Somerville's Defunct Orphan's Thankgiving Offering: Alice's Restaurant

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Apparently, the Somerville Theater used to play the movie Alice's Restaurant in the Somerville Theater for folks who were in town, or so I heard yesterday. They no longer do this, and I wonder why not; I think it would be a blast to go to that during the day before Thanksgiving dinner. The 30th anniversary edition of the song was played at the event I attended yesterday, and it was actually quite a lot of fun to listen to it along with folks who had never heard it before. Who knows, maybe they will bring it back...

Happy Thanksgiving, folks:)

Comments

[ron_newman]

I recall the Somerville Theatre doing this a long time ago. Garen Daly still ran the theatre then, so we're talking about the late 1980s, when they often ran double-features that changed several times a week.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, that was awhile ago. The person who mentioned it yesterday did not say how long ago it actually was. Might be dated, but I think it would still be fun:)

[rmd.livejournal.com]

see, the song is wonderful.

but the *movie*? that was so bad i felt bad that they killed trees to make the paper that they printed the script on.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

Well that's disappointing. I admit I have not seen it--just assumed whatever movie that song came from had to be good. Ah well, I guess certain traditions have reasons for dying out...(song makes me laugh every time I hear it, though:)

[ron_newman]

I liked the movie, but it's definitely a period piece so it helps to have actually lived through some of the 1960s, It still occasionally shows up for a day or two at the Coolidge or Brattle or Harvard Film Archive.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

the song didn't come from the movie. the song came first, then they made a movie based on it.

[spatch]

Well, the Massacree happened first, and then came the song, and then the movie, but yeah, thatzhowitwent.

The film, as Ron mentions below, is indeed a period piece, and a poorly-dated one at that. There's a lot of historical context which I fear is lost on modern audiences, especially those who didn't experience America in the late 1960s. But I find it fascinating, and seeing Officer Obie himself (and the actual blind judge!) is neat.

The third act of the film involving the junkie bike racer and Woody Guthrie's death is a real downer and almost out-of-place, until you consider how many counter-cultural films of that time ended in nihilism and dissolution (Easy Rider, Bonnie & Clyde, etc.)

Anyway. Yeah. I hear the song every Thanksgiving, but the film doesn't seem to come around yearly. Just as well, honestly.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Oh, come now, while it's not an epic it does have its charms.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's just the last act of the film that put me off it.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

i've never seen it either, but my dad always had the LP, and the local radio station played it at noon faithfully each year. (probably still does, but i wasn't home this year to hear it :( )

[ron_newman]

Yeah, if you were expecting a '60s hippie take on a heartwarming Thanksgiving ... not really. More an elegy than a celebration.

[ceo]

Arlo Guthrie's comment on it is "I only ever made one movie... that's because I saw it".

Probably Not on the Radio

[dashford.livejournal.com]

It was always broadcast at noon on WBCN. Since they have changed formats in the past year and no longer have any music programming, I doubt that tradition survived.

And I rather enjoyed the movie, too, and have seen it a few times over the years. The hospital scenes with Woody Guthrie (actually portrayed by family friend Will Hayes of The Weavers) are especially poignant.

Re: Probably Not on the Radio

[ron_newman]

Radio stations that played the song this Thanksgiving

Re: Probably Not on the Radio

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

oops, meat to say the local radio station in RI, where i grew up (WBRU) - i'm pissed about bcn still, btw :( (not that their current selection was anything outstanding, but now the state of radio is really terrible.)

yarg

[cthulhia]

I had to sit through it in college, when I went home via visiting (and chauffering) folks at SUNY Stonybrook. It was offered as party fo women's studies, which, in their curriculum, meant pretty much solely different interpretations of the female role in marriage.

Since my WMST class had involved... well, the light reads were Toni Morrison and Rigoberta Menchu... I was a freshly humorless baby-feminist at the time... watching the movie was purgatorial.

But, I still love the song.