on if there are enough costume characters, we'll do a costume parade. I will not be dressed as Dolly on the Steel Magnolias. Oh, man, come on. I ain't going to see it now. I'm staying home. So July. Tenth. Is. Greece. July. Seventeenth. Is. Princess Bride. And. July. Twenty-fourth. Is. Steel Magnolias. And so. There's all. Doors are at six. Show starts at seven. There's. Cartoon. Sing-along. announcements and then we get the movie up on the screen we don't we don't dilly-dally it's a very fast-paced yeah uh we do start on time uh i'm a current tech director uh and one of my very best friends uh donnie stultz uh he and i are so like-minded when it comes to production values and that is we absolutely positively start on time period There's got to, Gary's getting CPR, still starts on time. He'll bounce, don't worry. So I'm always so very proud of that. So those are our July movies. which will kick off that tenth. So that's a great way to kind of round out your summer after the Fourth of July. And we're so thrilled to be able to show these and have a lot of fun doing it. Normally, during the month of August, the Alabama chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society participates at Sidewalk with the International Youth Silent Film Festival which featured Nathan Avakian from Brooklyn. And we've done that for, gosh, four, five, six years. It's been a minute. And this past January, Nathan is one of the funniest people. He's such a dry sense of humor. He will sideswipe you with humor and then just drive off. And it's dark and it's funny and it catches me off guard every time. But he said, I want to talk to you. And I said, oh, dear. He said, I think we beat this International Youth Silent Film Festival to death. And it's not going to offend me if we don't do it in August. Now, this is when he was here in January when we had the twin console concert of Bertha with two consoles. And it was such a fabulous program. He's so talented. He's one of those that if I could take what talent he has in his little finger and transfer it over, I'd be the happiest organist on the planet. So I went to Sidewalk and I said, look, we don't want to give up our slot and we still want to do something, but we want to do it in keeping with Sidewalk and the motif and the history of film and just everything that Sidewalk stands for, which is the embodiment of everyone inclusively involved. doing film in all different styles, but it had to have a history. It had to start somewhere. And so I came up with an idea and I pitched it both to the ATOS board of directors and to Sidewalk. And I usually am sitting there with my little card file of my arguments, like how am I going to defend this? I have come prepared. I have come prepared. I want you to buy into this. And what I got from both sides was just before I could even offer an argument or a defense, what I got from both sides was yes. Oh. So that's always a good sign. Okay. Yeah. And so what we're going to do in August and this will be on the Saturday, the twenty ninth, which is sidewalk weekend on Saturday. And our slot is that in the afternoon, we don't have an exact time yet. We'll get that fairly soon enough, but it'll be in that two to thirty three o'clock time frame. But we're going to to drag back. the incomparable, incredible Tom Helms, who does our Phantom every year. And to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary, we're going to screen Buster Keaton's The General. Wow. Oh, wow. OK. It's a one hundred year celebration. And we're going to have a post-screening panel and discussion with a Q&A. And I'm very, very excited about that. Tom actually just screened The General at the Jefferson Theater in Beaumont, Texas last night. And you think we're Southern, boy, howdy. That's Southern with a Texas flair. Those folks are fabulous. But he's going to do a little short, silent Harold Lloyd comedy to open, and then the Buster Keaton, The General, in the year of the year. Oh, that's great. And we're going to tie that into the foundation of film and how film has evolved over the last one hundred years and here we are now at Sidewalk with all of these different types and styles of films. And so we're super thrilled to co-present that. That'll be presented by the Alabama chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society because that's what we do. We maintain a silent film era organ for the amusement of the general public. And now we are using it in a more modern way at our summer film series and at our holiday film series. But that's exactly what this organ was designed to do. It was specifically marketed, specifically built to accompany a silent film. And so I know... I know Helm's score, it's an original score, as is all of his scores. His comedy and comedy timing is brilliant. I always brag about his score for Phantom and how it just ties everything together and everybody has a theme. Every character has a theme. But when he does a comedic romp like this, It just, once again, if you leave that presentation, if you leave that film and you're not happy, you need therapy. There's something wrong with you. And we probably could still be friends, but we're going to have to talk about it. So don't, don't forget that. And, uh, and that'll be great because there's, there's a lot of great, uh, ties, uh, to the South. And now we have to bring Georgia back in because, you know, the, the, uh, the general was, uh, the story was based out of Marietta and now the actual real general, the general locomotive is in a museum in Kennesaw. You'll see it. So that's a lot of fun there. They, they, uh, They had some production problems in nineteen twenty six, as we do in these days. And that is that the railroads there agreed to let them film there and use everything. But then they found out it was going