July 26, 2004
"HOLLYWOOD"
Nationally syndicated column
By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith
GLOBAL WALKER HAS DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
ON FOREIGN FILM-GOING
SILVER SCREEN INTERNATIONAL: Soon due to cross the finish line of her
five-year Global Walk for Breast Cancer, amazing woman and avowed movie buff
Polly Letofsky has unique insights into how the film-going experience differs
from country to country.
In Thailand, she tells us via cell phone while walking a Rocky Mountain road,
you get up and pay homage to the king with a song between the (usually-violent)
previews and the feature, and you get an intermission -- even if it means
stopping the projector mid-scene.
In Calcutta, in movie-adoring India, Polly found herself seated in the balcony
near a fellow filmgoer who had a clucking chicken. Was that dinner or a
pet? "Dinner, I'm afraid," she says. "There are
always people carrying around chickens there. They don't have
refrigeration."
Popcorn was a universal part of the movie scene in the countries Polly walked
through, with some differences: in Malaysia, they put sugar on it, in India,
butterscotch powder.
Back in the good ol' U.S.A., Polly found a smattering of old-fashioned, small
town "Main Street theaters ... There are still some of those around,
owned by families who make the popcorn at home and bring it in," she notes,
remembering one owner who politely asked the audience not to spill.
Having raised money and awareness toward fighting breast cancer in 22 countries
(see www.globalwalk.org), the first American woman to walk 14,000 miles around
the world is expected to arrive to her well-deserved hero's welcome, complete
with parade, in Vail, Colorado, on Friday (July 30).