Today marks one full year since the Capri Show World Center Online went live. And while we’d really would have liked to have had a big party to celebrate, conditions as they are we’ve opted to go “virt-yal”, as Uncle Spicy would say, and offer a glimpse back at a birthday party from Capri Show World’s distant past, back when things were a hell of a lot livelier, and when we could commit the exact opposite of “social distancing”.
BIRTHDAY PARTY – 1970
Back in the 1960s and 1970s the Capri Show World family was a close-nit group, that worked hard together, and played even harder together. Never needing an excuse to get together in their off hours, they would never let a built-in raison d’être pass without throwing a big to-do.
Here we have Jim, the film distribution manager at the time. Jim’s planning a big birthday party for Keith, the Head of Ushers at the Capri Show World Theatre itself (which meant Keith was in charge of the ticket-takers, coin-guys in the peep arcades, and security), and Jim thinks he has just the film to really light the party on fire! A quick call to Keith with the “plot’ run-down seals the deal.
Even though Jim is responsible for selling and shipping the films, he has very little experience with the delicate work of spooling one up. Luckily Head Projectionist Tommy had the night off and is available to lend Jim a helping hand.
Just in time too, because the party-goers have arrived in a festive mood and want to get things started ASAP.
Olga, one of the more popular dancers at the Show World, has a few words to say before the film gets going. She’s qui ckly booed back down to her seat. It’s pulsating visuals, not words that the party folks want now!
This being 1970, even though all in attendance are well aware of the taboos being broken around the country, and even though the Capri Show World had already snuck in a few hardcore efforts (truth be told they’d been sneaking Square Up reels in for decades, and those peep booths are another story…), to see such vivid action mere feet away, and on a big screen right in the office was still a shock and a thrill. Keith had never had a birthday part this inspiring before.
It wasn’t long before the room reached a boiling point, and the party really got started…
Before the night was out everyone had gotten to know each other real well, and everyone had certainly had their fill of each other. They all arrived at work the next day with aching heads and smiles on their faces. Uncle Spicy, if he sensed anything different, never said a word, although he did notice at the morning screening that the reels were oddly out of order and there was a stray balloon floating through the theatre…