Wednesday, July 11, 2007


Jul. 11, 2007 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) --
Tuesday evening in Palo Alto hundreds of people waited in a long line that snaked down University Avenue -- and not a single one came to buy an iPhone.

They showed up for the second Fred Astaire Film Festival at the Stanford Theatre, exactly 20 years after the first Astaire Festival debuted. The 1987 event drew record crowds, prompting the Packard Foundation to buy and restore the historic movie hall.

Halfway down the line of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers fans Tuesday, a woman sipped from a Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) cup while waiting with her daughter, Ginger Standridge.

'I named her Ginger, after Ginger Rogers,' said Emily Perusa, a Saratoga resident and former dancer. 'I used to dream of dancing with Fred Astaire. I would sit in the front row and pretend I was dancing with him.'

Standridge said she loves her name.

'I tell everybody the story. You go places and there are no other Gingers,' Standridge said. She said she and her mother visit the Stanford Theatre 'as often as we can, especially when it's Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.'

Shortly after Astaire's death in 1987, David W. Packard and his wife rented the theater to show his films for two weeks.

'A lot of people thought no one would come. The movies were on TV every night,' Packard said Tuesday. Instead, 1,000 people showed up every night for the festival's two-week run.

'We said if people are smart enough to enjoy this, they ought to have the opportunity to do so,' Packard said. So six months later, his family bought and restored the theater built in 1925 and established the nonprofit Stanford Theatre Foundation to run it as a classic film movie house.

Before he bought the Stanford Theatre, Packard said the previous owner was showing films such as 'Predator,' starring what he called 'the scary, big face' of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

'I have nothing against Schwarzenegger, but his image on the screen was so much the opposite of Fred Astaire,' Packard said. He spent roughly $8 million to buy and renovate the theater to its original 1925 splendor.

'It's so satisfying to see other people enjoying good things,' he said.

Ticket prices for this year's festival are the same as they were 20 years ago: $20 for 14 movies.

Melanie Burgdorf, 18, was not around for the first festival, but she said she prefers classic films to those of today.

'They're better quality. Now, everything's computer graphics,' she said.

Sunnyvale resident Gene Gilman said Astaire films are uplifting with their 'beautiful music and beautiful dancing. ... It's exciting to see Fred and Ginger.'

Gilman's friend, Betty Sauer, kidded him a little.

'He'd rather see Ginger than Fred,' she said.

But Menlo Park resident Maggie Blackford said she's loyal to Astaire.

'I just love Fred Astaire movies,' she said. 'I'll see him over and over.'

The Fred Astaire Film Festival began Tuesday and runs until July 16 at the Stanford Theatre at 221 University Ave.

E-mail Kristina Peterson at  kpeterson@dailynewsgroup.com.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0163-18061874


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