Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I only met Martin Landau once, but it was memorable. In 1984, the Paramount Theatre National Tour of Dracula, with the tall and seemingly-ghastly Martin Landau in the title role, had come to the Kennedy Center for the month of December, 1984. My father had already (favorably) reviewed the production on TV, lavishing praise on Landau himself as well as on the costumes and set designed by the author and illustrator Edward Gorey. As a result, I knew Landau was in town, even though I never got to see him on stage.

Like many great American cities, Washington DC was known for its repertory movie houses and second-run movie houses. Founded in 1967, The Biograph was a movie theatre that exclusively showed old second-run films, and thus offered a cinematic education to film lovers in the pre-VHS era. The Biograph was less than a mile walk to the Circle Theatre, which showed a different double feature every day ($1 matinees). The Circle was less than a mile from the White House, and both these theaters were less than a mile from the Columbia Hospital for Women, where I was born.

Soon after our 1984 holiday break began, I joined my high school friend Moose (now a senior environmental planner and member of the city council of Morristown, New Jersey) at a showing of the 1972 absurdist comedy titled Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask). The film was inspired by California psychiatrist David Reuben’s best-selling book of the same name. Moose and I had spotted Landau in the lobby before the film began – he was wearing a dark jacket, but not a cape – and had said hello to him. He greeted us kindly.

One vignette in the film is titled “Are the Findings of Doctors and Clinics Who Do Sexual Research and Experiments Accurate?” In it Woody Allen plays a researcher who visits mad scientist John Carradine’s sexual research lab, and barely escapes before he and the reporter with him become unwilling subjects of his insane experiments. This scene was in part a parody of Ed Wood’s Bride of the Monster, which provided Bela Lugosi his final speaking role. Because of the gothic elements of this part of the film, Moose helpfully and loudly pointed out that the mad scientist’s castle seemed like a place one would find Dracula! Afterwards as we were filing out of The Biograph, Martin Landau pretended to be amused by us, commenting, “Very funny, fellows,” or something to that effect.

Five years later, Martin Landau would be nominated for his first Academy Award for acting in a Woody Allen film, Crimes and Misdemeanors. Ten years later, he would win an Oscar for playing Bela Lugosi in the film Ed Wood. I have often wondered if Martin Landau would have taken those projects had he not so enjoyed his December evening in The Biograph Theatre in Washington, D.C., with two obstreperous but well-meaning teenage film-lovers nearby.

Martin Landau died this past weekend at the age of 89. I wonder if, as was the case with Belosi, he will be buried wearing a cape. I’m grateful to him for the decades of entertainment he provided in film, on TV, and on stage, and for the momentary kindness he showed me in 1984.

In addition to topics raised above, tonight expect questions about relatively old men, monsters, Disney, Martin Luther King, people who are born stars, continental hyacinths, retirements, prominent islands, Zacharys, prominent theatres, franchises, the move away from cash and credit cards, science fiction possibilities, Delaware and New Jersey, matriarchs, prominent American poets of yesteryear, slavery in America, peninsulas, wrists and posteriors, rich doctors, sergeants missing their middles, camels, George Carlin, U.S. states, modern medicine, catch phrases, Katy Perry, mobsters, firearms, Costco and others, smartphones, current events, and Shakespeare.

Speaking of Shakespeare, have you yet checked out the offerings of the Davis Shakespeare Festival? Check out the calendar here: http://www.shakespearedavis.org/buy-tickets/

Also, Sacramento Poet Laureate Indigo Moor is coming to town Thursday night at 8 to read at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Please join us for this fantastic opportunity to see one of California’s best poets perform.

Summers are busy at the Pub Quiz. Come early to claim a table! See you tonight.

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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:

1. Irish Culture. What Irishman is the reigning UFC Lightweight Champion?  

1. Fresno. In what California county does one find the city of Fresno?      

1. Books and Authors.  Whose book Treasure Island provides most of our misconceptions about pirates?  

P.S. I will be reading a poem about marijuana tomorrow night around 6:30 at the Davis City Council meeting. You are invited to join us.