What do you have to do to stay relevant in Palm Springs? “Keep it gay, keep it gay, keep it gay!” would be the answer from famed Broadway director Roger DeBris.
This was on my mind after seeing The Filmmakers’ Gallery presentation of the musical film The Producers in June. Before the screening, producer Jonathan Sanger and Tony Award-winning actor Gary Beach—who played DeBris in the Broadway musical and the film adaptation—did a funny and insightful Q&A.
The Filmmakers’ Gallery is the brainchild of Paul Belsito and Steven Roche, a team that relocated from Long Beach. The Filmmakers’ Gallery is a series of screenings and events with “special guest” appearances by friends and well-known stars from the “gallery” of entertainment-industry colleagues. It takes place on the second Saturday of the month (usually) at the Palm Springs Cultural Center—formerly known as the Camelot Theatres—and on July 14, it will feature a 50th anniversary showing of Yours, Mine and Ours with Morgan Brittany, who played Louise Beardsley in the film.
“We won’t screen anything where we don’t have a live guest who is connected to the film. That is what separates us from the others,” Roche said. “We want to appeal more to the educational aspect of the film. It’s an open question-and-answer forum so people can ask about how an actor got the role, or how (the movie) was different to produce from other films.”
Yours, Mine and Ours stars Lucille Ball and is about a widower who has 10 children—who falls for a widow who has eight. Will they merge into one huge family, or won’t they? Also part of the July Gallery is Michael Stern, the author of the book I Had a Ball: My Friendship With Lucille Ball.
“Michael will be our guest moderator, as well as selling and signing his book,” Roche said. “Michael and Lucy met in the early ’70s; she called him ‘my No. 1 fan’ on The Mike Douglas Show, and it stuck.”
What’s the biggest challenge for Belsito and Roche? “We like to show older movies, and unfortunately, that means the cast is older,” Roche said. “Like that last surviving munchkin from The Wizard of Oz, who just passed away (in May). It’s a bit of a double-edged sword: Who’s alive, and where do they live?”
In August, The Filmmakers’ Gallery will do something unusual—present a newish film.
“We’re excited for Aug. 11: We’re screening The Beales of Grey Gardens, which came out in 2006,” Roche said. “This is very different. It’s a sequel documentary of the original 1970s documentary by the Maysles brothers,” which was about Jackie Kennedy’s aunt and cousin. “We’re lucky to have Jerry Torre, who was the groundskeeper and friend to Big Edie and Little Edie. He wrote a biography, The Marble Fawn of Grey Gardens: A Memoir of the Beales, the Maysles Brothers, and Jacqueline Kennedy. His story is really fascinating: He is the only person who is alive who knew that group and can talk firsthand about what happened there—what was like to be friends with them, and living there with them. We’re excited about that. When we announced this film and the guest, we started to sell tickets on the first day.”
The Filmmakers’ Gallery presentation of Yours, Mine and Ours takes place starting at 5 p.m., Saturday, July 14, while the presentation of The Beales of Grey Gardens takes place starting at 6 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 11, at the Palm Springs Cultural Center, 2300 E. Baristo Road, in Palm Springs. Tickets are $10 to $15. For tickets or more information, call 562-354-1490, or visit www.facebook.com/thefilmmakersgallery.