The Parkway Can't Help It

Poster by R. Black

In August 2005, I booked one of my favorite movies, The Girl Can't Help It (1956) the ultimate '50s rock 'n' roll sex comedy ,starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell, and Edmond O'Brien, with musical performances by Little Richard, Fats Domino, The Platters, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Julie London and many other pop luminaries of the era, shot in widescreen Deluxe color and directed by the great Frank Tashlin.  Since it was Thrillville, Jake, I added live burlesque by The Devil-Ettes - frequent guests and one of the Bay Area's most popular troupes - to the already busy bill. Artist R. Black contributed a fantastic poster which remained in the lobby through the duration of The Parkway's existence. You probably remember it, hanging right near the men's bathroom...

"Scheme C6" starred my wife Monica Cortes Viharo
in the female lead

Additionally, legendary local filmmaker Rob Nilsson (Chalk, Heat and Sunlight, Signal 7), an old friend of ours, wanted to make the final film in his gritty, streetwise, cinéma vérité style 9@Night series, called Go Together (2007) at The Parkway, with me in a cameo as myself, "Will the Thrill," and Monica not only playing "the Tiki Goddess" on stage, but reprising her role of "Yve," the sexy female lead of an earlier film in the series, Scheme C6 (2001). My father, actor Robert Viharo, had a recurring role in this series as well, including Go Together. So Rob set up cameras and shot footage of me hosting this particular show, including The Devil-Ettes' performance, to incorporate into the movie, in which I was actually hosting a porno festival! Not much of a stretch. I improvised some bits which later wound up in the final cut, and the audience went along with it. Later, Rob shot a bunch of scenes for the movie privately during the daytime, with Parkway patrons volunteering to play "the audience." The late David Hess, star of the grindhouse classic The Last House on the Left (1972), played a bum in the Parkway alley! But most of my scenes were filmed at this show, which I called "Thrillville's Rockin' Bombshell Revue." It sold out and was quite a memorable experience - but not all for the reasons already mentioned.

The Devil-Ettes - who needs a movie?

The night before the gig, the 35mm print for The Girl Can't Help It was dropped off in our lobby, cutting it pretty close to showtime. Our projectionist popped open the can and discovered only two reels - three were simply missing. That was pretty much most of the movie! Panic quickly set in. At the time, Girl wasn't on DVD yet, but I did have a bootleg VHS copy in my private collection. Unfortunately, that would have to do...so there I was with a packed house, a film crew shooting live footage for an indie flick, and a movie on the big screen that I taped off TV. Thankfully sans commercials. Still pretty ghetto. I promised the audience this wasn't the usual practice at The Parkway, and being regular patrons, they were already accustomed to such unexpected mishaps. In their typical forgiving spirit, the crowd rolled with the circumstances, and nobody left and everyone had fun. It was simply a great night - and so was the premiere of Go Together at The Parkway a couple of years later. Here's to all you patient people. Cheers.

At the Mill Valley Film Festival screening of "Go Together" (2007)

Elvis Lives!...at The Parkway

The King and I

I love Halloween and Christmas, but for Monica Tiki Goddess and me, our very favorite holidays of the year are Elvis B-Day (January 8) and Elvis D-Day (August 16), the anniversaries of The King's birth and "disappearance," respectively.  My wife Monica and I first met at The Parkway on May 31, 1997, when I was hosting Jailhouse Rock (1957) in The Midnight Lounge and picked her out of the audience to spin my big wheel, so to speak. I had been hosting Elvis B-Day and Elvis D-Day parties at various venues around the East Bay since the early '90s, often sponsored by the Elvis-friendly computer company 42 Inc. Monica and I officially met  (i.e. started dating) months after our initial Parkway encounter at my Elvis B-Day party at the Ivy Room in Albany, on January 8, 1998. She remembered me as the Parkway dude who gave her an Elvis blanket as a reward for her sexy wheel-spinning, and I remembered her as the hot babe with the tattoo of a Navajo symbol that read "Elvis." She got the gigs of both lovely assistant and wife, and has been spinning my wheel ever since.

