Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) is a film loved by both sides of the aisle because it gets to the root of what made this country so great. You will not find a finer film today than the one we had for you Wednesday night, so we are grateful to the 255 patrons who attended the June 11 screening. This was the final show of our 11th season.
We are equally grateful to special guest Steve Darnall, who gave an extraordinary introduction of the film and highlighted why it’s so relevant given what is going on in our society today.
We’d also like to thank organist Jake McDonagh for the pre-show music. Besides the patriotic tunes like “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” we could discern the song “Creep” by Radiohead and the theme from the TV series, Severance. Who thought we’d ever hear that on the Mighty Wurlitzer!
Thank you to co-host Beka and the Pickwick Theatre staff and management. We are indebted to Kathryn for always getting the films set up for us. And a special mention to James Whitesell, who maintains the theatre organ and was instrumental (no pun intended) when Jay Warren was performing for us. Many times Jay had to play around the bad notes on the console. James did his best to keep the organ in playable shape.
Thank you for all your support this season. We’ll be back on September 17, 2025!
~MCH
Program host Matthew Hoffman with “Those Were the Days” host Steve Darnall.
Steve and Meg meet with fans…
Steve introduces Yankee Doodle Dandy, a film made at a time when fascism threatened the world…
Our first Cagney movie was a hit with audiences. “Everybody, sing!”