THE PREMIER IS A WINNER

It really happened! We had the Deep South World Premier of Ron Harris’ movie and it was a sell out! Two hundred and fifty seats were filled. There were politicians, a former governor’s wife who is a huge supporter of the arts in her own right and hundreds of local people.
The movie was a science fiction fairy tale. It was an arty film noir that wasn’t everybody’s cup of tea. The reviews of the film were mixed, as we knew they would be, but the reviews of the reception were unanimous – everybody had a grand time! To quote the editor of the Thomasville Times, Arthur McLean:
“It’s not every day they shut down Front Street and set up the tents. It’s not every day that Kathryn Tucker Windham drives downtown in a limo, but there it was, both events at the same time.” He went on to tell about a nice lady from the Huntsville Botanical Gardens group that came to the premier asking him if this was a big event in our little hamlet. He said “I told her I reckoned just about any event was a big one for Thomasville…..Good ol’ Clarke County folks love to have a reason to get out of the house and socialize for a while”. And socialize they did. The foods in the street were set up with all kinds of local delicacies.
As I said, the reviews were mixed about the movie. Ron was expecting this. He said before the movie that he just hoped the people wouldn’t hate him after they saw it. This really was the premier in front of a general audience. It had been shown before at festivals, but not in a theater to regular people. Some of the regular people were really funny. One cute man came up to me, put his arm around me and whispered in my ear “That was horrible”. Another viewer said she didn’t understand the movie, but wanted to say something nice to Ron, so she said she liked the scenery. That was really funny, since the movie took place in a basement. Other sci-fi buffs loved it. Ron said it was interesting to get the audience’s reaction. He was very pleased as he and Kathryn Windham watched the movie front rocking chairs. They had told stories about going to this theater in their youths prior to the screening. Ron said the fact that Kathryn had watched silent movies there 80 years ago gave us all most a century’s worth of perspective on the movie industry. They had to bring the rocking chairs down from the stage to sit in because all the other seats were taking.
There are not enough nice things to say about how the local people worked together to make the event a success. The City cleaned up the streetscape and erected the tents. They provided security. The local theater owners, Linda and Jerry Edwards volunteered the Thomasville Theater. In addition, they painted, cleaned the seats and got new curtains for the wall. They also provided concessions and served as ushers. Wal-Mart was a big supported and their manager was personally involved in the planning of the event. The Thomasville Times gave us great publicity. Super volunteers from the Chamber of Commerce, Ala Tom RC&D, a local candidate for public office, Ron’s family, and tourism volunteers worked in every capacity from preparing and serving food to anything else that needed doing. The whole town worked together. People came out in support of the event. Rural Southwest Alabama is a great place to live and on Monday night was a happening place!