Impersonator contest...

The Midnight Lounge was the original name of my weekly cult movie show at The Parkway before it suddenly morphed into the B-movie/burlesque extravaganza known as Thrillville on January 8, 1999 with a "prime time" screening of Viva Las Vegas (1964), one of the greatest nights ever in my so-called "career" as "Will the Thrill." The crowd just went totally nuts over the cosmic, combustible combination of Elvis and Ann-Margret. After that surprise smash, I moved the gig permanently to Thursday nights, where it remained for the duration of its run, with much bigger audiences, unlike my early, sparsely attended Saturday midnight shows (replaced by the much more successful Rocky Horror Picture Show presented by Barely Legal Productions). 

I decided to host all my annual Elvis B-Day and D-Day parties at The Parkway following that  fateful screening of Viva Las Vegas. Once we even got Elvis's blonde co-star in Jailhouse Rock, Jennifer Holden, to make a special appearance. She was a trip.

Me with Annie, Deborah Walley, Monica,
September 2000

Another memorable show: the time I brought up my stepmom Anne Helm, who co-starred with Elvis in Follow That Dream (1962), along with our friend Deborah Walley (Gidget Goes Hawaiian), who co-starred in Elvis's Spinout (1966). I managed to score a 35mm print of Spinout, and was pretty pleased about it - until I belatedly discovered, during the screening, that some jerk had cut out all of Elvis's musical numbers from the print, leaving us with his thespian talents only. I guess it was "the Director's Cut." Sadly, this was one of Deborah's final public appearances before she passed away the following year. She was a great lady.

With Cari Lee Merritt and The King

I was actually fortunate enough to meet, befriend and interview several "Elvis babes" via my connection with Annie, including Stella Stevens (1962's Girls! Girls! Girls!), Joan Blackman (Blue Hawaii, 1961; Kid Galahad, 1962), and the late, great Julie Parrish (Paradise, Hawaiian Style, 1966). 

At yet another revival of Jailhouse Rock, the unconventional, controversial and unpredictable performance artist known as "Extreme Elvis" showed up with his own throne (toilet), mooning the audience as he pulled down his jumpsuit and took a seat...

With Yvonne Craig and Gary Lockwood,
August 2000

For Elvis D-Day 2000, I showed a rare, faded 35mm print of the 1963 "classic" It Happened at the World's Fair with two of the original co-stars - Yvonne "Batgirl" Craig and Gary "2001/Star Trek" Lockwood - in person. Neither had ever even seen the film before! And they only lasted about 20 minutes with it this time before drifting out into the lobby to mingle with fans...But before that, I did get to sit on a Parkway sofa next to our pal Yvonne while Elvis tried to seduce her younger self on a big screen sofa as he serenaded her with the song "Relax." Definitely one of my favorite Parkway memories, obviously. (See video of our appearance on KTVU's Mornings on 2 to promote this show.) 

Anyway, I already have Viva Las Vegas booked for Thrillville Theater at The New Parkway on January 6, 2013. Perhaps history will repeat itself. Cheers and TCB.

Posters by Miles Goodrich

The Parkway's Annual Oscar Bash

Beginning in 1999, The Parkway began broadcasting the Academy Awards on both big screens, throwing our own customized, eccentric and insanely popular annual Oscar Bash.  For the price of a single admission, we offered free passed finger foods, champagne, a goodie bag, and live entertainment during the commericals.  At first it was just me as "Will the Thrill" and my lovely assistant (and eventual bride) Monica, Tiki Goddess hosting the festivities, running up and down the stairs, trying to quickly give away trivia/contest prizes while barely stopping to catch a breath. It was quite a workout. And Monica always wore high heels...

