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Great Movie Night Memories!

 
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Bud Brewster
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013
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Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Wed Aug 05, 2015 11:42 pm    Post subject: Great Movie Night Memories! Reply with quote



Back in the 1980s my friends and I went plum crazy from time to time with elaborate events that celebrated the greatness of our favorite science fiction movies from the 1950s.

Most of these events occurred at my house. Sometimes we'd prepare crazy projects for several weeks before we finally gathered together on a Saturday evening to share a movie and see what kind of surprise presentations we had each devise for these special occasions.

One such event was a triple feature comprised of When Worlds Collide, Earth vs the Flying Saucers, and Strange Invaders. Just for fun, Jim Peavy (wearing the yellow T-shirt) and I constructed a cardboard marquee over the front porch. Jim did all the fine lettering for the movie titles, and I worked diligently on the theater's name — which I misspelled.

(Wayne, please stop laughing. It's rude. Shocked)

The bearded gentleman in back of Jim is Bryan Bustard, whose artwork is featured in one of All Sci-Fi's art galleries. (I compensate for being a bad speller by surrounding myself with talented people.)





On another occasion a few years later we dedicated the evening to Earth vs the Flying Saucers again.

When my guests arrived they were greeted by the sound of Paul Free's voice blasting out from big stereo speakers I had positioned at the open living room windows. The recording was from the scene of the saucer on the beach, when the alien's amplified voice called out —


"Please come in . . . with your friends!"

On that occasion, Jim worked with Larry Hanson to construct a replica of the saucer-men suits, complete with a helmet made of plaster (which is what Harryhausen used to make his).

I actually did not know Jim was coming that evening, because he had conspired with my friends to convince me he couldn't make it. However, after everyone had arrived, Jim snuck in through the back door and walked into the living room wearing the saucer-man suit, surprising me and my family.

_____

When Larry lifted off the helmet, Jim contorted his face to resemble the alien in the movie — which scared my young children! (By that I mean that Jim scared them, not the alien. Very Happy )



Larry's other contribution that evening was a cake in the shape of a flying saucer. It even sat on an actual saucer! A tiny clay alien stood beneath it. This particular occasion severed a dual purpose: it was both a special movie event and a going-away party for one of the attendees, who had just joined the Navy.

That's why the cake says "Bon Voyage".



But that epic evening was later topped by an even more ambitious tribute to This Island Earth.

Just to get my guests in a proper Metalunan mood, I rigged up a green spotlight under the front porch awning to shine down on the front door, and I concealed a speaker in the shrubbery to play the tractor beam sound from the movie. When the guests approached the house, the green light illuminated the door, and the tractor beam sound pulsated from the bushes — while the door opened by itself!

( * A thin rope on the inside doorknob pulled the slightly-ajar door open, and then the rope was quickly yanked out of sight. Wink )

Imagine my surprise and delight when the door opened to reveal Chris Adams in full Metaluna make-up, compliments of Mr. Peavy!

They posed together for this picture holding the catalog I'd recently received from Electronic Services, Unit 16.



Larry had brought along a few replicas of the "beads" seen in the movie.



Jim, a mere Earthling, was understandably stunned by these alien marvels.

But Larry had another surprise for us. He presented a hemispherical "Earth cake" with a tiny model of the saucer suspended above it on a thin string. And the "Earth's" molten core was actually strawberry ice cream!

( * I know you're wondering how a cake can be baked with ice cream in the middle, but Larry swore if I ever revealed the secret he'd have me placed in the Metaluna Thought Transformer. Shocked)



Larry posed next to the cake with Earth's Metalunan ambassor, the brother of Brack (the malicious Metalunan in the movie), whose name was Broke — possibly indicating that he didn't manage his money very well . . .





( * Larry claims this guy still owes him $20.00. Sad )

On another of our special movie night, Larry's culinary skills were demonstrated by the creation of a cookie cake designed to resemble the hard ground the skeletons broke out of in Jason and the Argonauts. He even built a model of a skeleton to adorn the cake, complete with a handmade sword and shield — and the shield was beautifully painted in perfect detail.





But Larry outdid himself for our famous 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Night, the movie that topped them all.

