Saturday Night found Movienight returning to its roots, with Coolbaugh

bringing the first Unofficial Selection to the Back Yard since the end of our

much heralded, and oft maligned, Guest SELECTOR Program.

It was a truly nostalgic evening, as Coolbaugh left the picnic table in place,

foregoing our Official Seating Arrangement for the first time since its debut

with Wiener’s ‘Yojimbo.’ The group around the table was sparse compared

to our Official Selections of late, but Buffy, Pat Towne, Tooda, and Coolbaugh

represent the largest audience ever assembled for an Unofficial Selection.

The audience grew as the temperatures dropped, with Nubby showing up during the film’s intermission.

We enjoyed one of the prettiest evenings in Movienight history - for though Los Angeles missed Saturday’s lunar eclipse, we were still treated to a nearly full, and magically bright moon (see below).

While the film was a magnificent crowd pleaser, the evening was in many ways bittersweet. ‘The Sand Pebbles’ marks the final Selection (Official or Unofficial) that Coolbaugh will bring to the Stucco as a local Member of Movienight. Movienight’s Official Movienight Organizer is moving to the Bay Area in just a few short weeks, and his departure will certainly mark the end of an era. The pick was even more significant in that, as Coolbaugh shared with us in his preamble, he chose the Selection to honor his father who loves this epic so well.

The pick also went a long way to make amends for Coolbaugh’s erroneous presentation of a cropped copy of ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ a few weeks back, as the beautiful print of ‘The Sand Pebbles’ he presented was in the glorious aspect ratio of 2.85 : 1.

Our sixth Unofficial Selection, ‘The Sand Pebbles’ marks the first time Steve McQueen has been on the Stucco since Wiener’s first pick, ‘Papillon.’ It is also the first Movienight appearance of Candice Bergen and Sir Richard Attenborough. This marks the second time Coolbaugh has brought an Unofficial Selction (after our first ever, ‘Saving Private Ryan’), and it would have been the third, had he been able to stay awake on that fateful night Saturday, March 11, 2006.

What ever lays ahead for Mr. Coolbaugh, or Movienight for that matter, everyone assembled was honored to be there to see Eric in top SELECTOR form one last time.

Onwards.

“I was home. What happened? What the hell happened?”