Finally, and fortunately for all concerned, our talented in-house troupe Barely Legal Productions, who presented The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the theater every week, took over the downstairs auditorium during the Oscars with elaborate musical stage shows and themed skits performed during the commercial breaks, while I was upstairs doing my vintage smartass lounge lizard schtick to a far less boisterous crowd. Basically it was like going to a Vegas casino with Cirque du Soleil playing the big room and Louis Prima and Keely Smith swingin' in the lounge. Always nice to have options. Same show on the screen, anyway.

Parkway founders/owners Kyle & Catherine Fischer
greet the sold out house, 2005

The Oscar Bash was one of our popular events, with advance tickets selling out seemingly within minutes of going on sale, year in, year out. Patrons dressed up for the various contests, including Most Glamorous ,Best Celebrity Lookalike, and my personal favorite, Best Cleavage. A grand time was had by all. Except for me. I hate the Oscars. IMO, movies should never be reduced to sporting events. But then I also hate sports and The Parkway also hosted annual Superbowl Parties (which I skipped, but nobody missed me, I'm sure). 

I hosted the Oscar Bash for many years because the audience was having so much fun and I considered the gig an extension of my Thrillville  responsibilities. But don't worry. I won't be showing for the Oscar parties at The New Parkway with my grumpy attitude. I'll be at home, watching movies that would never be remotely considered for any kind of award - none anyone would would be proud of, anyway. But you folks will have a blast! Let me know how it goes...Cheers.

SHATFEST!

Poster by Miles Goodrich

By far the most popular annual "theme night" in my long-running Thrillville B movie/burlesque series at The Parkway was SHATFEST: A Tribute to William Shatner - the real "Will the Thrill." There is so much more to this universally beloved icon than Captain Kirk. He was also an astonishingly smooth lounge singer and incredibly accomplished "grindhouse" movie star. Along with largely forgotten but timeless and priceless Shat-tastic 35mm feature films like Kingdom of the Spiders (1977), The Devil's Rain (1975), Incubus (in Esperanto! 1966), and his "spaghetti western" White Comanche (1968), wherein he portrays dual roles of two half-breed Indians - one good, one evil! - I often showed clips of his various and memorable guest appearances in classic TV shows like The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, Thriller, and of course Star Trek; "music videos" including his infamous rendition of "Rocket Man"; the "lost" 1965 pilot Alexander the Great co-starring his fellow slow-then-sudden speaker, Adam West!; and other random "Shat-shorts" often donated by fellow Shatheads. It became quite the popular tradition. Shat always brought down the sold-out house, year in, year out. 

Poster by Miles Goodrich

This all began many years ago when a friend showed me a video copy of Shat's obscure 1974 masterpiece Impulse, wherein Big Bill plays an outrageously psychotic pimped-out disco-dressing serial killer who suffers flashbacks to his violent childhood. It co-stars Harold "Oddjob" Sakata as his parole officer. I was simply blown away. Then I discovered that the anarchic archivists over at The Werepad in San Francisco had an ultra rare 35mm print of this masterpiece in their voodoo vaults. I immediately booked it and the rest is local history. I brought this one back on a regular basis because it was just had to be seen to be believed - again and again and agin, and even then, it defied credulity. Forget the Star Trek films - Impulse is simply the Ultimate William Shatner Movie. His hysterical histrionics are sheer genius. Or he's just a really crappy actor/singer. That's the ironic beauty and enduring mystery of William Shatner. We'll never know for sure. And it doesn't even matter. William Shatner is one of the most entertaining performers on the planet, simply by being himself. Shat's appeal crossed all boundaries of generations, cultures, sexes, and age groups. He was a perfect match for The Parkway - beer, pizza, sofas, adoring audiences, and a huge, steaming pile of vintage Shat on the big screen. It was magical match made in cult movie heaven. Or hell...

Ironically - but poetically - The Parkway closed on March 22, 2009 - William Shatner's birthday. Except more annual tributes at The New Parkway. SHATFEST LIVES! Cheers.

The many faces of William Shatner:

"Creature Features" Live at The Parkway!

