Movies in Memphis: What happened to the Orpheum summer movie series? | Know Your 901

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Know Your 901 is an initiative launched by the know-it-alls at The Commercial Appeal that will seek to answer your questions about the Bluff City and the Greater Memphis region. Send inquiries to knowyour901@commercialappeal.com and we will try to give you an answer in a future column.

Today's question is:

What happened to the Orpheum summer movie series?

This query comes from an in-house source: Reporter John Klyce, who covers schools and education issues for The Commercial Appeal.

His question is one that has been asked a few times, but — professional journalist that he is! — he added context and personality.

"For years, the Orpheum would show classic films over the summer, through its Summer Movie Series," Klyce writes. "This was a great way to see older films the way they were meant to be seen — on the big screen, and it was loved by myself and many others. 

"I saw 'Casablanca' at the Orpheum. I saw 'The Godfather' — for the first time — at the Orpheum. I saw 'Airplane!' at the Orpheum. I saw 'Jaws+' at the Orpheum. Unfortunately, a few years ago, the Summer Movie Series abruptly stopped. I can only imagine this was because of COVID-19, which makes sense.

"But we are past the pandemic and life has returned to normal, so: Why has the Orpheum not brought back the Summer Movie Series?"

This question could not be more timely, because, while it is true that COVID put the kibosh on the Orpheum's traditional move programming, the historic Downtown theater never stopped showing movies entirely.

In fact, in recognition of the Juneteenth holiday, the Orpheum is hosting a FREE screening of the 2023 musical version of "The Color Purple" at 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 17. Danielle Brooks received a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination for the film, which also stars Taraji P. Henson, Colman Domingo and Fantasia Barrino.

But, yes, such screenings are now exceptional — special events, such as last October's showing of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," with live accompaniment by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

Orpheum President and CEO Brett Batterson acknowledges that many Memphians are nostalgic about the Orpheum's old summer movie series. When people complain the Orpheum doesn't show movies, "What they are saying is, we miss the series."

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Originally not a summer event, the Orpheum's movie series was launched 40 years ago, as a way to show off and encourage Memphians to visit the then newly restored and reopened classic theater, which for much of its existence had epitomized the old-school "movie palace" concept. Curator and local film historian Vincent Astor (who died last year, at 69) started the series with a roar: The first movie on the schedule was the 1933 monster masterpiece "King Kong," which screened Jan. 18, 1984.

The idea worked. In its second season, in 1985, the series screened 16 movies over 15 weeks, with an average attendance of 2,837 patrons per show, according to The Commercial Appeal.

Spiced by the occasional innovation (a 2012 partnership with Indie Memphis),or controversy (a 2017 decision to stop showing "Gone With the Wind"), the recipe for success remained essentially the same over the decades, with the theaters offering classics ("The Maltese Falcon"), epics ("Ben-Hur"), blockbusters ("Titanic"), and cult favorites ("The Princess Bride"). In 2019, the Orpheum actually expanded the series and offered screenings all year, including "Space Jam" in March and "Some Like It Hot" in November, to name just two.

The COVID shutdowns of 2020 interrupted this tradition. But the reason the movie series hasn't returned is due more to the success of Orpheum's non-movie programming than to the disruption of the pandemic.

Said Batterson: "We haven't been able to do a series for a few years because Broadway, which used to not tour in the summer, has been coming here every summer."

By "Broadway," Batterson means the Orpheum's annual year-round "Broadway Season" of stage productions, which brings "Come from Away" to town June 21-23 and "Mama Mia!" from July 23-28. "The Broadway touring schedule is such that we don't have a lot of time in the summer," he said, especially when you add in concerts and other live events, and take into account the prep time needed to mount a major show.

Also, the Broadway shows, which frequently attract sell-out or near sell-out crowds, are more popular and profitable than the movies.

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Movie series in Memphis, from the Brooks Museum to Crosstown Arts

In addition, movies outside the home aren't the novelty they once were, even if the Orpheum remains a spectacular setting in which to renew an acquaintance with Charles Foster Kane or "Dirty" Harry Callahan.

"You can go to Elmwood Cemetery and watch movies in the cemetery," Batterson said. Which is true: Elmwood, cheekily enough, hosted an outdoor screening of "Ghost" on June 7.

Other screenings abound. Among those on the current calendar:

• The Downtown Neighborhood Association's summer series continues with "Frozen" at 8 p.m. June 20 at the Ghost River Brewery & Taproom at 827 S. Main.

• The "Overton Square Movie Nights" program presents "Sweet Home Alabama" at 6 p.m. June 20 in the outdoor "Chimes Square" area on the south side of Madison Avenue.

• The Museum of Science and History (Pink Palace) has for years presented a robust mix of new 3D nature and science films and classic revivals in its state-of-the-art "Giant Screen Theater." Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece "Spirited Away" screens there at 4:30 p.m. June 15, while the museum's monthly "Movies & Brews" program begins July 20, with a lineup that will include "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Gremlins." The new movies on tap include "Space: The New Frontier" and "Titanosaur 3D: The Story of Maximo."

• The Memphis Brooks Museum has relaunched its movie series. In recognition of its 50th anniversary, Roman Polanski's masterwork "Chinatown" screens at 2 p.m. June 23, while Preston Sturges' matchless screwball comedy "The Lady Eve," with Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck, is set for 2 p.m. July 21.

• Of course, Crosstown Arts continues to host almost weekly Thursday night classic and cult films in the Crosstown Theater. Next up at 7 p.m. June 20 is 1984's "Repo Man," a punk rock/sci-fi/Reagan-era satire that offers aliens, Emilio Estevez, Harry Dean Stanton and an Iggy Pop theme song.

• And even Midtown's venerable Lamplighter Lounge at 1702 Madison, longtime haunt of the hip, has initiated a film series, curated by Billups Allen, author of "101 Films You Could See Before You Die: A Film Guide for the Disenchanted," published by Goner Records. Next on the schedule is a new movie making its Memphis public screening debut, "Enter the Clones of Bruce," director David Gregory's documentary about the phenomenon of "Brucesploitation" — the subgenre that emerged after the 1973 death of Bruce Lee, in which lookalike martial artists and actors given such names as "Bruce Li" and "Bruce Le" were showcased in movies that exploited Lee's legacy. Part of a massive new "Brucesploitation" Blu-ray box set from Severin Films, "Enter the Clones" screens at 7:30 p.m. July 21. Admission is pay-what-you-can.

Batterson said the Orpheum will continue to host the occasional movie (expect a Christmas season offering this year), but — with dates at a premium and flexibilty of scheduling a necessity — it's unlikely the theater will re-institute the weekly or monthly screenings of the past. Even if watching movies on a blanket in a graveyard is not exactly the same as watching them on a large screen beneath the crystal chandeliers of a movie palace.

"We're showing movies when it makes sense," Batterson said. "When it fits our calendar."

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Will Orpheum in Memphis show summer movies again? Why it's unlikely