Fred Rupnow wrote to ask…
I saw your post where you mentioned having seen It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World for "the fiftieth-or-so time" and wondered if it meant seeing it at the Aero Theater that many times or overall? I like to re-watch it as well though theater screenings aren't an option. How many (if any) times have you seen it outside that optimum situation?
I've seen it twice at the Aero and an awful lot of times at the theater that was built to show it…the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. The film debuted there on November 7, 1963 and I saw it there on November 23, 1963 at its full original running time before it was cut down.
"Fiftieth" was meant as a comedic exaggeration. I'd be guessing wildly to come up with a serious number but I don't really watch it on television and I don't like watching it alone. A few times when it's been run on Turner Classic Movies, I've had it on while working because I find the music and the sounds of the stars' voices a pleasant thing but I wouldn't call that "watching it."
One time, my late and much-missed friend Earl Kress and I decided to watch a DVD of it on my home TV as an instrument of discussion. We watched it together and paused every few minutes to talk about what we were seeing on-screen and to point things out to each other. I think the whole "screening" took about seven hours spread over three visits. Again, I wouldn't call that "watching it."
When Mike Schlesinger, Paul Scrabo and I recorded the commentary track for the Criterion release, I watched it all the way through twice on TV to make notes about when to discuss certain aspects of it. Then in the recording studio, we watched it in chunks and sometimes stopped and redid one of those chunks if we weren't satisfied with what we'd said. I've done commentary tracks where you just watch the movie in one pass and say whatever comes to mind. Criterion doesn't do it that way. It took us a couple of days and then they did extensive editing, mostly to move certain lines to more appropriate spots in the film.
I saw it two or three times in regular movie theaters in the sixties and maybe ten times at the Dome and once at the Academy Theater and I don't recall where else. I've seen it a lot and I have to tell you: Every time, I see something I hadn't seen before and every time, I enjoy some aspect of it I hadn't enjoyed before. I also enjoy watching it with friends who've never seen it before. It's interesting who younger folks recognize in it and who they don't. In my experience, the most-recognized comedians in it are Don Knotts and the Three Stooges, followed closely by Peter Falk, Jack Benny and "the rich guy from Gilligan's Island."