Monica Tiki Goddess, Bob Wilkins, and me
October 2000

One of the most gratifying experiences in all my years as Parkway programmer/publicist and Thrillville producer/host were the annual and now legendary Creature Features reunion shows with former famous TV horror hosts Bob Wilkins and John Stanley, as well as editor/reporter/film reviewer, the late great Bob Shaw, in person. These spectacular spook shows were among the most popular programs to ever play The Parkway, creating precious memories both for the legions of Creature Features fans who grew watching the series every Saturday night throughout the 1970s and early '80s on KTVU (and Friday nights in Sacramento), as well as introducing the beloved local icons Bob Wilkins and John Stanley to generations of new fans. It was always a fun, festive event where I met and networked with many long time Creature Features fanatics and newfound friends, who often joined us on stage, including Mister Lobo, Michael Monohan AKA Dr. Goulfinger, Bill Longen AKA "Uncle Bill, the Trailer King," Sci-Fi Bob Ekman (Psychotronix Film Festvial, more on those later), Scott Moon, August Ragone, Bob Johnson, Tom Wyrsch, Strephon Taylor, Chuck Jarman, Doug Jones (who worked on the show and built a replica of the original TV set for the Parkway stage!), and many, many others, all of whom have gone on to make their own unique marks on the regional (and national) film scene.

With John Stanley

I grew up in South Jersey, and my local TV horror host was Dr. Shock out of Philly (who partly inspired my "Will the Thrill" public persona), so I didn't even hear about Bob Wilkins and Creature Features until I moved to the Bay Area in 1985, the year it went off the air! Parkway co-founder Kyle Fischer, who grew up in the Bay Area, was a big fan. Over the years I heard more and more about Bob as well as his successor, John Stanley, whom I actually met first when he appeared at the UC Theater in Berkeley in the mid-90s. Unlike Bob, John was and remains a true expert in the field of horror and sci-fi movies, and he wrote a series of successful Creature Features Movie Guides as well as contributing to the San Francisco Chronicle for many years. John also directed his own vampire movie, Nightmare in Blood, which I had the proud pleasure of showing once at The Parkway, co-hosted by John himself.

Bob Shaw, John Stanley, and Bob Wilkins
on the reconstructed "Creature Features" set
created by Doug Jones

I first contacted Bob Wilkins via my friend and frequent Thrillville poster artist Miles Goodrich, who interviewed him once for his own 'zine, back in 1999. I also interviewed Bob for The Parkway News, and asked him if he'd ever consider coming out of retirement for a personal appearance. He eventually agreed, making his first personal appearance at The Parkway the following October, along with John and ob Shaw, and thanks to the help and encouragement of official Creature Features archivist and documentarian Tom Wyrsch, who worked out the travel logistics, it was a spectacular crowd-pleasing smash with several equally successful "sequels."

(Watch video of the first Creature Features reunion from October, 2000.)

Posters by Strephon Taylor

Every October from 2000 thru 2006, until Bob became too ill, he would come down on the bus from his home in Reno to co-host specially selected monster movies, including several local premieres of new Godzilla flicks, like Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II and Godzilla-Mothra-King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack along with vintage favorites like The Tingler and Night of the Living Dead. John, who lives in Pacifica, would show up weekly throughout the month of October to co-present Halloween hits like Creature with the Atom Brain, Zombies of Mora Tau, 13 Ghosts, The Vampire Lovers, Horror Express, and many others. One year, 2002, we made the annual event a tribute to Bob's weekday afternoon kiddie sci-fi show alias, Captain Cosmic, and even brought his original robot sidekick, 2T2, out of mothballs in Sacramento for a true reunion. (Video.)

The Return of Captain Cosmic, October 2002

With 2T2,  Bob Wilkins, and Mr. Lobo

Sadly, Bob Wilkins passed away on January 7, 2009 - ironically, the same day as my friend and another frequent Thrillville guest, cult movie god Ray Dennis Steckler (more on him in a future blog) - only a few months before The Parkway closed on March 22, 2009. It was truly the end of an era, but one that lives on the minds and hearts of Creature Features fans everywhere. Cheers.

