Cain Park

I do a lot of community theatre here in Massachusetts, but was raised in Cleveland and remember this film and Cain Park very well (I think my friends and I saw the movie three times the first day it came out!). The first show I remember seeing (ever) was "Annie Get Your Gun" at Cain Park in the mid-'60s and I was in the pit orchestra for one of the first local shows that was produced at the theatre after the renovation in the early 1980s ("Man of La Mancha"). I still love to go to the park and see a show or just walk around when I get back home.

I love the way that the film captures the wonder that the first experience in the theatre holds. The scene where Artie walks into the park and takes it all it gets me every time, because I remember doing that myself and still do sometimes!

Everything about this movie is just right: the lines ("... an actor is a piece of meat standing up in front of 3500 people..."), the actors, and of course, the venue.

I guess that it is just a sappy musical and not very fashionable to most folks. But for those of us who do spend time just "tearing it all up for nothing" this is one great film. Spread the word!