We stayed at Pheasant Run resort outside of Chicago in 1974.
Burt Reynolds happened to be there and I can still remember the gasp of every woman as he walked by.
This was right after Deliverence and he was soaking wet with masculinity.
I doubt women would gasp today upon seeing Harry Styles.
“We stayed at Pheasant Run resort outside of Chicago in 1974.”
It’s closed now and undergoing demolition. They’re destroying it a piece at a time. We drive past it often. We used to stay there from time to time. They had an amazing Sunday Brunch.
Very sad.
L
I grew up in Jimmy Stewart's home town of Indiana, PA. As such, there was something of a classic movie fan base. When I was a little kid in the '70s there were two theaters in downtown, a drive-in that operated during the summer months, and a third indoor theater on the far side of town.
Around 1980-81, a mall opened up with a 4 theater multiplex that pretty much put the downtown theaters out of business. One burnt down, but the other pretty much stayed as is, as there were several floors of offices in the building above it. It was a classic old theater that had been converted to film from the stage plays day. There was still an orchestra pit from the silent era. Different organizations around town would rent the theater and show classic movies for fund raisers, and of course they usually showed, "It's a Wonderful Life," a few times every December.
When I was 15 or 16 and kind of sort of starting to date, I took a young lady to see Casablanca on the big screen in a classic old theater. Of course everybody dressed up, many in dinner jackets and formal gowns or other period costume.
We took our seats and the lights went down and the movie started. The movie has kind of a gritty, rough and tumble start showing dusty, chaotic streets of Casablanca, and the action eventually moves into Rick's Cafe, and into Rick's inner sanctum, where the camera turns to reveal Bogart, impeccably dressed in his white dinner jacket and black tie, seated almost king-like behind his desk, cigarette in his fingers and the smoke slowly rising upwards.
Every female in the theater (my date included) simultaneously let out a little gasp. If it had been just one woman, the sound would have been almost imperceptible, but in a crowded theater with a roughly 50% female attendance, the sound was greatly amplified. This would have been about 45 years after the movie was made and I could only think to myself, "Bogie's still got it."
Pheasant Run... That brings back memories. We’d staycation there when I was a kid in the ‘90’s. I loved that pool, particularly in winter and at night. Seeing all of that steam in the night air was almost otherworldly.
Note: I still have a crush on Burt circa Bandit through Dukes of Hazzard.