Beneath the Planet of the Parkway

Back when I began programming and hosting my weekly cult movie series at The Parkway, initially called The Midnight Lounge, starting in April 1997, three months after the theater opened, it was basically on-the-job training for all of us. While I was a bona fide film geek and freelance writer specializing at the time in classic cinema, writing for magazines like Filmfax and Outre, I had zero experience as a film programmer/impresario. And it showed. In the beginning, I didn't even have a microphone so I was basically shouting improv wisecracks at the audience, weakly echoing in the cavernous downstairs auditorium, my "Will the Thrill" lounge lizard persona still being hatched and honed live on stage. I never aspired to be a performer. I was a writer. This was all a strange quirk of fateful circumstance. 

However, I did know what I was doing when it came to actually choosing the movies, but back then, when it was all 35mm, my choices were subject to availability and condition of prints. This proved to be a very frustrating process which didn't get any easier over time. 

Case in point: one of my first requests was the original Planet of the Apes (1968), starring Charlton Heston, Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowall. I knew it was a slam dunk crowd pleaser, and better known to mainstream filmgoers than some of the other classic B flicks I'd been showing, personal favorites like War of the Colossal Beast and  Day the World Ended, which didn't attract large droves to that sketchy neighborhood on late Saturday nights. So we were all very excited when I booked this famous sci-fi classic. I even made my first television appearance with my new lovely assistant and future wife, Monica Tiki Goddess, on Jan Wahl's old Talkin' Pictures program on KRON, where she interviewed us and showed clips from some of my favorite films (I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Sweet Smell of Success, Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill! and Bare Knuckles starring my father, Robert Viharo), and I plugged my upcoming screening of Planet of the Apes that Saturday at midnight. Certainly, it was going to be a big night for our fledgling theater. (Watch video of the Jan Wahl interview here.)

'

Friday arrived, naturally followed by Saturday - but the print didn't arrive with 'em. We totally panicked. This was before we even had a video projector, so dumbing down the format was not even an option at that point. No print, no screening. The booking was scrapped and large crowds were disappointed, though I think we swapped it out for Evil Dead 2, which was already in the house for some reason, so the night wasn't a total loss. Still a major letdown for all the people who left the safe comfort of their homes and parked in the dark just for Apes, though.

It turned out the delivery driver had attempted to drop off the print when the theater was closed, early on Friday, and none of the staff passed on the note he left on the door. It has been sitting at the UPS depot all weekend.

A year or so later, I tried to make it up to the Apes fans by booking it again. We got the print in time, but it wasn't Planet of the Apes. The distributor had screwed up and sent us the sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). Frustrating, but at least it still had Charlton Heston and talking apes, so we settled for it, even though we were presenting the series out of order. 

One more snag, though: Linda Harrison, who played the sexy human slave girl Nova, had only a single word of dialogue in both movies, "Taylor!", but it had somehow been excised from the badly faded, choppy print. The film simply skipped right over it. The audience booed...then laughed.

The next time I tried to book the original film, I was told the single available print had been trashed beyond repair due to excessive use and it was no longer in circulation. Sigh.

This was only one of many glitches Parkway audiences suffered through over the years. At least we served beer to ease the pain. Cheers.

The Parkway Begins, and Thrillville Rises (30 Days to Opening)

I was the proud programmer/publicist for the Parkway Speakeasy Theater for twelve years, though patrons knew me better as either "the white guy in the Parkway video" or as "Will the Thrill," host/producer/programmer of my live cult movie cabaret, "Thrillville." Initially, Speakeasy CEO/co-founder/entertainment lawyer Kyle Fischer asked me, their movie geek friend, to create and host a weekly midnight movie show, primarily to promote the novel of mine, he and his wife, Speakeasy Theaters president/mastermind/chef Catherine Fischer, had published with their small publication company, Wild Card Press (which has since folded, along with Speakeasy Theaters.) The book was called Love Stories Are Too Violent For Me, the first in my Vic Valentine, Private Eye series, and it's since been optioned for a movie by Christian Slater, with production finally on the fast track. The Parkway opened in January of 1997, and I hosted my first live show - initially called "The Midnight Lounge," every Saturday at midnight (or technically, Sunday), beginning with the David Lynch classic, Blue Velvet, in April that same year. 

