Eastwood Mall Theatre

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Uploaded on: December 20, 2024

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The week before the grand opening an ad appeared in the paper announcing the premiere of Birmingham’s newest and finest theater. Not only was it the first of its type to be built since before the depression, but was also the first not located downtown. The opening feature was scheduled to be “John Goldfarb Please Come Home” starring Shirley McLaine.

Then Notre Dame filed a court action claiming the story and film held the school and its football team up to ridicule by the way the film represented them onscreen. The court agreed and 20th Century Fox was enjoined from releasing the movie which was scheduled to open on Christmas Day in 400 theaters nationwide. Further sales of the book were also halted. As a result Fox was forced to substitute their next release and after a week of frantic scrambling “The Pleasure Seekers” became the big Christmas. Good thing for them and the theaters involved that they already had that one in the can.

I recall a story from a book on the making of Its A Wonderful Life which was almost 20 years before this. For the scene where George Bailey brags about being nominated for membership to the National Geographic Society, they were required to get a clearance from NG or use a fictitious organization, and that was in a complimentary context. Did it not occur to anyone that it might be a good idea to clear the use of its name, and probably football uniforms, with Notre Dame first?