It was a hot summer back in ’93 when I first met my wife in Birmingham, Alabama. It may not seem like a magic city for some, but for us it was, and to cool ourselves we would go to the movies, taking in a couple classics at the old Alabama Theatre and others at the cineplexes in Hoover and surrounding ’burbs. We saw An American in Paris and The Wizard of Oz, replete with an organ recital with the organ rising up from under the stage.

As a Lithuanian, all this was brand new to her. To get her ready for a Birmingham Barons baseball game we caught Bull Durham. The game didn’t live up to her new found expectations, as it drug on much longer than the movie. But, I managed to get a couple of baseballs signed by Bob Feller, who was ruing that his great baseball career had been reduced to such appearances.

Of course, we had to take in a Western and fortunate for us Unforgiven was getting a reprise.

While visiting the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, we caught a screening of The Panama Deception at a small theatre. We also took in the Fluxus exhibit at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, which included a number of shorts by Jonas Mekas.

There was also a tribute to the great Sun Ra, born Herman Poole Blount in Birmingham, who died that summer. The funeral was a closed event but they did show Space is the Place at one of the theatres.

My memory starts to fade a little here. But, here are some of the other movies I believe we saw that summer, including a few stay at home movies like The Gold Rush. We also got a good laugh out of Janet Jackson’s take on Phenomenal Woman in Poetic Justice.

Memories from the Magic City