Posts from Jay J. Foraker in thread „The Alamo (1960)“

Quote from WaynamoJim

Au contrere mon frere. It's happening on Friday, Oct. 5th 2007 and another showing the following night, Oct 6th. It'll be at the Woodlawn Theater, which I believe was the theater that had the original premier of The Alamo way back then. I'll try and have more info or a link later.

Well, October is almost gone and I never saw any announcement that "The Alamo" was going to be shown on the big screen at the Woodlawn Theater. This has been the most frustrating non-event for me in recent times!!!!
Cheers - Jay

WELCOME, CaliforniaTiger, to the best darn forum on the internet. Hope you stick around and have fun with the rest of us!
BTW - "The Alamo" is one of my favorite JW movies, not the least because it was made 150 miles from where I live and premiered here!
Cheers - Jay

Thank you, WaynamoJim, for that great link. I'll keep an eye out on it to see how things develop.
Cheers - Jay

Quote from WaynamoJim

Au contrere mon frere. It's happening on Friday, Oct. 5th 2007 and another showing the following night, Oct 6th. It'll be at the Woodlawn Theater, which I believe was the theater that had the original premier of The Alamo way back then. I'll try and have more info or a link later.

Thank you, WaynamoJim - Yes, the Woodlawn was the location of the premiere showing of "The Alamo." As I recall, it was Oct., 1960, so this would be an "anniversary" showing.
Let me show my curiosity - How does one residing in Detroit get this info while this San Antonio resident doesn't hear a peep ? Such are the vagaries of life in this old world, I guess.
Cheers - Jay

Quote from WaynamoJim

I have the latest. I got this from www.thealamofilm.com of which I am a member. It seems that the showing of The Alamo has been postponed until March of 07. According to Jonathan Pennington, who I believe is renovating the theater said that MGM would not have a print availabe for 35 MM projectors. I believe this info came from the San Antonio Express-News.

Well - here it is almost the end of March '07 and I have not been able to find any reference (in the San Antonio Express) of any planned theatrical showing of "The Alamo" locally. I guess this is turning out to be wishful thinking .
Cheers - Jay

Quote

Originally posted by WaynamoJim@Nov 4 2006, 07:09 PM
I have the latest. I got this from http://www.thealamofilm.com of which I am a member. It seems that the showing of The Alamo has been postponed until March of 07. According to Jonathan Pennington, who I believe is renovating the theater said that MGM would not have a print availabe for 35 MM projectors. I believe this info came from the San Antonio Express-News.

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Thank you for that information, WaynamoJim . I evidently missed that when it came out. My wife has been in the hospital twice in the last month and things just seem to get out of sorts at times.
Cheers - Jay <_<

Quote

Originally posted by Jay J. Foraker@Sep 25 2006, 01:09 PM
Our local newspaper had an item the other day that the Woodlawn Theatre, where "The Alamo" had its World Premiere, has been renovated. It will reopen with a showing of "The Alamo" on the big screen on Oct. 24
Cheers - Jay

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Well, since that report, everything just stopped as far as I know. No more mentioning on this event in the paper or any other publicity - no phone number to call. It sounds like everything went bust. Sorry I can't relay any better news .
Cheers - Jay <_<

Quote

Originally posted by Jay J. Foraker@Sep 25 2006, 01:09 PM
Our local newspaper had an item the other day that the Woodlawn Theatre, where "The Alamo" had its World Premiere, has been renovated. It will reopen with a showing of "The Alamo" on the big screen on Oct. 24 . Presumably this showing will feature the cut version, since by all reports, the uncut version cannot be restored for theatrical viewing .

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I didn't mean to sound a little negative about this theatrical showing <_< . This is really a big event, since I don't think (I could be wrong) a showing on the big screen of "The Alamo" has happened since the fabled Toronto showing of the uncut version. I am going to try to attend this event and, if I do, I will report.
Cheers - Jay

Hi Keith -
It has been awhile since this topic has been close to the front. I bring it back in case you want to incorporate it somehow under "The Alamo" topic. There was a lot of information brought out about "The Alamo" in this section.
Cheers - Jay

Keith - I have a copy of that VHS uncut version as well. It makes the storyline smoother and it is in a letterbox format (though not the full letterbox that it should be). Too bad that this version cannot be shown on the big screen.
Cheers - Jay

Our local newspaper had an item the other day that the Woodlawn Theatre, where "The Alamo" had its World Premiere, has been renovated. It will reopen with a showing of "The Alamo" on the big screen on Oct. 24 . Presumably this showing will feature the cut version, since by all reports, the uncut version cannot be restored for theatrical viewing .
Cheers - Jay

Hi Keith - I always wondered why Duke selected Chill Wills to be in "McLintock" when he and Birdwell pretty well sunk chances for "The Alamo" to get any major Oscar award with their antics. Duke fired Birdwell after this fiasco, but evidently retained some kind of relationship with Wills.
Cheers - Jay <_<

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Originally posted by smokey@Jan 23 2006, 08:58 AM
to see a shakesperian actor play the part of travis and pull it of well is a treat.

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Laurence Harvey kept cast and crew entertained with Shakespearean dialogue done in a Southern accent.
Cheers - Jay

I have a special place in my heart for "The Alamo," partly because it was made only 125 miles from here and, of course, depicts the historical events surrounding the shrine here in 1836. We were able to follow news reports of the making of the film and the big party for the world premiere here was televised. I think the uncut version of this is one of Duke's great achievements, however beset by problems and financial difficulties.
The recent remake of "The Alamo" is only a pale attempt at depicting the story. In its determination to be politically correct, it lost a lot of entertainment value and was just downright dull.
Duke's version is by far the best!
Cheers - Jay

Hi All -
Here's a bit of trivia I had never heard before - The "Ripley's Believe It or Not" piece in the newspaper this morning had this noteworthy information - Davy Crockett had only one book with him as he defended the Alamo - Ben Franklin's Autobiography.
Not earthshaking information, to be sure. But I toss it out for anyone that is interested.
Cheers - Jay

Hi Arthur -
Thank you so much for that info. Now that you mention it, I vaguely remember the part about the sign, but not the part about Widmark disparaging JW's directing abilities. Professionalism was a hallmark of the whole production, with none of the discord apparent between the two actors who didn't let their feelings spill out on the screen.
Cheers - Jay

Pulling this up from the recent archives -
I've seen mention here and there that there was some antagonism between JW and Richard Widmark during the making of "The Alamo." Does anyone have any details on what this entailed? Was there some specific incident that caused them to be at odds or was it just a conflict of personalities? If this contention existed, it doesn't seem to have affected the outcome of the movie itself. Just curious.
Cheers - Jay

Hi -

It occurred to me that two Texas governors have been represented in movies by their siblings.
The first would be Bill Daniel, brother of Gov. Price Daniel, who played Col. Neill, aide to Sam Houston, in "The Alamo."
The second would be Merrill Connally, brother of Gov. John Connally, who was most noteable in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" as the Team Leader (the tall white haired gent).
As far as I can tell, "The Alamo" was the only movie Bill Daniel appeared in. Merrill Connally, on the other hand, was in a few other movies than CEOTTK.

Cheers - Jay

Darn - That guy got off lightly!!!!

Jay

Hi Ringo -

Thank you for that info. I think I was aware of prison time being cut in half, but not the double time allowed for being in a county lock-up.

Some more trivia regarding the "Jocko" scene - the old woman in the wagon, part of the family of the blind woman and Jocko - that was Olive Cary, widow of Harry Cary, Sr. - Duke did keep to a family atmosphere on the set.

Cheers - Jay