About The Cinevangelist

"Due to a series of unfortunate events, The Ideal Theater in Hampden became my day care center at age 6. The box office lady knew my grand mother, and the year was 1954, and situations like that were easier then. I was immediately swallowed by the Cinema like Jonah in the Whale. I was there every weekday from opening until closing, after school started every weekend, for 8 or 9 months. From then on the images on the screen were my (reel) school, religion, and mother.

 I saw everything from The Wizard Of Oz re-releases in the '50s to Son Of Kong, Rebel Without A Cause, and Rock & Roll Movies like Rock Around The Clock and Love Me Tender. When we finally got TV I discovered the old movies run on local stations, and discovered Fellini and Laurel & Hardy, The Marx Bros. and longed to see them in my other home, The Movies. In 1960 there was an Art screen in Towson, The Town. They ran La Dolce Vita, and at last I could see a new Fellini film. I was 13 but I got an older friend to be my accompanying adult.

In the next few years I discovered the Beatnik Coffee Houses, the Down Town Art Cinemas and Bohemian 'dives'. It just so happened that my new found friend John Waters was recruiting humans to be in his films, 'Dorothy The Kansas City Pot Head', and 'Eat Your Makeup'. After acting in those, I went to NYC to play in the 'Basket Houses' (coffee houses where they pass the basket), and became a professional wandering minstrel, and denizen of the many art screens, finally recording an LP in 1968.

However, I returned to Baltimore whenever Mr. Waters was engaged in a new production. I traveled to Cambridge, Mass. pursuing my musical career, playing in many bands, and finally as T Bone Walker's harmonica player in 1971. While I was in Cambridge there emerged a movement to bring 'Old Movies' back to the big screen. Luckily I got to be part of that movement, helped put it together and volunteered as projectionist and wood cutter at the Orson Welles Cinema in Harvard Square. (It was also a Hippie restaurant and hangout.)

By 1973 I had succumbed to the 'Rigors Of the Road', and escaped into the Appalachians for 6 years, to recover, and paint. Only returning once, in 1977 to be in Desperate Living, I moved back to Baltimore in '81. The Charles being the flagship theater for the 'Dreamlanders', I was Assistant Manager, and relief projectionist for the Charles until '88 when I left to put the Orpheum together to run revival and second run cinema. The Orpheum ran double features at reasonable prices for 10 years. From 1993 to 2010, I ran dailies for Hollywood features that were shot in Baltimore as a Union Projectionist." -- George Figgs