New Orleans is a magical place. Nowhere else do you have a city saturated with Creole culture, deep southern traditions, and a vibrant modern enthusiasm! This city has suffered because of Katrina, but the people who live here fight every day to keep their city alive. They seek to fuel New Orleans into the future while cherishing the warm embrace of their past.
One of my favorite examples of this ‘fantastic love affair with the past’ is the Prytania movie theater located uptown. This quaint one screen movie theater was renovated with loving care and as a result maintains its early 20th century charm. I recently went to the one of the theater’s Classic Movie Series pictures, My Fair Lady. The movie experiences started off with a cute little old man singing the “Warner Brothers- movie-introduction-score” into a hand held mic. Then he went into a little speech about the beautiful colors in My Fair Lady and how Cary Grant had turned down the lead role and how the roses in the beginning scenes are some of the most beautiful flowers he ever had seen.
His little speech was charming and something that would NEVER have occurred in one of the mega-plex movie theaters that my generation has become accustomed to! To top of his little speech he announced that complimentary cookies and coffee would be served at the intermission of the movie (SUCH GREAT CUSTOMER RELATIONS AND A WONDERFUL TRADITION!). Hearing this, the whole audience was in a great mood as the pre-movie Bugs Bunny cartoon started. Without having to sit through any annoying commercials or movie previews My Fair Lady began to roll seamlessly just after the short cartoon ended.
I have to admit that I didn’t want to leave this wonderful place at the end of the movie! It was tempted to stay for the 4:00 showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince because I wanted to hold on to the magical mood that this charming theater had put me in (and it was not only me- all of the audience from the little old lady wearing a straw hat on my left to the young teen with a pierced lip and Converses to my right- thoroughly enjoyed the movie and the old-world-charm of the theater). The Prytania theater is exemplary of the wonderful culture and tradition that one can experience in New Orleans. I cannot wait to visit it again soon!
So many people have so many good things to say about New Orleans - I'll make sure to put all these lovely places you've mentioned on my to-see list!
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