to be a comedy. And they said, oh, no, no, no, no, no. These very serious things. And so they had to move production to Oregon. And they rebuilt the town of Marietta on site there in Oregon. And I'm trying to remember the name of the city. Oh, shoot. It'll come to me. It was Cottage Grove, Cottage Grove, Oregon. And they rebuilt Marietta and there was a railroad up there who had three identical locomotives and they bought all three of them from the railroad. And they were very, very much exactly similar, exactly similar, very, very, very similar to the actual general. And so they use two of those in production and one is a spare. And then, of course, there's the great train going across the bridge explosion scene into the river. Spoilers. That's not a spoiler. That is an attraction. Come see a train dumped in a river. it's it's uh it it's it's funny it's fun and and so we're thrilled to be able to to present that uh screening and i think anyone who is going to be at sidewalk all weekend make sure you're there for that there will be tickets available just for that specific presentation you can get at the door so come on down for the general on august uh oh wow That is so interesting. It's going to be fun. Wait till I tell you what we're doing for the hundredth anniversary. Oh, can you tell already? No. Well, that's okay because, hey, we will have a follow-up episode. I have to earn my jacket some way. That's right. That's not a problem. I can tell you next year for the hundredth. Because the hundredth anniversary actually falls legally and technically on December twenty-sixth for the public. There was a private presentation on December twenty-fifth, nineteen twenty-seven And then it was open to the public on December, twenty six, nineteen twenty seven. And so you can't wait a whole entire year to celebrate after Christmas. So we'll be doing a year long presentation, a year long celebration. And we've got another one hundredth anniversary film to be shown. OK. What else can I tell you that won't spoil that one? I can tell you one thing and everybody would instantly guess it. So just. Wait. Okay, I'll do it. It was dumb to win an Academy Award. Hundred years. Went to. It's. Before I throw it out there. No Googling. No, I'm Googling for my clarification before I agree. I am fact-checking myself. What did you think it was? Metropolis? No. Winner of the first Academy Award. It's Wings. I was about to say Wings. It's Wings. We've already discussed screening Wings. I'm thrilled about that. If you've never seen that, it's I don't even know how to describe it. It is... I was going to say... It's an adventure rom-com. Yeah. I've never even... I've got to show... Jess, I'm going to give you a pass on this. If you've ever seen Wings, I'm going to let you go. I'm not going to tease anything about it because it is not a comic that folks have seen. But it... Clara Bow is the headliner. She was the it girl. She had it. Yeah. And they wouldn't say sex appeal. She was it. Right. She was Pennywise? What? What? Sorry. Sorry. You said it. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Can you just cut that one off of the screen? Mute. You got to go, Kevin. You got to go. So we've already talked about that one. I'm really super excited about that. that is that is a monumental uh epic and we're going to produce that one independently that'll that'll be fun for us okay so we have a little bit of free reign on that one so we got we have a lot of stuff coming up i know it's going to be a big year next year it's it's going to be it's going to be a big year next year uh we we were laughing and teasing when we made it to June, because we took April and May, we started referring to May as May Timber. Y'all look at our website and you see like, oh, here's a show or there's a show or here's this coming up or whatever. But what nobody realizes is for the month of April and for the month of May, if you remove physically Memorial Day Day, We didn't have a day off. There was something every single solitary day in April and May at one or both venues simultaneously. It was every day. Yeah, I don't think people realize it's not just about the movies. It's you've got, like you said, you rent the theater out for events. There's concerts, there's comedy shows, dance recitals. We had five graduations in May. There was a wedding in there somewhere. Yeah. Just conferences. We just hosted last week. We had Sloss Tech at the Lyric and Birmingham AI at the Alabama. And there's just a conference or something going on. I mean, we had a dance competition on Mother's Day. Yeah. Wow. Go figure. I mean, when you have such wonderful venues like y'all have, I mean, that's a good thing to have. I know it's a busy time, but still at the same time, that's, you know. It is. And I'm back to, Beau, I really say this all the time, and I mean it from the very bottom of my heart is, we never take it for granted because all of that can turn on a dime. And we're thankful and appreciative and grateful that we have such a busy calendar. That's just a testament of all the hard work and everything y'all have done for that area. These are good problems to have. That's what we say. That is a wonderful thing, yes. Great problem. That's what we say every day. I know Jess and I are looking forward to spending part of the the one hundredth celebration of the Alabama Theater seeing Brad Williams next year. Great. Oh, my gosh. We love Brad Williams. Awesome. We didn't. He came, what, one or two years ago to the Alabama? A couple of years ago. Yeah. Yeah. We didn't get a chance. So something came up and we weren't able to go to that. But we met him at the Stardome when he came, golly, six years ago, seven years ago. Yeah. Yeah, he is a delight. He's going to be fun. I saw tickets just went back on sale for him