Recently LA.CityZine did a poll asking what your favorite movie venue was in LA. Naturally I replied the Warner Grand in San Pedro. For those of you that don’t know, the Warner Grand is a 1931 fully restored Art Deco theater. Its interior is so beautiful it takes my breath away every time I see a film there.
They usually only show movies on the weekends and they’re either foreign films or classics. Last month I saw Cabaret. This film starred Liza Minnelli and Michael York and won eight academy awards in 1972.
My good friend Lisa has her “Oscar Quest” every year, which is to see as many of the nominated films prior to the awards as she can. So when I found out Cabaret was to play at the Warner Grand and shocked to hear she’d never seen it before I insisted we go.
As we headed to San Pedro driving over the St. Vincent Thomas bridge and discussed the evening’s schedule.
Lisa said, “The film begins at 8:00.”
I replied, “That’s odd, the movie usually begin at 7:30.”
“That’s because Michael York is going to be there talking before the film,” she said.
Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather! I had no idea he was going to be there. As we drove down 6th street, passing the theater, I could see Michael York’s name on the marquee confirming his presence for the showing that night. Having only seen Cabaret on commercially interrupted television, most likely KTLA on a weekend night, this was going to be a treat and having the star of the film there was the icing on the proverbial cupcake.
We sat in our usual spots up in the balcony. Just prior to 7:30 a young woman stepped up on stage dressed elegantly in a black dress with a feather boa wrapped around her shoulders and introduced herself as the representative of the Grand Vision Foundation, which has been instrumental in restoring this wonderful theater.
The applause that greeted her let us know there was a substantial crowd below us who were here to see the film and to get to know Michael York.
As she introduced him, listing his many roles from his start in Shakespearean roles in Franco Zefferelli’s films of Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet to the Austin Powers films where he played Basil Exposition, he filled in the gaps with comments from the theater wings. We couldn’t see him but could hear his cultured, soft-spoken voice adding such roles as his voice-overs in The Simpsons, The Family Guy and as one of the apes in Spaceballs. I was impressed and entertained by his need to add these minor roles to his considerable list of credits.
When he finally emerged onstage from the sidelines he was enthusiastically greeted by the audience. Accompanying him was an interviewer, who offhand I can’t remember his name but who I will refer to as the James Lipton character as this talk seemed reminiscent of the Actor’s Studio.
Mr. York was dressed somewhat like an Oxford don in sweater and cords minus the cape and cap possibly because he was Oxford educated. He’s aged well living here in California but has lost none of his British charm.
The James Lipton character did a credible job with the interview by his insightful questions and complimentary comments. However Mr. York was truly captivating with his memories of his many experiences in the film industry especially his recollections of Cabaret. He was at all times diplomatic and delightful.
When he was offered the role of Brian Roberts, the young British university graduate, in Cabaret his agent advised him against it but he said nonsense and went off to finish a film in North Africa. However when he got to Munich and started to rehearse the script he saw that his agent was right and that the role was more that of a bystander and the plum roles went to Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey who both eventually won Oscars for their parts.
However he got on famously with Bob Fosse, the director, and between the two of them they beefed up his role as the young Englishman in Berlin who is completely taken in by Sally Bowles the American chanteuse played by Minnelli. Mr. York did great impersonations of the director and how Fosse teased him about trying to get him a song or dance routine in the film but how the producers were against it.
Other than the Cabaret reminiscing one of my favorite stories of his career was the one about his most famous role. He was doing a play in the early 70’s at the Mark Taper Forum. He was living in Malibu at the time and would drive a fellow cast mate with him to the play.
One day when they were driving the young cast mate found a screenplay in the car that had been offered to Mr. York. He felt he wasn’t right for the role but the young man asked if he could read the script so Mr. York told him to go ahead. The next day when he picked him up, the young man told him he had to do this film. That part turned out to be the title role of Logan in 1976’s Logan’s Run, which since has became a sci-fi cult classic.
At the end of the interview they opened it up for questions and comments from the audience. One of the compliments he received also gave him a bit of surprise. One member of the audience told him how much they enjoyed his reading of The Polar Express on the Mark and Brian radio show on 95.5 KLOS. He told Mr. York they replayed it every Christmas. Mr. York thanked him and told him he didn’t know they did this annually.
The interview then ended with much applause and the film began promptly at 8:00. It was an experience seeing it on the big screen with no commercial interruptions. I was completely enthralled with my favorite musical performance in the film, Money. Liza and Joel Grey definitely did have Oscar worthy performances!
After the film ended while we were walking in the lobby we saw several audience members dressed up as characters from the film, which added flavor to the night.
While walking to the parking lot though, Lisa couldn’t resist making the comment, “Now that Michael York knows that Mark and Brian keep replaying his recording of The Polar Express I wonder if he’ll get his attorney to sue for past royalties.” We all laughed but somehow doubted it, as he seemed to be the perfect English gentleman!
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