My public persona as "Will the Thrill," a neo-lounge lizard with retro tastes and style sensibilities, was somewhat inspired by Jerry Lewis's character "Buddy Love" in the original version of The Nutty Professor (1963).  However, as time went on, I eventually just played a broader version of myself, totally improvising, choosing my personal favorite cult movies, so it was like a big party at my house, except I didn't have to clean up afterwards.  I showed a lot of movies initially released by American International Pictures and then available via the now defunct distributor "Kit Parker", all in 35mm, from 50s monster/JD flicks like How to Make a Monster, Reform School Girl, The Cool and the Crazy, Invasion of the Saucer Men, and It Conquered the World, to '60s druggie/biker flicks like The Trip, Wild in the Streets and The Wild Angels, to '70s blaxploitation like Coffy, Cleopatra Jones and The Mack.  It was fun, though crowds were scarce until we switched the show to "prime time" on Thursday nights, selling out the house with Viva Las Vegas, my first "Elvis B-day" show at the Parkway, on January 8, 1999.  When I began adding bands and burlesque acts to the lineup, the show, now re-christened "Thrillville," took on a life of its own.  I put my literary career on pause, until the Parkway closed unceremoniously and with only four days' notice (even for me) on March 22, 2009 - William Shatner's birthday.

When I first started hosting the show, my "lovely assistant" was my first wife, who will go unnamed. As you all know, the Parkway served beer along with wine, pizza, etc. My first wife was in AA. Let's just say neither the marriage nor the gig lasted very long....So I began auditioning new lovely assistants by selfishly selecting a sexy female audience member to spin the big carnival wheel that became a staple of the show, and to help me give out prizes, which consisted of a few valuable donations from local merchants (but mostly kitschy crap from my house I grabbed on the way out the door).  On May 31, 1997, at my midnight screening of Jailhouse Rock, I called up the hottest babe in the small crowd to the big stage, as usual, and it happened to be one Monica Cortes, Elvis's #1 fan. She showed me her Elvis/Navajo tattoo on her lower back, and, well, she left an impression. I gave her an Elvis blanket for her efforts...Then months later, while hosting an Elvis B-Day Party at the Ivy Room in Albany on January 8, 1998, who should walk in to the party....yada yada yada, on May 31, 2001, Monica Cortes, by then locally famous as my regular lovely assistant "Monica Tiki Goddess," became Monica Viharo at our Rat Pack-mariachi wedding ceremony at the Ca-Neva Lodge in North Tahoe, formerly owned by Sinatra. Suffice to say, she got both gigs.

Naturally, this is my favorite Parkway memory, since I'm still reaping the dividends. Since then, many other couples have mated and sometimes married after meeting at The Parkway. 

I'll be recounting many more memories of "Thrillville" and the Parkway in this blog, daily for the next 30 days, counting down to the grand opening of The New Parkway on Friday, November 30, 2012. I am proud to be serving as their publicist/special events consultant. Though now busily employed as a freelance writer and novelist, I'll be programming two regular repertory shows a week, "Parkway Classics" on Thursday nights, beginning with The Big Lebowski on December 6, and "Thrillville Theater"on Sundays, kicking off with Forbidden Planet on December 2, both former crowd-pleasing favorites at the "old" Parkway.  I don't plan to host any more shows, except for an occasional "Shatfest" (my popular annual tribute to Shatner), but more on what we do have in store for you later. Don't worry, you'll love it.

The moral of this particular story? Get off your butt and go out for dinner and a movie at The New Parkway. You never know who you're going to meet there. A random encounter may just change your life.  Cheers.