For that legendary event he created a cake that was carefully frosted to resemble the ocean — and it displayed a clay model of the Nautilus he had carefully crafted, complete with lighted ports!



The cake even had a Hollywood-style "background painting" which extended the oceanscape and included an attacking squid! The painting was by yours truly, done at Larry's request while he was planning this edible tribute to Jules Verne.





My contribution that night, in addition to the cake's background painting, was a collection of artwork done just for this occasion. It included these drawings of scenes from the movie —









-- and this 2' X 4' acrylic painting of the Nautilus cruising along with a few of it's fellow denizens of the deep.



I was not the host of this epic occasion. The person who had that honor — Rod Bennett — did one hell of a job. Rod hosted the event at his parents' spacious home, and he converted their well-furnished living room/dinning room into the parlor of the Nautilus, complete with a clever mock-up of the pipe organ and a dinning room table which was set with an elaborate seafood dinner, complete with his parents' best china and silverware.

Hidden speakers behind the furniture played the constant drone of the Nautilus' engine (taken directly from the movie's soundtrack), and we were periodically treated to the voice of Captain Nemo (a passable imitation of James Mason, recorded by our host), giving us reports from the submarine's bridge.

Before the movie, we sat down to enjoy the sumptuous dinner. The engine noise continued to hum in the background, and Captain Nemo's voice intervened from time to time to express his hopes that we were enjoying our meal.

All the food came from Captain D's, of course -- but you couldn't tell it, because our host barred all his guests from the galley while he got the various courses ready to bring in, and we weren't allowed to see the Captain D's packaging (even though we figured it was from a restaurant).

After dinner we retired to the living room and enjoyed the movie on a strange invention that Captain Nemo described as "an electric imaging device" — which looked remarkably like a Sylvania 27" console television and a Sony Betamax.

With such an imaginative and elaborate presentation — which took us weeks to prepare — we enjoyed the movie immensely. It was an amazing evening for one and all, one we'll never forget.

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Dec 23, 2022 3:48 pm; edited 10 times in total
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orzel-w
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Joined: 19 Sep 2014
Posts: 1877

PostPosted: Thu Aug 06, 2015 3:56 am    Post subject: Re: Great Movie Night Memories Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
...I worked diligently on the theater's name — which I misspelled.

(Wayne, please stop laughing. It's rude.
Shocked)

You mean it's always going to be like this? Crying or Very sad
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...or not...

WayneO
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Brent Gair
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Joined: 21 Nov 2014
Posts: 465

PostPosted: Thu Aug 06, 2015 9:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You have MUCH cooler movie-friends than I do!

I've been largely wandering alone in the movie desert for years.

The one highlight (which doesn't compare to your events) was when my neighbour decided he wanted a movie night. Unlike me, he has a 3D Blu-ray set...but almost never watches Blu-rays. He's got a nice home theater with a big, curved leather couch.

Luckily, I supplied the movie and I brought THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. It was the first time I'd seen the movie in 3D. To this day, it's the only BD I've ever watched in 3D.

One thing I though was quite funny is that my neighbour was shocked they made 3D movies in Black & White. So this was a nice teachable moment about 3D.
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Bud Brewster
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013
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Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Thu Aug 06, 2015 1:28 pm    Post subject: Re: Great Movie Night Memories Reply with quote

orzel-w wrote:
Bud Brewster wrote:
...I worked diligently on the theater's name — which I misspelled.

(Wayne, please stop laughing. It's rude. Shocked)

You mean it's always going to be like this? Crying or Very sad


Once a flagrant misspeller, always a flagrant misspeller. It's in my Permanent Record. Sad

Note to Brent: Sadly, most of those friends and I have drifted apart, and I haven't seen them in years. But for about ten years we were utterly devoted to putting together movie night extravaganzas like the ones shown above.

I wish I had pictures of our Fantastic Voyage Night -- with white and red balloons hanging from nearly invisible nylon line at various heights, all over my living room, with a fan blowing gently in one corner to keep them stirring around, and my big stereo speakers make a low heart-beat sound.

And I wish I had pictures of several Forbidden Planet Birthday parties we held every year near the film's March release date, with big cookie cakes adorned with C-57-D and Robby models.

