The following is a guest post by Jenny Paxson of the Packard Campus.
Thursday, February 23 (7:30 p.m.)
Under the Rainbow (Orion, 1981)
Carrie Fisher co-stars in this comedy farce as MGM casting agent Annie Clark who is assigned to look after the 150 diminutive, and as it turns out, rowdy, actors who play Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. Staying at the same hotel as the “little people” and adding to the chaos are Japanese tourists, assassins, and Secret Service Agent Bruce Thorpe (Chevy Chase), there to protect an Austrian Duke and Duchess. Under the Rainbow was loosely based on stories about hijinks allegedly committed by the “Munchkin” actors and was partially filmed on location at the Culver Hotel, where they actually stayed during the production of Oz.
Friday, February 24 (7:30 p.m.)
Bundle of Joy (RKO, 1956)
In this Technicolor musical remake of the 1939 comedy film “Bachelor Mother” (1939), Debbie Reynolds plays Polly Parish, an unmarried department store sales girl who finds and takes care of an abandoned baby. Complications ensure when the staff of the orphanage and Polly’s co-workers all assume the child is hers and that the father is Dan Merlin (Eddie Fisher, in his acting debut), the son of the store owner. Reynolds, married to the popular singer Eddie Fisher at the time, was pregnant with their daughter Carrie during this movie’s filming.
Saturday, February 25 (7:00 p.m.) — SOLD OUT!
The Western Flyers with special guest Bobby Hicks
Following a sell-out performance in August, 2014, The Western Flyers, made up of renowned guitar master Joey McKenzie, world-class upright bassist Gavin Kelso, and National Swing Fiddle champion Katie Glassman, return to the Packard Campus for another great evening of authentic Western Swing, hot jazz and swing standards, cowboy songs and electrifying old-time fiddle tunes. The trio released their debut album, Wild Blue Yonder, last summer and have recently played a number of dates in Europe. Bobby Hicks, who played fiddle for bluegrass legend Bill Monroe, will be a featured special guest at the concert. Free tickets for this event can be reserved at westernflyers.eventbrite.com.
For more information on our programs, please visit the website at: www.loc.gov/avconservation/theater/.