[CinEvent takes place Friday May 24 th
through Monday May 27 th at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Columbus, OH.]
Event preview by Charles Cassady, Jr.
Ever since LeBron James left, the most
significant thing about Cleveland has been…uh…er…I can’t
really think of anything at the moment. Anyone up for a Memorial Day
weekend road trip?
And if anyone still has money to buy
gasoline (which leaves me out), the prime destination this weekend
ought to be an Ohio Memorial Day tradition, CinEvent. This has been
an annual Columbus movie expo for 45 years now, taking place in 2013
at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Columbus.
For those of you, I think the word is
“grownups,” who actually knew that THE GREAT GATSBY was
derived from an F. Scott Fitzerald novel, not a superhero comic,
CinEvent is more for you than a lot of weekend nostalgia expos. This
one is lovingly oriented toward the classics of Hollywood’s golden
age (sorry, HANGOVER 3 doesn’t count – and neither will
HANGOVER 4 or 5), the silent and the early talkies,
plus “late” entries going up to the 1950s and 60s. Fittingly,
CinEvent is the state’s oldest and movie expo.
At CinEvent one can participate in one
of the region’s biggest auctions of classic movie posters and lobby
cards, or browse at more than 170 tables of dealer tables full of
movie merchandise, trading in everything from autographed star
portraits to animation cels to rare tie-in paperbacks to ephemera, to
the ultimate movie collectibles - movies. Not mere VHS or digital
discs (there will be those as well), but actual 8mm, 16mm and 35mm
reels of celluloid film, tons of it, often sold by the milk-crateful
for home hobbyists whose in-home theaters have actual celluloid-film
projects. Fan conventions like CinEvent are the primary marketplace
for buffs from all over the country to come together and shop for
footage.
With so much film in one place, it
inevitably gets shown. During CinEvent hours, morning to midnight,
there will be nearly continuous movies being screened, all of them
oldies, most of them rare, some silent with live piano
accompaniment. Treats this year include a silent Moby Dick adaptation
starring the legendary John Barrymore called THE SEA BEAST;
the 1944 Columbia Pictures horror obscurity CRY OF THE WEREWOLF;
a marathon of shorts featuring mustachioed, high-speed slapstick
comedian Charlie Chase; and 1953’s THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T,
a fantasy about a mad, Bond-villain-like piano teacher that was the
ONLY screenplay specifically created for the silver screen by a
red-hot children’s book author called…Dr. Seuss.
Off-site, at the illustrious Wexner
Center for the Arts in Columbus, there will be special tie-in
screenings Thursday of some early-1930s features, including Edward G.
Robinson in LITTLE GIANT and Fay Wray in BLACK MOON,
that have a reputation for being unusually sexy/intense, before the
installation of the notorious Hayes Code ushered in a long era of
morality-dictated studio self-censorship. Or, as some would call it,
the good old days when something like MOVIE 43 could never
happen – score one for the Hayes Code on that.
CinEvent itself opens Friday at 9 am
and runs through Monday, Memorial Day, closing at about lunchtime as
well (some of the Out-of-state dealers make an early start home, some
don't). Registration for the whole convention is $45 at the door,
with special one-day admissions to dealers areas and all films.
For more information log onto
www.cinevent.com.
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