Topic: Alex Theatre's Stooge fest report

[Shemoeley Fine]

I attended the 2pm session of the 8th Annual Alext Theatre Stooge fest in Glendale, Califas on Saturday. My cousin and his lady were in town from Denver-CO so they and my wife went with the idea if our wives got bored with the boys they could step out and go shopping since we were in Downtown Glendale. Neither my cousin nor I have attended a Stooge-a-thon since the early 1980's, we were quite impressed with the crowd, nearly sold out and numerous females in da house.

They showed some trailers for upcoming flix like Hard Day's Night and the yukky Music Man, then the host came out and took a poll of genders in attendance and gave some background on how they aquired quality remastered prints and introduced the grandchildren of Larry Fine who were present. After a chorus of soitenly's and yip yip yips they screened Beer & Pretzel which only convinced me further that Healy was fortunate to have hooked up with the boys as they made him, every scene with the Stooges far outshone any of Healy's best moments, even in their early days of shaping their personalities.

Dang, it was good to see the shorts on the big screen uninterrupted, the crowd was on it, that added to the enjoyment, the couple next to our party of four was hilarious, especially the female who had an infectious laugh, my wife and my cousin's wife enjoyed the screenings so much they didn't budge untill all 6 shorts were finished. After that as promised we went across the street to have a late lunch at Porto's Cuban Restaurant and Café. Our only dissapointment was the lack of darker hued persons like us, I am medium dark-skinned, my wife is light and bright, my cousin and his wife are also lighter skinned, we saw only 1 other Black person among the huge crowd, (besides an usher), they're were a few other latinos present, some with their kids, but overall it was mostly a non-latino or Black crowd which led us to some interesting chatter among the 4 of us as we were eating.

Any feedback by members of this prestigious Stooge forum about this? Are other Stooge fests similar in crowd make up?
Is Stooges humour unappealing to Latinos or African Americans?  Is it an exposure factor?  Perhaps it is a generational thing, yet I saw all age ranges of "white folks" in attendance.  After the show I mustered up the courage to ask a few of those in attendance with Stooges gear on if they were members of this forum, after a few inquiries to the negative I stopped my asking upon my wife's request who was scared of being embarrassed. Funy thing, of the 3 persons I asked, not a one knew this site exists and none of the material given out in the lobby of the majestic Alex Theatre made any mention of it. Perhaps future events could include notices of this site to expand membership.

Finally,after dining and window shopping, we went back to the movie house about 7:45 and saw that the next show would be just as crowded if not more so that the matinee, however just as the 2pm screening, the gathering viewers were devoid of much color in their ranks, yet we saw no shortage of all sorts of ethnic groups on the sidewalks of Downtown Glendale.

I wish I would be in town to see the next Stooge fest of So Cal, late December in the Newport Beach area, a line up that includes one of my all-time fav 2 reelers which I have never seen on the silver screen, We Want Our Mummy.

Shemoley Fine

PS  The screening of Scrambled Brains including deleted footage never seen on TV, the fingers on the piano routine.

[FineBari3]

Very good multi-cultural observations!  I know at the Fan Club gathering there might be one black person, I seem to recall. That's about it on the skin color.....

Thanks for the nice review! Was there a late-late showing...like midnight? The Stooge festivals in Pittsburgh, which were held Thanksgiving night thru the weekend, had midnight showings. BOY, were they rowdy!!!

What was the percentage of females in the audience? How about their ages? I want to see if this goes with my theory that younger women (say 25 and under) do not know that they are supposed to NOT like the Stooges. (Of course, there are exceptions....like myself). It just seems like much more women and girls are getting into the Stooges, and THAT'S GREAT!!!!

[Shemoeley Fine]

Thanks for the nice review! Was there a late-late showing...like midnight? The Stooge festivals in Pittsburgh, which were held Thanksgiving night thru the weekend, had midnight showings. BOY, were they rowdy!!!
What was the percentage of females in the audience? How about their ages? I want to see if this goes with my theory that younger women (say 25 and under) do not know that they are supposed to NOT like the Stooges. (Of course, there are exceptions....like myself). It just seems like much more women and girls are getting into the Stooges, and THAT'S GREAT!!!!

I appreciate your kind words about my review.  There was no late-late show, just 2pm and 8pm screenings. I didn't take a count but based on my observations and on the "gender roll call" taken by the festival host at the beginning I'd say it was 70-30, male to females, most of which were under 30, that is females. To the best of my knowledge all females were accompanied by either family members, husbands or boyfriends. I did not see any all girl groupings. There were many all male groups in attendance and they tended to be older than 30. I was surprised to see how many females were present as back in the 70's whn I attended Stooge-a-thons on a regular basis it was quite rare to see more than a female or 2 in the theatres.

Unlike my past experiences at Stooge fests, they was little banter between the screen and the audience. I mean there was tons of laughter, groans and other sounds coming from the audience based on what was ocurring on screen, but few folks doing imitations or speaking dialogue as had been my experience with Stooge audiences in the past.

S F