Oak Cliff: Watching Godard at the Texas Theatre

The night of the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl fiasco was way more magical than I could have possibly imagined while making my way to Paris on April 26, 1986.

Working on a whim from an events email from the Alliance Française, I'd reached back after work to drive over to Oak Cliff and see Jean-Luc Godard's Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (1962) on a big screen, something I'd wanted to do for many years. Earlier in the day, the memory of Chernobyl had made me think of Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), so I'd already found and posted the original trailer before heading out. I had then checked to see how to get to the Texas Theatre, and only then did I realize that this was the theatre where Lee Harvey Oswald was nabbed on November 22, 1963, soon after killing Officer J.D. Tippit (and just two days before his own violent death).

All I could think at that realization was: weird!

As for the Texas Theatre, it first opened in 1931 and was even then air conditioned (a big draw, no doubt) and briefly owned by Howard Hughes; its ride ever since has been a wild one.

What I experienced on April 26, 2011, was pure amazement.

I absolutely love the exterior lights of the Texas Theatre, the interior milieu, the David Lynch coffee, bar area, record player with stacks of albums, books on tables in café area, and single large screening area (where Oswald was tackled after not paying for a ticket to see a double feature of Cry of Battle and War is Hell -- both 1963 releases). Sort of like the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan, the atmosphere of the Texas Theatre is low-key but very compelling.

Seeing Godard at the Texas Theatre was in and of itself a very rewarding experience, but more on that by way of an upcoming post, no doubt.

But what was perhaps the most strangelovely and synchronicitous magic of all was coming up to the poster pictured above, only hours after musing over Dr. Strangelove and its 1964 trailer: here was (and is) Slim Pickens riding not an atomic bomb as in the movie, but atop the marquee lights of the Texas Theatre!

And announcing what? A showing of Dr. Strangelove for "Terry Southern Day," May 1, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. as part of the Texas Theatre's "Soul of Oak Cliff Series."

Beyond weird, now I was into far out, man, Twilight Zone territory. I ordered the David Lynch coffee and proceeded to dig the outer limits of the rest of the ride till midnight -- and maybe even one step beyond.

Today's Rune: Wholeness.