Buskirk reunites ‘golden age’ with golden years

Though the Buskirk-Chumley Theater was filled with peppered hair, bifocals and the aroma of popcorn, by the time the lights dimmed the crowd reunited with their youth.

“It’s just being able to laugh a little bit, live my childhood dreams again,” Bloomington resident Laura Musgrove said.

With collaborative efforts including the Bloomington Parks and Recreation and IU Department of Communication and Culture, the Buskirk presents “Golden Age of Hollywood,”  a series of classic movies that are shown the second Sunday of every month with $2 admission.

This month was “The Sweet Smell of Success,” a black and white film from 1957 starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.

Lancaster plays J.J. Hunsecker, a popular columnist that has an issue with his sister’s love interest and hires Curtis’ character, Sidney Falco, a desperate press agent determined to get his clients in the column, to tear them apart.

For some residents, the easiness and the welcoming warmth of Sunday led to their interest to go back to the “Golden Age”.

“It was just a pretty day for a movie,” Musgrove said.

“Golden Age of Hollywood” regulars, Chuck and Gladys Bartholomew agree that it is a good monthly retreat.

“It’s just the enjoyment and entertainment,” Gladys Bartholomew said.

“And no commercials,” Chuck Bartholomew said.

Chuck Bartholomew said he thinks that younger audiences could get some insight from watching classic movies.

“It can give them some appreciation for life in that time frame,” he said. “There was limited technology, no cell phones.”

Musgrove said she favors the simplicity and lightheartedness of movies from the golden age over modern movies.

“There is so much cussing and violence that is unnecessary,” she said about current movies. “Compared to the way they make films now, it’s so raw. Back then, they had so much visual imagination and good feelings.”