for next year. And I'm like, we got to go. We got to go. Yes. Henry Cho is coming. And he's funny. And it's so funny. He's so funny. It's so funny. He's performing at the Lyric. And he sold the first show out. And we offered to move across the street to the Alabama to accommodate a larger crowd. And he declined and said, no, I just I'd rather do two shows at the Lyric. So now there are two shows there. And that's that's also that's that's a testament there to that venue. It is it is it is intimate without being overly crowded. It's it's pleasant. You just really feel like you were one on one with the artist. And so we have so many repeat artists that come back and want to just specifically play at that venue because it is so sweet. And so Henry was like, no, man, I just I'd rather do two shows. So he's going to be in a Sunday. That'll be fine. Okay. Nice. We won't even break down the Tito's at that point. We just leave it out. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. We don't break down. Oh, well, fantastic. Well, as we've been talking, you know, hearing all the great plans for the summer coming up and all kinds of concerts and just anything else going on, of course, you can always grab tickets to everything at alabamatheater.com. And that's fantastic. know theater with an re not an er yes yep make sure you get that otherwise you're going to mobile what's what's the one in um it's one of the carolinas the the group alabama has a theater up there called the alabama theater and it's er and we occasionally get someone who's like you know We're here for the Stella Reese show. And we're like, what? And they've come to the wrong, not to the wrong city, to the wrong state. So that does happen. And I'm sure there are people that show up. in whichever Carolina that is going to say, Hey, we're here to see Brad. Yes, yes, yes, yes. You should have the, um, the board look it up because it looks like Alabama theater.com is up for sale. So you guys could actually get it and not have that mistake anymore. Yeah. Just redirect it. yeah redirected then we would only have to deal with third-party tickets ouch there you go there's also a facebook page too for alabama theater with a r e not an er yes facebook page as well yeah and if you do alabama theater.com slash events it'll drop you to the calendar there and Let you see everything that's coming up publicly that have tickets available. And so it'll be set. When will they? I know that we're getting on summer. So once summer film series is over, usually you make the announcement on the Christmas, the holiday series around Labor Day. Labor Day. Yeah, I was going to say September. I'll usually get that out. Right at Labor Day or maybe just a mere moment after. And there are a couple of reasons why we have to announce a little bit later than we would normally like to. Number one is we do have to deal with these studios to get licensing and clearance to show these films because Paramount still wants their chunk of White Christmas no matter what. Of course. I'm not laughing because we literally dial one eight hundred paramount to book White Christmas. And some of them will not book until thirty days out. And we're like, no, no, no, no, no. We you know, we need to announce a series. Right. And so we've gotten every year there are a couple of movies we have to get exceptioned. And that involves bypassing our rep and going to some regional district supervisor to get an okay so that we can show something in September and put the tickets on sale then. And we have gotten into that odd situation. I forget what movie it was. This is four or five years ago. We got into a situation where we couldn't show a particular film and it had been taken out of rotation and that's not uncommon, it's really not. But this was a headliner for us and we had to go fairly high up the chain To get that clearance. To get it exceptioned. Yeah. And we always, I shouldn't say this in a live stream. We pull that. Is this the poor little performing arts center in Birmingham, Alabama trying to scratch a living out of a girl? I think you're good. I think it's safe to say here. Yeah. And that's, you know, that's another thing too, is a lot of the people go, well, why don't you show this? Or why don't you show this? They don't realize too, that there's a license, there's licensing involved with what's showing these movies. So it's, you can't, it's not just open. We could just show any movie we want to show here. It's not just licensing. It's percentage of the net or the percentage of the gross gross. And it's why we don't show a lot of a single certain studio because the licensing fees are so great. It makes it, it's just not. And now that they own half of the universe, it makes it even doubly harder to show some things that we know would produce that's it thank you i couldn't do it that's it um this is not cheap you can do it you can they'll let you but it is just not cheap and at that point at that point you've really got to have uh sponsors uh and and and lots of backing dollars to make that well that too and higher ticket prices to keep in cover yeah higher ticket prices to cover things like that too and you don't want to do that We really don't. We think our ticket pricing is moderate. It's accessible. I don't think I'm going to see the day. I hope I don't see the day where a normal ticket costs X and then a special showing might cost Y just because of the studios. I don't want to say greediness. It's their property. They can do with it what they want. It just seems like you know i and then they talk about saturation of market and i'm like well how many times are you going to show cinderella yeah which would be a great fit for us right but yeah I felt like that. I had to come to... I love the Alabama theater so much, so I wanted to