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Kansas City, Missouri – from www.kansascity.com – At one time in its history, the Strand Theatre was a place to see avant-garde films.
“For a while, it was an edgy art-house theater,” Jori Sackin said. “Then Dick Snow bought it in the 1970s and turned it into an adult theater. In the 1980s, he tried booking bands in there for a while. I think he called it the Gonzo Rock and Roll Theater and booked hair-metal and punk bands. That lasted a couple months.”
On Saturday, Sackin and his friend and collaborator Pat Vamos will turn the Strand, 3544 Troost Ave., into all of the above when they present “Space Thang,” their loose-knit tribute to the spirit of 1970s adult films. Before the show, Sackin’s band, Mary Fortune, will perform.
The theme of “Space Thang” developed after Sackin and Vamos decided to do a project together. Vamos has directed and produced music videos for several local bands, including the Get Up Kids, the New Amsterdams and Ghosty. Sackin, too, has video experience within the local arts community, having worked with musician Mark Southerland on several projects and with the creators of Whoop Dee Doo, a self-proclaimed “kid-friendly … radical talent show.”
Sackin and Vamos wanted to present their project in a theater instead of the usual bar/nightclub or gallery setting. That’s when the Strand came to mind. So Sackin did some exploring.
“Before I asked (Snow), I wanted to have a look at the place,” Sackin said. “It was kind of funny. I approached the door guy and said, ‘Umm, I’m kind of thinking about doing a project here. I just wanted to go in and just look at the theater,’ and he’s just looking at me the entire time, like, ‘Yeah, right.’ Finally, he goes, ‘It’s $10.’
“So, fine. I go look at it. And it’s a regular theater with a very cool stage and a tiny catwalk and theater lighting. It seats 500 people. I thought, ‘This will be great.’ ”
After that, he went to Snow, whose reaction, Sackin said, “was like, ‘It’s a terrible idea, but I think it might work.’ So I asked him if we could set a date, and he goes through pages of his calender, like, ‘Yeah I’m pretty sure we’re clear for whenever you want to do it. We don’t get many people walking in, asking to book shows.’ ”
That was back in March. Once they’d secured the date, he and Vamos came up with a theme.
“We wanted to make a movie especially for the Strand,” Vamos said, “one that could only be shown there. We wanted the movie to be an event, an adventure, one that would open up a small part of Kansas City’s history to people who either don’t know about it or who know about it and are slightly interested in it but have never been inside. So, it’s like an open house.”
The film is a mix of animation created by Sackin and film footage. Vamos uses a lot of “found footage” in his work, and for “Space Thang” he will tap his reservoir of clips from 1970s adult films.
“I’m always looking for fresh footage, anything I haven’t seen 100 times,” he said. “As soon as we got the Strand, I thought, ‘We should tailor this movie to the experience at an adult theater.’ That lead us to the vast amount of 1970s adult movies. They had plots, cheesy special-affects … there is tons to draft from.”
So he hit eBay, thrift stores and garage sales and his own library of films, which coincidentally included things he’d bought when Snow liquidated his old SRO Video business.
“The talking robots in ‘Space Thang’ are from one of those SRO videos I bought long before we were talking about this project,” Vamos said.
“Space Thang,” its creators say, is “naughty but not sleazy — Playboy, not Penthouse NC-17, not X-rated,” Vamos said. “It’s a fun movie.”
No one younger than 18 can be admitted into the theater because of what’s in its inventory, Sackin said, “So we’ll be checking IDs at the door.”
Mary Fortune will open Saturday’s event with a set of about 40 minutes — an idea Vamos suggested.
“When I heard there was a stage, I said, ‘We’ve gotta have a band,’ ” he said. “Most of my presentations have been very under-attended. I chalk it up to not many people wanting to sit and watch a bunch of music videos. I thought, if we have a band, at least we’re guaranteed we’ll get a band crowd there.” Showtime is 9 p.m. Tickets are $5 at the door.
Sackin said Snow has spruced up the theater a bit for the event: “They’ve painted the floor, put new bulbs in the projectors and new wires in the speakers.”