For The First Time, In The History Of This Column, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                          If you have made it to this point, girls, you realize how disappointed I was with 'Merrily.'  What consoled me was that, the very next day, David and I were going to attend an 80th Anniversary Screening of "Gone With The Wind," which is near and dear to us both, and should only be seen on the screen.  Nothing could possibly go wrong here, could it???????????

                                           I should have kept this thought to myself.

                                           What was more disconcerting, we had, just a month before, attended an 80th Anniversary Screening of "The Wizard Of Oz," and that went so smoothly.

                                              When we walked into the auditorium where "Gone With The Wind" was showing, our selected seats did not match.  This made no sense to us, until David found out that between the time we bought the tickets online, and now, the theater had been switched.  Too bad nobody told us before we went in. And other audience members had the same problem.

                                                How does one ruin a screening of "Gone With The Wind?"

                                                Apparently, this was done on the cheap, unlike 'Oz,' which was done in tandem with Turner Classics Films.  A DVD machine was placed in the projection room, a disc popped in, and voila! the film began.  Except, there was no sound, so the Selznick logo, the romantic credits with the gorgeous Max Steiner music, were lost to us!  And there was no one around willing to do anything or start the film from the beginning.  By the time of actual dialogue--on the front porch of Tara--the sound problem had been solved, but it took me until Melanie's first appearance in the film at Twelve Oaks, to settle down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                   We were fine, till Intermission.  I cried in all the right places.  Then the second half came on.  It opened with sound--thank God!--but midway, when the ladies were at Melanie's house sewing, the film just went off.  A mechanism in the DVD player came on screen, asking if we wanted to watch more--uh, yeah!!!!!!!!!!!--and so time went by till this was ultimately straightened out.  Additionally, during this time, or Intermission, a girl sitting several seats over from us, fell out of her seat, when it broke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                      All of us should have been refunded.  We turned out for a film we all loved--it was a real "GWTW" audience--only to have our faces slapped.

                                                      Let me add, just with 'Merrily,' the older I get, the heartbreak of this story gets to me, because so much of it is about loss. Not just a way of life, but people who are loved.
I was more upset by this screening than any I had ever sat through.

                                                      There is a first for everything, and so, this week, I am naming the UA Court Street Stadium 12, in Brooklyn, as Bitch Of The Week, for not giving the audience the screening it deserved.  I never thought a building, let alone a movie theater, would be named, but, there you go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                         I don't go to this theater often,  where too may gangsta kid types hang out.  Not for "Gone With The Wind," but the rest of the trash played there!  You take your life into your own hands, just going there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                          Hopefully, there will another screening in my future, to repair this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                           "As God is my witness," darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!