The Night They Raided Minsky's

You are Cordially Invited to
MEET THE CINEMATOGRAPHER: Andrew Laszlo
"The Night They Raided Minsky's"
On Thursday, December 11, 2008, 6:00-8:30 PM
At the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, New York
1375 Broadway (between 37th and 38th Streets), 21st floor, Suite 2103
Reception 6:00-6:30 ~ Program 6:30-8:00
 
Produced & Moderated by Sumner Jules Glimcher
 
*Free to Members!
$15 for those without current membership
 
RESERVATIONS REQUIRED DUE TO BUILDING SECURITY. ALL NAMES MUST BE ON GUEST LIST.
PLEASE RSVP VIA EMAIL info@nyemmys.org or CALL 212-459-3630, ext. 200.
 
The Night They Raided Minsky's is set in the rarefied world of burlesque in the 1920s. Quaker girl Rachel Schpitendavel (Britt Ekland) comes to New York in hopes of securing work as a dancing interpreter of religious stories. She gets a job at Minsky's burlesque house, where the dance numbers are "Biblical" only when some gum-chewing stripper performs Salome's Dance of the Seven Veils. The many subplots leading up to Rachel's accidental invention of the striptease during a midnight Minsky's show involve many: top banana Chick Williams (Norman Wisdom) and womanizing straight-man Raymond Paine (Jason Robards Jr.); Billy Minsky (Elliot Gould), whose efforts to stage girlie shows at the National Winter Garden are looked down upon by Minsky Sr. (Joseph Wiseman), who holds the lease on the theater; gangster Trim Houlihan (Forrest Tucker), who intends to shut down Minsky's if he can't get a piece of the action; Ekland's preacher father Harry Andrews, who shows up in New York just in time to see his daughter bare all in front of a cheering audience; and Vance Fowler (Denhom Elliot), self-appointed protector of public morals, whom Paine hopes to embarrass by having Rachel perform her religious dance. A straightforward adaptation of Rowland Barber's novel The Night They Raided Minsky's would seem to be called for here, but novice director William Friedkin and film editor Ralph Rosenblum seem determined to turn the film into a kaleidoscope Hard Day's Night clone. Happily, producer Norman Lear is able to accommodate several nostalgic re-creations of such burlesque chestnuts as "Crazy House" and "Meet Me Round the Corner," as well as six delightful in-period songs penned by Bye Bye Birdie's Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, the best of which is the ribald "Perfect Gentleman." Bert Lahr makes his last appearance on screen in the role of washed-up funnyman Professor Spats; he died during production, and had to be extensively doubled throughout.

Andrew Laszlo’s career in film and television spans nearly fifty years from the original PhilSilvers Show (Sgt Bilko) to Walt Disney Pictures' Newsies. Starting his film career as an apprentice at the Motion Picture Studios of Budapest, Hungary, he came to the United States as an emigrant in 1947. He served in the U. S. Army Signal Corps as a cameraman from 1950 until 1952. He has traveled extensively throughout the world making close to fifty major feature films and an equal number of television credits. Among his credits, in addition to The Night They Raided Minskys, are: Star Trek: The Final Frontier; Rambo: First Blood; Shogun (TV Miniseries); The Warriors; Lovers and Other Strangers; The Beatles at Shea Stadium; and One Potato, Two Potato. Since his retirement as a Hollywood cinema photographer, he has written eight books, including “Every Frame A Rembrandt,” “Footnote to History,” and most recently “Banjin,” based upon the true story of the first Japanese who ever came to America.

Location: NY NATAS
1375 Broadway, between 37th and 38th Streets, 21st floor, Suite 2103
New York , NY 10018

Date: Dec. 11, 2008, 1 p.m. - Dec. 11, 2008, 3:30 p.m.