Our friend Michael Schlesinger passed away this past January. I refer to Mike as one of the best friends movies ever had because he was an expert on just about all of them and a tireless advocate for treating them right — restoring them, preserving them, making them available, etc. He was often successful in all these goals, plus he made some interesting films himself.
This coming Sunday, April 6th, a couple hundred of his friends (he had a lot) will gather at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica to celebrate that we had him in our lives. I'm the host and there will be guest speakers and film clips and such. The doors open at Noon, we'll start the ceremony around 12:30 and when it's over, we'll take an intermission then present Mike's (and my) favorite movie the way it's supposed to be seen — on a big screen with a big audience.
I'm speaking of course of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, produced and directed by the great Stanley Kramer. That will start on or around 2:00 PM and I'll be introducing it but, even better, so will Stanley's great champion and life-partner, Karen Sharpe-Kramer.
The Aero's a big place so we still have some seats left for the Celebration of Life. Click the box below for more info or if you want to RSVP, write to celebrateschlesinger@gmail.com. and please (pretty please!) tell us how many seats you want and if you're staying for the film. There's no charge if you attend the Celebration and the movie.
And if you can't make it to the Celebration and you just want to see the movie, we're letting the Aero sell tickets for whatever seats we don't fill. You can buy those over on this page.
I think that's everything I need to cover except to remind you that the Aero is a terrific theater but parking in that area can take a little while…so allow extra time. You don't want to miss a moment of what's looking like a wonderful afternoon about a wonderful friend.
