Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Ironwood Theatre volunteer Rick Semo tends to the digital projector before the theater's showing of the 1937 version of "A Star is Born" Friday evening. The event was part of the theater's ongoing First Friday film series. Next month will be Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day" and March will bring the 1960 version of "Ocean's 11" starring Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack crew.
IRONWOOD - Before there was Lady Gaga, there was Barbra Streisand. And before there was Streisand there was Judy Garland; and before there was Garland, there was Janet Gaynor.
All four starlets have shown brightly in their own versions of the movie "A Star is Born," but it was Gaynor's turn on the silver screen Friday night as the Historic Ironwood Theatre presented the original 1937 version of the film with co-star Fredric March.
The presentation was part of the theater's First Friday film series.
"We realize the city moved its First Friday doings to next week with the Sisu race, but we thought we'd stay with the first Friday of the month," said theater spokesman Bruce Greenhill.
The Ironwood Theatre will host a concert by Conga Se Menne - a self-proclaimed Finnish Reggae band - on Saturday, Jan. 12, as part of the Sisu Ski Fest. Concert time is 7 p.m. The band has played in the area many times over the past 20 years and drawn well.
The next movie in the theater's First Friday series will be "Groundhog Day," on Feb. 1. The 1993 comedy, written and directed by Harold Ramis, stars Bill Murray.
The March First Friday movie will be the 1960 Rat Pack movie "Ocean's 11," starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Angie Dickinson. The popular movie, too, saw a remake and then sequels. The showing at the Ironwood Theatre is on Friday, March 1, followed by a Sinatra tribute band the next evening at the theater. Both are at 7 p.m.
Greenhill said the movies are projected by a new digital projector, purchased with funds given by Don and Ebby Funk.
On Friday, Tim Mesun played the theater's Barton organ as the audience arrived.
For the record, Garland starred with James Mason in their version of "A Star is Born" in 1954. Streisand and Kris Kristofferson took their turn in 1976, and Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in 2018.
The 1937 version of the movie opened at the Ironwood Theatre on June 3 of that year. According to an advertisement in the Daily Globe the day before, there were to be four showings daily, including a "midnight show" at 11 p.m. The ad called the movie, "The greatest picture of '37" and claimed this was its first showing in the Upper Peninsula.
Gaynor and March were both nominated for Academy Awards, but did not win. Garland and Mason suffered the same fate. Streisand and Kristofferson were not nominated for their performances, but Streisand's "Evergreen" did win Best Song with lyricist Paul Williams.
The 1937 version did not win the Oscar for Best Picture, but did win a Special Award as well as one for Best Writing/Original Story for authors William Wellman and Robert Carson. Oscar nominations for 2018 films have not been announced.
