Hey folks, Harry here. You familiar with the 'heebie-jeebies'? That weird up you spine wiggle you get when you hear something so ironic that it becomes... very very scary? No? Well let me explain...

On the last Saturday of every month here in Austin, I host THE SATURDAY MORNING FUN CLUB for children at the Alamo Drafthouse. With 100% of the profits from last year's BUTT-NUMB-A-THON, I decided to start a film series that worked hand in hand with BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS, THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE, THE HUMAN LEAGUE and THE ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE to show children that otherwise wouldn't be getting to see a movie on the big screen... a chance to see not only that... but the exact sort of magical films that they should be watching.

So, for the past four months on that last Saturday of the month, we've screened CLASH OF THE TITANS, FORBIDDEN PLANET, ESCAPE FROM WITCH MOUNTAIN and then... just this past Saturday... We screened BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS.

The audience is about 70% under the age of 10, and they fell in love with the film. The musical numbers, the dancing... the glowing bedknob that could take you anywhere at anytime. Sure, it's a bit LITTLE NEMO-ish, but gosh it's a great dream. And in the film it was David Tomlinson and his Professor Emelius Browne that captured the children. Perhaps it was the manner in which he could twitch his nose spasticly like a rabbit. Perhaps it was because he so wanted to be able to perform magic. The incompetent spell in which to transform yourself or another into a white rabbit... for just a bit of time.

Meanwhile... across the Atlantic, David Tomlinson had just passed away just a few short hours before. And already he was still delighting a whole line up of children. And he will, in that same magical Drafthouse, he will do so again when someday in the future we'll screen THE LOVE BUG and MARY POPPINS. Till then in all those pre-10 minds, he'll be just that tricky soccer referee, that street-side salesman of magic, the man who can find the spell to defeat a nazi invasion.

If you get a chance... check out BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS again... I love that film...

A Father Geek note: First off every thing Harry noted goes for me too, this guy was pure magic to watch on the screen and it's a really weird feeling to have been watching him in "BEDKNOBS" on Saturday morning with 200 excited kids cheering his every action knowing now that he has departed this earthly realm. However, seeing the pure joy on all those children's faces as they left the Alamo running and kicking imaginary soccer balls against imaginary cartoon soccer foes proves beyond any doubt that he will live in a way forever.

On another point we have set up an AICN-Obits page that indexes and links to all the past Memorials that have been written here at AICN. So if you missed our musings about Bones, Ernest, Hedy Lamarr, Victor Mature, Marc Davis, or anyone else, or if you just want to revisit one of our past Obits just click on that "MORE AICN" box over on the left and check it all out.