sit here and defend. Everybody making these little comments. Why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? Why aren't you showing this? You're only showing three movies for the summer? It's three more than we showed last year. That's true. We only got two last year. Again, I said this earlier, and that is our holiday film series is so very fortunate for us and lucky for us that it sells out. But it's not going to happen in a summer film. It's just not. So we have to be cautious and careful. And when you've got the opportunity to book a concert, that will sell out and will produce a great deal of revenue, both from ticket sales and concessions, as opposed to everybody's. Oh, and Jessica, that list, we copied and pasted that list. And I appreciate, I mean, you, I'll tell you what. Yeah. One year, we're going to have Gary's Summer Film Series. Ah! Because we all have our favorites and we all have our die on this hill films that I want everybody to see. I love them, but are they going to sell? Will twenty people come to see it or two thousand people coming to see it? Exactly. And so I'm about to put my money where my mouth is. And after we get through the hundredth, I think I'm going to self-produce the film I've wanted to screen forever and see if those twenty-three people are going to show up. Are you talking about the nineties Kevin Costner hit Waterworld? Yeah. Double feature of Waterworld and the Postman. I have to know those seriously. What is it? What would it be, Gary? Oh, oh. If I tell you this, two of you are going to love me more and two of you are going to shut off. This is judgment free. I don't know which two. This is judgment free zone, man. I want to scream all about Eve. Oh, okay. Hey, look, no harsh judgment on that. Look, Betty Davis... No, it's Betty Davis and Marilyn Monroe in her actual real first film. Almost uncredited. And she steals... the whole entire movie in that one scene, just takes in and eats the whole film. And, oh gosh, and her name just ran right out of my head. Who is her, who's Betty Davis's assistant? She played in Miracle on Thirty-Fourth Street. Oh gosh. Anyway, every scene she's in, she just eats it alive. And the whole thing is just a raw, a noir romp. yeah and so so i'm just gonna i'm just gonna do it it's gonna be fast in your seat belt it's gonna be a bumpy night fasten your seat belts i'm just gonna rent out it's gonna be my birthday party present that night that's gonna be good good lord every scene in that movie has a cocktail in it yeah it's those you know fun coupe glasses and nick and nora glasses and I'm just like, wow. I'm consumed. It was a vibe, man. It was a huge vibe for sure. You didn't get alienated by two people here. I might actually have six people show up then. Five of us. We're guaranteed. You have another one. There you go. Well, awesome. Is there anything else we want to cover before we call it a night? Oh, I'm sure we could, but we do have to. We all have to call it a night at some point. Yeah, it's a curtain call. I've got to go refill my Tito's handmade vodka. I was going to ask you what that clear liquid was. It's this diet Sprite. And all my ice is melted. Sprite zero. Sprite zero. Yeah, there you go. It's all the heat. But yeah, for everything that we've been talking about tonight and to keep up with all kinds of events happening at the Alabama, just make sure you go to alabamatheater.com. And if you want to know more about our podcasts and what we're doing and to keep up with us, we live stream every two weeks, every other Sunday night. You can see us, find out more about us in between those weeks. at Bama geeks.com. All the episodes are there, both video and audio. Uh, you can look us up on social media at Bama geeks. I've been trying to keep us a little bit more active on there. You know, life gets in the way quite a bit, but, uh, it's all good. But if you are on Facebook, just search out Bama geeks front ports as our little private community where you can hop in and talk about whatever you'd like to talk about. Um, We'll, we'll interact with you in there. And of course, thank you so much as always to Jamie and Mike, Darnay and Jack. They are our longtime Patreon supporters. They have been with us. We've been doing this now for over five years. They've been with us nearly the whole time. So we thank you guys so much. And you can go to the point where we started begging for money. Yeah. we have been offering opportunities to support it's opportunity yes required i know what it is don't worry we won't be harassing at your local red light okay not like a fire exit every day or the corner of lakeshore and oxmoor yeah yeah absolutely yesterday good lord We were dropping stuff off at FedEx yesterday over there. And yeah, there they were. Yep. Sure enough. So every day. Well, Gary, thank you so much for being on here with us again. Guys, thank you so much for having me. It's just a wonderful pleasure to see all of you. And I'll see you all this summer, next month. Look forward to it. Yes. Remember, be very safe this upcoming weekend. Keep all your fingers. Don't blow them off. Celebrating the semi-sesquicentennial. Oh, you stumbled over that. We got you. Yeah. The semi-sesquicentennial. I did it again. Don't be casting spells there, Harry Potter. Happy birthday, Twofitty America. That's right. Twofitty America. but we hope you have a wonderful fourth of July. Thanks so much for joining us for Bo and Kevin and Jess. I'm Brock. Thank you again so much, Gary, for being on here. We'll have you on again, again, very soon. And if you will hang on when, when we're all done before you jump off when we end the stream. But anyway, thank you so much for being here. We love you guys. We'll do it again in two weeks. Have a wonderful and safe fourth. Happy birthday, America.