{"id":3158,"date":"2014-07-29T07:06:25","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T13:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=3158"},"modified":"2014-07-30T08:15:53","modified_gmt":"2014-07-30T14:15:53","slug":"book-talk-wizard-of-oz-on-tap-at-the-babcock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2014\/07\/book-talk-wizard-of-oz-on-tap-at-the-babcock\/","title":{"rendered":"Book talk, ‘Wizard of Oz’ on tap at the Babcock"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Elder\"<\/a>

Jason Brown<\/p>

Robert K. Elder, right, and director John Waters (“Hairspray,” “Pink Flamingos”) at a book party in Chicago, at the Music Box Theatre.<\/p><\/div>\n

Robert K. Elder has 6-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, who\u2019ve never been to Billings.<\/p>\n

So when Elder brings them to his hometown town this week and next, he\u2019s planning to take them to all those places he visited as a kid \u2014 including Cody, Wyo., Yellowstone National Park and MontanaFair. Elder also hopes that he and his wife, Betsy Edgerton, can take in one night of the Magic City Blues festival while they\u2019re here.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a three-car pileup of things to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And the list doesn\u2019t even include the two events that are bringing Elder back to Billings. One is his Senior High 20th class reunion, on Aug. 8 and 9.<\/p>\n

The other is a book party and a screening of \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d at the Babcock Theatre this Sunday. He\u2019ll be the guest of honor, talking about two of the growing number of books he has written while pursuing a journalism career in Chicago.<\/p>\n

The two books both deal with movies. One is \u201cThe Film That Changed My Life,\u201d in which 30 directors talk about the films, to quote Elder\u2019s website, \u201cthat shaped their careers, and, in turn, cinema history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other is \u201cThe Best Film You\u2019ve Never Seen,\u201d in which 35 directors pick a movie they really liked but which was overlooked by moviegoers or trashed by the critics.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Elder said he chose \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d for the event because it\u2019s a movie for everyone in the family. Coincidentally, according to his website again, it was the movie that changed director John Waters\u2019 life.<\/p>\n

Waters says in Elder\u2019s book that \u201cwhen they throw the water on the witch, she says, \u2018Who could ever have thought a good little girl like you could destroy all my beautiful wickedness?\u2019 That line inspired my life. I sometimes say it to myself before I go to sleep, like a prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event will begin at 6 p.m. with a reception and book signing. At 7, Jaci Webb, entertainment editor of the Billings Gazette, will conduct a short Q&A with Elder, followed by a showing of \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d at 7:20. Tickets are $5.<\/p>\n

Elder said the event brings together a lot of threads in his life. He hasn\u2019t done a book signing in Billings since his first book, \u201cJohn Woo: Interviews,\u201d was published in 2005, and he has fond memories of the Babcock Theatre, in the heart of downtown Billings.<\/p>\n

It was there he saw the last Indiana Jones movie, the fourth \u201cStar Trek\u201d film and \u201cThe Hunt for Red October.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the Babcock,\u201d he said. \u201cI grew up with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Elder<\/a>

Esther Kang<\/p>

Robert K. Elder<\/p><\/div>\n

He also remembers the Hastings store where, all through junior high and high school, he rented countless movies.<\/p>\n

He put that background to work in his professional life, when he worked as a reporter and film critic in Chicago. He worked for the Chicago Tribune and wrote for, among other publications, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.<\/p>\n

Studs Terkel, the legendary Chicago journalist, wrote the introduction to \u201cLast Words of the Executed<\/a>,\u201d Elder\u2019s compilation of the final statements made by death row prisoners.<\/p>\n

A little more than a year ago, he was named editor-in-chief of Sun-Times Media Local, overseeing 36 publications in suburban Chicago. But why try to summarize his many accomplishments? You\u2019d better go to his website<\/a> and have a look.<\/p>\n

Elder said he is also excited about the Babcock event because it is being produced by Sean Lynch of 11:11 Entertainment. Lynch was three years ahead of Elder and graduated from West High, and Elder remembers contributing a story to a publication that Lynch put out in high school.<\/p>\n

For the Babcock event, Elder said, \u201cSean was wonderfully supportive, as he always is.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked \u2014 how could we resist? \u2014 to name the film that changed his life, Elder chose \u201cReservoir Dogs,\u201d Quentin Tarantino\u2019s violent, profane crime film of 1992. Elder first saw it on a video rented from Hastings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just completely blew my mind about what a film could be,\u201d he said, and he remembers it as being the first film in which he felt the overwhelming presence of the director. \u201cYou could really feel Tarantino\u2019s DNA stitched inside that film.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for a film that he thought was underrated or overlooked, Elder couldn\u2019t settle on one, so he named three: \u201cState of Grace,\u201d a 1990 crime drama starring Sean Penn; \u201cPanic,\u201d 2001, about a reluctant hit man played by William H. Macy; and \u201cWithout Limits,\u201d a 1998 biopic about the distance runner Steve Prefontaine.<\/p>\n

It sounds like he\u2019ll have a lot to squeeze into that 20-minute Q&A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert K. Elder has 6-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, who\u2019ve never been to Billings. So when Elder brings them to his hometown town this week and next, he\u2019s planning to take them to all those places he visited as a kid \u2014 including Cody, Wyo., Yellowstone National Park and MontanaFair. Elder also hopes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,17],"tags":[1081,178,1084,1082,1085,1083,1080,1086],"class_list":["post-3158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","category-culture","tag-the-wizard-of-oz","tag-babcock-theatre","tag-chicago-sun-times","tag-john-waters","tag-magic-city-blues","tag-quentin-tarantino","tag-robert-k-elder","tag-studs-terkel","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}