By J.R. Jones
Gradually the crowds are returning. “Last week we showed [Andre de Toth’s] Pitfall,” says Marks. “Who ever heard of Pitfall? That was a pure vanity booking. I had never seen the film. I’d always wanted to. So I threw myself a bone. And we had almost 200 people for it!”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
At three dollars a head–two for seniors–the series draws serious cineasts but still fulfills its original mission of giving families an inexpensive night out. “It’s a wonderful mix of people,” says Marks. “The average age is between my students in their early 20s and married couples in their 80s. Sometimes the old people do talk at the theater, but that’s almost part of it. Maybe they can’t hear the dialogue, and they’re asking their husband, ‘What did he say?’ Or they just remember something that happened when they first saw the film. And they all know me too, so I can’t sit there and say, ‘Ah, shut up.’ It’s almost like a little family affair.”
For years Marks refused to buy a VCR, and though he now has hundreds of tapes, almost all of them are letterboxed. To him the idea of clipping the frame to fit a TV screen is blasphemy. “I guess I should have a laser-disc player,” he says. “But you might as well get me hooked on heroin, I’d be spending so much money.”
Lewis spent over two hours fielding questions at Columbia, and Marks still has the can of diet Coke Lewis drank from that afternoon.
