The Godfather
While on a trip to Savannah on July 15th, my wife surprised me with tickets to The Godfather 50th anniversary showing at the Lucas Theater on Abercorn Street.
The Godfather has always been one of my favorite movies and she has seen me sit down for marathons of G1 and G2 and watch them straight through for 8 hours on regular TV.
The theater originally opened on December 26, 1921 by showing two silent films; Hard Luck and Camile, staring Alla Nazimova and Rudolph Velentino. Upon its opening, it garnered praise from all over the country including notable members of the film industry, and prominent politicians.
In 1926, the theater had air conditioning installed. It was the first building in the city of Savannah to have air conditioning as the technology was not commonplace until the 1950s.
The building was threatened with demolition in 1976 when the Historic Savannah Foundation began work to save it. After a battle that lasted over 11 years, the Lucas Theater for the Arts, a non-profit group formed by Emma and Lee Adler, was formed with a commitment to restore the theater.
With some help from Clint Eastwood who directed “Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil,” the proceeds of the tickets for the wrap party at the theater were donated to its revitalization. The star of the film, Kevin Spacey, also donated $200,000 to the cause after he starred in Eastwood’s movie and became enamored with the city of Savannah.
The theater reopened in grand fashion in December of 2000 with a showing of Gone With the Wind and once again became a place for social gatherings and cultural events. Today it hosts the annual Savannah Film Festival, the Savannah Philharmonic and the Savannah Music Festival, in addition to many other local and regional artists.
When we arrived that evening after dinner, we entered the theater and walked the red carpet to the photo area. After having our photo taken, we went to the snack bar for “an offer you can’t refuse!” Kirke had a Sicilian Spritz and I had a Coke and some Milk Duds. We looked at the cannoli but decided against them as I would have ended up with most of the cannoli on my shirt.
As the lights dimmed slightly, Professor Chris Aeur, a professor in the film and television department at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) walked to the front of the room to give us some tidbits about the movie and to help us find the “easter eggs” in the movie. An “easter egg” is something that is subtle and sometimes hidden to make a statement of some sort.
One example is that during a scene in the movie when Jack Woltz refuses a request from the Corleone family to cast Johnny Fontane in his new film. (Spoiler Alert) The next morning, he wakes up to find the head of his prized $600,000 horse under the covers with him and blood everywhere. As the scene fades in, on the nightstand is the Academy Award that the director, Francis Ford Coppola, won for another of his movies, Patton.
I was fascinated by Aeur’s presentation and he announced he would be back at the end of the movie to answer questions and have further discussion.
With that, the lights went black and the movie came on with previews of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which was being shown the following week at the theater for its 40th anniversary.
This was the first time I ever saw The Godfather on the big screen and it was everything I could have imagined. I think Kirke really enjoyed seeing me engrossed in the movie and I think she enjoyed it too.
As the lights came up after the credits, Professor Aeur returned to the front to answer a few questions and have discussions. Once he finished, we went down and introduced ourselves and asked if he would allow “two old people to attend his 2.5 hour class on the wedding scene from The Godfather!´ He laughed and we spoke to him for a few minutes.
When he found out our daughter Hannah Kirke would be attending SCAD beginning in the fall, he was very interested in learning more about her. He encouraged her to take one of his intro to film classes for an elective and we agreed to do so.
On the walk home back to our hotel at the Hamilton Turner Inn, Kirke was laughing at me because I couldn’t stop talking about the film. She shushed me at one point because I was so loud, it was disturbing some of the ghost tours at the cemetery on our walk home.
If you ever get the chance to see a movie or show at the Lucas Theater, I highly recommend it. It was an amazing experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat.