Spaceballs
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
The drive-in honored the Star Wars legacy on May the 4th with my favorite Mel Brooks movie, and one of my favorite comedies of the 80's, Spaceballs.
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
The drive-in honored the Star Wars legacy on May the 4th with my favorite Mel Brooks movie, and one of my favorite comedies of the 80's, Spaceballs.
Before the start of the film, Rob screened 35mm print of the 1955 Merrie Melodies short, One Froggy Evening. This was one of the cartoons that was shown during Opening Weekend last month, but the Chuck Jones classic was the perfect fit for tonight's movie. The cartoon features Michigan J Frog dancing and singing several different songs, the most prominent of which is the 1899 Tin Pan Alley song Hello Ma Baby.
Fans of Spaceballs may remember that this song also appears in the diner scene near the end of the movie. John Hurt appears in a cameo reprising his role from the 1979 sci-fi horror classic Alien. A xenomorph bursts through his chest to his pained cry of "oh no, not again", but instead of menacing the patrons of the diner, the creature dons a top hat and cane and sings Hello Ma Baby while dancing across the bar in the same way that Michigan J Frog does in the cartoon. If you watch that part of the cartoon right before the diner scene in Spaceballs, you'll notice that this scene is more than a simple tribute. Mel Brooks lifted the audio clip of the song from One Froggy Evening to use for the xenomorph's song and dance routine.
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| Show banner designed by Andrew Kern |
Spaceballs has been on my Mahoning wish list since we first discovered the place back in 2021. It premiered in theaters exactly one week before my 7th birthday, but I didn't see it until the following year when it was released on VHS. I've watched it countless times over the past 37 years, to the point where I could probably recite the entire film by heart. Before we started coming here, I never thought I'd get to see it on 35mm at a drive-in theater.
