Last Saturday night 80-odd people gathered at the LaSalle Theatre on Irving Park near Cicero to watch Just Imagine (1930), a long-forgotten Hollywood musical set in the futuristic year of 1980. With elaborate art deco sets and sci-fi design, it plays like a Busby Berkeley remake of Metropolis starring the Ritz Brothers. The young lovers meet cute when the dashing J-21 pulls up alongside lovely LN-18 in his winged hovercraft. Sadly, the government marriage tribunal awards her to another man who’s better advantaged, so the hero lodges an appeal and tries to distinguish himself by piloting an experimental rocket ship to Mars.
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The 16-millimeter print was jumpy with edits, and during some scenes the dialogue lagged behind the action on-screen. It was possibly the weirdest thing going this New Year’s weekend, and where else in the known universe were you going to see it? LaSalle Bank’s film series was founded in 1972 by old-time radio guru Chuck Schaden, and the bank has stuck with the program ever since. It languished for several years following the advent of home video, then Scott Marks, a well-liked film instructor at Columbia College, took over in 1995. He began programming more obscure Hollywood titles and the series began to attract students and film buffs in addition to its core audience of neighborhood seniors. A year ago Marks left for San Diego and handed the flag to 25-year-old Matthew Hoffman, a former student of his who lives in Niles and had long frequented the series with his father.
Hoffman spends every Saturday night at the theater, coming in at six to clean the ancient 16-millimeter projectors (“the oldest machines in Chicago,” he says), taking tickets for the 8 PM show, and screening the film. The print quality can vary from sublime to hellish. “If we can start getting good crowds, break 100 consistently, maybe we’ll get a 35-millimeter projector,” he says.
