Bond, Benson… & the Big Screen!
Thank you to the 341 patrons who attended our May 14 screening of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) at the Pickwick Theatre Classic Film Series in Park Ridge! We received so many wonderful comments from fans afterward, but one in particular stood out. A friend of the series, Mike, brought his 10-year-old nephew, who is getting into James Bond for the first time. He had never seen a Roger Moore movie before. As it turned out, this young man had a wonderful time and was talking about it nonstop on the way home. He was that excited by the movie and absolutely thrilled by what we had on display in the lobby. We try to make each screening an event for the community, and based on audience feedback from that night, we made special memories for several people.
We are very grateful to all our guests who made the experience that special: James Bond author Raymond Benson for introducing the film; WGN-TV’s Larry Potash who, as a new board member of the Ian Fleming Foundation, spoke about the work of the organization and then introduced Raymond; and Colin Clark of the Ian Fleming Foundation, who supplied the rare and unique memorabilia we had on display in the lobby, including part of the IFF “Wetbike” that Roger Moore rides (and the tote bag it came in, as seen in the film).
Special thanks to the IFF volunteers, Len Johnson and Chris MacGregor, and of course, thanks go to our hostesses, Beka and Diana, as well as to Kathryn and the Pickwick Theatre staff.
Be sure to visit our Photo Archive for more images from this show.
Our James Bond special events will return!
~MCH
Raymond Benson & Larry Potash (Photo courtesy of Raymond Benson.)
Colin Clark & program host Matthew Hoffman
Colin’s collection…
The Lotus Esprit Agora model…
The “Wetbike”…
Matthew with Larry
Diana, Matthew & Raymond
Introducing Larry Potash… (Stage photos courtesy of Michael Mikrut.)
Larry talks about the Ian Fleming Foundation…
Raymond introduces The Spy Who Loved Me…
From the Ian Fleming Foundation…
And finally… A selfie of all our classic film series hosts: Diana, Matthew & Beka