Apr 12, 2025

If You Want To View Paradise, Simply Look Around And View It



Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

The traditional opening weekend at the Mahoning is a screening of The Wizard of Oz and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on 35mm.  For the past few years, they've flipped the order of the films on Saturday night, which is the night that we were on the lot.


Actor Paris Themmen was in attendance on Friday and Saturday to meet fans, take pictures, and sign autographs.  He plays Mike Teavee, the television-obsessed Golden Ticket holder in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  I've always gotten a kick out of this character because unlike Augustus, Violet, and Veruca, he's perfectly happy with his fate after misbehaving at the Chocolate Factory.  


The new black popcorn bucket for the 2025 season was available at the concession stand.  We picked one up on Thursday night, and it will be put to good use this season.  On Saturday night, my wife and I split an order of the special food for the weekend, which was the Wonka Fries.  These are hot crinkle cut french fries topped with a chocolate and caramel sauce and marshmallow goo.  They're a lot tastier than I thought they were going to be, but half of an order is more than enough.


This year marks our third time seeing Willy Wonka and The Wizard Of Oz at the drive-in.  It's been an annual tradition to mark Opening Weekend at the drive-in since long before we started coming here, and it never fails to draw in a big crowd of folks who spent the winter waiting for the drive-in to open, as well as people who are discovering this place for the first time.
 

Rob showed two cartoons on 35mm during intermission.  The first was the 1957 Woody Woodpecker short: Round Trip To Mars.  In this cartoon, Professor Dingledong builds a rocketship and attempts to use it to launch himself to Mars, but he ends up crashing back down to Earth where he attempts to capture Woody, who he believes to be a Martian.  You can stream it on B98.tv, which is a website that I've never heard of before today, so proceed with caution.


The second cartoon was from Rob's own collection, and it's one of the most well-known Merrie Melodies shorts of all time, the 1955 Chuck Jones cartoon: One Froggy Evening.  This short was the first appearance of Michigan J Frog, who would later become famous as the mascot for the WB Network in the 90's and early 2000's.  This is another one that I couldn't find on YouTube, but you can watch it on B98.tv.  I wish I knew enough about that website to recommend it because it looks pretty cool.  It seems like it's something built by fans of classic cartoons, but I haven't been able to find any information about who built it or when it began.


The second movie of Saturday night was the most watched and well-known film in the history of motion pictures: The Wizard Of Oz.  If you ever have an opportunity to see this film on the big screen, I highly recommend that you take advantage of it.  It's an experience that you won't forget.
 

And that's a wrap on Opening Weekend 2025.  There's a lot of awesome nights that have already been scheduled on the calendar for this season with many more that have yet to be announced.