Cedar-Lee Theatre

"Mae? MAE! Bring me some reefers!"



Go on, it's storming outside. Watch the whole thing.


The Cedar-Lee Theatre (located at the corner of...) opened on Christmas Day, 1925 with a screening of The King of Main Street. It was originally a single, 1,100 seat house.

Just this past December 1 they celebrated their 85th anniversary with a showing of The Gold Rush. Tickets were twenty-five cents. I love that.

In spite of contemporary accounts suggesting the movies were an excellent value and source for escape during the Great Depression, theaters did indeed have to take special action to ensure the audiences kept arriving. One popular attraction was Bank Night, where a lottery was held for a cash prize. In 1936, thirty Cleveland area theaters challenged and defeated an existing police ruling that this was an illegal practice.

There was also Crystal Night and China Night, an event dramatized in the little seen My Summer Story, that little-seen sequel to A Christmas Story.


They used the lobby of the Palace for the lobby scene, but this scene was shot in the Ohio.

Hey, while we're at it ... here is a scene from that forlorn mess, shot in large part in Cleveland during the sweltering summer of 1993 and released never:


Skip the opening bit, what you want starts at 2:06 - the World Exposition. No, no, not that Exposition. In spite of what most Clevelanders believe, the tales of Ralphie Parker take place in Indiana, not Cleveland. And this World Exposition supposedly took place in Chicago. There was, of course, a 1934 Chicago World's Fair, but calling it an exposition in this movie leaves me wondering if they were trying to cut some kind of difference. When do these movies take place, anyway? There is nothing in A Christmas Story to suggest Depression-era hardship. The sequel does in a ham-fisted way (okay, you can watch this whole clip if you want to feel that.)

However. I like to think they did capture some of what it felt like to be squeezed in a "Streets of the World" exhibit, complete with live camel.

And oh, did I mention I'm in the camel scene? You won't see me. I am the young man with thinning hair in the loud shirt, visible from 4:50 to 4:56. No, really, you can't see me.

Wait. What was I talking about?

Sources:
YouTube
imdb.com
cleveland.com
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

Hays Code

The Motion Picture Production or "Hays" Code was in effect from 1930 until 1968 when it was replaced by the MPAA rating system. It wasn't really enforced until 1934, when the motion picture industry was pressured into policing itself to avoid boycotts and the threat of potential legal action.

The United States government, in this way, cannot be accused of every having censored any specific motion picture.

The Production Code enumerated three general principles as follows:

1. No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence, the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.

2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.

3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.

Specific restrictions were spelled out as particular applications of these principles:

Nakedness and suggestive dances were prohibited.

The ridicule of religion was forbidden, and ministers of religion were not to be represented as comic characters or villains.

The depiction of illegal drug use was forbidden, as well as the use of liquor, when not required by the plot or for proper characterization.

Methods of crime (e.g., safe-cracking, arson, smuggling) were not to be explicitly presented.

References to alleged sex perversion (such as homosexuality) and venereal disease were forbidden, as were depictions of childbirth.

The language section banned various words and phrases that were considered to be offensive.

Murder scenes had to be filmed in a way that would discourage imitations in real life, and brutal killings could not be shown in detail. Revenge in modern times was not to be justified.

The sanctity of marriage and the home had to be upheld. Pictures could not imply that low forms of sexual relationships are the accepted or common thing. Adultery and illicit sex, although recognized as sometimes necessary to the plot, could not be explicit or justified and were not supposed to be presented as an attractive option.

Portrayals of miscegenation (inter-racial marriage and procreation) were forbidden.

Scenes of passion were not to be introduced when not essential to the plot. Excessive and lustful kissing was to be avoided, along with any other treatment that might stimulate the lower and baser element.

The flag of the United States was to be treated respectfully, and the people and history of other nations were to be presented fairly.

The treatment of vulgarity, defined as "low, disgusting, unpleasant, though not necessarily evil, subjects" were to be "subject to the dictates of good taste." Capital punishment, "third-degree methods", cruelty to children or animals, prostitution and surgical operations were to be handled with similar sensitivity. - Wikipedia

See also: Tell Your Children

Tell Your Children

Tell Your Children is a film directed by Louis Gasnier, a cautionary tale against evils of marihuana. The production was bankrolled by a church group to share with parents of young people, but soon after production it was purchased by producer Dwain Esper, and re-edited to highlight its more sensational aspects, to be released as an "exploitation" film.

The plot surrounds a den of dope-fiends who draw innocent young teenagers into their circle, and they all fall into a depraved spiral of non-consensual sex, hit-and-run accidents, murder, spastic boogie-woogie piano and insanity.

Tell Your Children may have had its roots in good intentions, but the script and performances are so unintentionally over-the-top that it is just hilarious, whether you are stoned or not. By presenting it as an "educational film", Esper was able to skirt the Hayes Code.

The film fell into obscurity until the 1970s when it was discovered in the Library of Congress by NORML activists and, as a copyright-free entity, was widely distributed through college campuses to the enjoyment of all. Like a lot of people my age, I saw it first on Night Flight.

It should be mentioned that it did not have the title Tell Your Children any longer once Esper bought the rights for it. He re-named it Reefer Madness.