The development of digital cameras has changed the world and made it easy to document every event in high definition. Ah well, better late than never . . .

By the way, there IS one steadfast friend who still stays in touch with me -- Larry Hanson, the genius behind some of the best creations shown in the post above.

Three days ago I opened my mailbox and discovered a package from Larry -- the Science Fiction Theater box set from Shout Factory! He knew I loved the series, and he was as delighted as I was when it finally came out on DVD.

But he didn't know I'd bought it about a month ago, so he sent me one, just as a surprise. I called him to thank him for the kind thought, and we made arrangements for me to return the box set to Amazon.
Very Happy
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Dec 23, 2022 3:59 pm; edited 4 times in total
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Brent Gair
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Joined: 21 Nov 2014
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 06, 2015 2:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It is one of the great "holes" in my personal life that I almost never get to watch movies with other people.

I have a fantastic collection of interesting movies that I would love to watch with other people but that's just not in the cards. Everybody else grew-up, got married and has responsiblities.

Two weeks ago, I wrote an email to an old girlfriend about this very subject. I was saying how much I enjoyed watching my weird old movies every night and that they always put a big grin on my face...but, when they ended, I always felt the sadness of having sat there alone. It's not that my social life is that bad, it's just that everybody I know wants to go out somewhere. I say, "Let's watch a movie at my place", the understandable response is, "I've been sitting at a desk all day...let's go out, listen to some karaoke and have a burger". I can't argue with them.
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 06, 2015 4:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would have to side with the karaoke. (It's my priority.)
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Bud Brewster
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013
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Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Thu Aug 06, 2015 4:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oddly enough, I watch a movie almost every night with Bulldogtrekker! Very Happy

Even though he lives one state over from me.

BDT and I get together on Facebook, select a movie we both have, put it in our DVD players, pause on the studio logo, and signal a simultaneous start with a simple "Go" typed into the chat window.

The movies usually stay synchronized from start to finish, and even when they don't, we've developed ways to quickly re-scync. During the movie, we swap comments while we watch the chosen feature.

We both wish we lived within a few miles of each other and could actually watch them together -- but this a lot more fun than you might think!
Very Happy
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Dec 23, 2022 4:00 pm; edited 2 times in total
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bulldogtrekker
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013
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Location: Columbia,SC

PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 10:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Brent Gair:

This is Bulldogtrekker (BDT)

If you ever want to watch a movie with Bud and me, say the word .....and make it so. We are currently watching the Shout Factory release of Science Fiction Theater.

We start about 6:30 PM and finish up about 8:00 PM so my wife can have the TV back.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2020 11:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I noticed that the last reply on this thread was made by my good friend, the late Tim Edwards (Bulldogtrekker) back in 2016.



___________


Tim lived in South Carolina (one state below mine on the map) until he passed away in May 2018. Despite the fact that we never met face-to-face during our entire six-year friendship, Tim and I watched movies or TV series together five or six days a week, chatting online while we watched our synchronized DVDs or downloads. Cool

Recently I've been having a wonderful time watching movies in All Sci-Fi's Chatzy Room (<— link) with Gord Green, Phantom, and Trekriffic in what we call ASF's Saturday Nite Chat (<— link).

Unfortunately, even if my ASF friends lived right here in Charlotte, the damn Coronavirus would make it risky for us to get together for movies, the way we'd really like to do. Sad

The whole world is hoping for a vaccine, but so far it hasn't happened. Well . . . maybe we'll get a miracle!



__________

__________


But my buddies and I have been having a ball for the last few months by doing our "movie thing" remotely. You can see a list of the movies we've watched since June in the thread called UPCOMING ALL SCI-FI MOVIES IN THE CHAT ROOM!

The "old board" that crashed in March of 2014 had a Friday Chat for about a year, and we started it back up in this current board for several months. But it was only moderately successful, and we finally gave up. Sad

If you'd like to join our movie chats, we're willing to change to different times and different days of the week. Please cast a vote for the day you prefer at the thread called What day of the week would work best for the movie chats?.

Come on, guys! Let's start making new Great Movie Night Memories!

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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