Oh how we loved the Vitaphone, Pat & Vi! Soon after moving into Cupertino in ‘73, we found a program listing for the Vitaphone on Big Basin Way. Don’t recall now our first viewing – – but we were hooked!
I’d come home from work on Friday and tell the kids, “get in the car, we’re going to the movies. What are we going to see? Don’t care, get in the car!” Didn’t take but two or three doses and we were addicts, mainlining wonderful movies. Two feature films, a cartoon and newsreel, plus free coffee for me and cookies for the kids all for THREE BUCKS each. Went home many-a-night with tears in my eyes and warmth and gratitude in my heart to Pat & Vi.
Pat was a lighting technician in the silent era and as a consequence, he KNEW Hollywood from the inside. He had access to the RKO library, private collections and producers copies. One night Pat rented a Ring Master’s costume for the showing of “The Greatest Show on Earth” in full 3-strip color. Another notable film was “Gone With the Wind”; a vault copy which had been through a projector previously only three times. Some times Pat would stop the film to remind us that SOME OF US came to see a movie and not to hear your giggling! Well, that’s ok – – the film was the “Four Feathers” and the line “here comes the fuzzy wuzzies” was just too much. Very dated re the Boar Wars, but by the time credits were up, we were all pleased to have seen the film.
While our oldest son was in jr high school, his lit teacher asked “who’s your favorite actor & actress” to the class. Lot’s of responses of the then current fads, but our son’s response was “Betty Davis & Errol Flinn” and the teacher exclaimed, W H O?
TCM’s host Ben Mankiewicz some times quips, “in the late 30’s-60’s we didn’t have special effects to blow-up everything – – so we settled for just telling great stories”. Thanks to Pat & Vi, we knew what he was referring to.
What a massive loss to the community when the lease was lost.
Oh how we loved the Vitaphone, Pat & Vi! Soon after moving into Cupertino in ‘73, we found a program listing for the Vitaphone on Big Basin Way. Don’t recall now our first viewing – – but we were hooked! I’d come home from work on Friday and tell the kids, “get in the car, we’re going to the movies. What are we going to see? Don’t care, get in the car!” Didn’t take but two or three doses and we were addicts, mainlining wonderful movies. Two feature films, a cartoon and newsreel, plus free coffee for me and cookies for the kids all for THREE BUCKS each. Went home many-a-night with tears in my eyes and warmth and gratitude in my heart to Pat & Vi.
Pat was a lighting technician in the silent era and as a consequence, he KNEW Hollywood from the inside. He had access to the RKO library, private collections and producers copies. One night Pat rented a Ring Master’s costume for the showing of “The Greatest Show on Earth” in full 3-strip color. Another notable film was “Gone With the Wind”; a vault copy which had been through a projector previously only three times. Some times Pat would stop the film to remind us that SOME OF US came to see a movie and not to hear your giggling! Well, that’s ok – – the film was the “Four Feathers” and the line “here comes the fuzzy wuzzies” was just too much. Very dated re the Boar Wars, but by the time credits were up, we were all pleased to have seen the film.
While our oldest son was in jr high school, his lit teacher asked “who’s your favorite actor & actress” to the class. Lot’s of responses of the then current fads, but our son’s response was “Betty Davis & Errol Flinn” and the teacher exclaimed, W H O?
TCM’s host Ben Mankiewicz some times quips, “in the late 30’s-60’s we didn’t have special effects to blow-up everything – – so we settled for just telling great stories”. Thanks to Pat & Vi, we knew what he was referring to.
What a massive loss to the community when the lease was lost.