A Night at the Iowa Theater
We gathered to watch Alfred Hitchcock's classic "Psycho" on a "Way Back Wednesday" at the quaint and wonderful venue in Winterset
My daughter recently told me I “cursed” her by sharing my love of classic cinema with her as a young child. It drew her in — as did my love of 60s, 70s, and 80s music — and she considers herself a throwback of sorts, intrigued by the past, terrified of the future.
She’s not alone, of course.
Flickering black-and-white tableaus obscure the currently vivid horrors that assail us, worsening by the day.
The Iowa is a refuge. The restored venue screens a mishmash of current hits and beloved classics, with some art-house favorites mixed in. You can feel the sense of community there. It’s soothing, familiar, almost hypnotic.
The concession stand features the usual fare — fountain sodas, bagged and boxed candy, and, of course, fluffy and delicious popcorn with real butter. Yes, real butter. There’s also a fine selection of local beer and wine, which I enjoyed as I sidled in to view Hitchcock’s celebrated 1960 film leaned hard into Freudian concepts (like many of his works), and — shockingly, at the time — killed off its established main character, Marion Crane (played brilliantly by Janet Leigh), via the infamous “shower scene.”
Maladjusted Norman Bates (played confidently by Anthony Perkins) committed the murder (as his mother), then covered it up by frantically cleaning up the crime scene in cabin 1. He wrapped Crane in the shower curtain, gathered all her belongings, and then dropped everything into her car’s trunk. He didn’t notice that the neatly folded newspaper in her room contained a lot of stolen money, which she had — after talking to Norman over sandwiches in his creepy, stuffed bird-filled parlor — decided to return. He drove the car to a swamp and shoved it into the murky mess. At one point, the vehicle stopped sinking and stubbornly remained partly afloat as Norman looked on with concern. Finally, it gurgled into the depths, easing his mind and assuaging his shame, as Marion’s potentially redemptive character arc faded to black.
I won’t spoil the rest of the picture if you’ve never seen it. But it seemed fitting to view it late last month ahead of Halloween and the 2024 election.
Psycho first hit theaters on June 16, 1960. In the previous month, then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960 into law. In the following month, a six-month-long demonstration marred by police brutality ended when a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina served its first Black customers.
Progress seemed inevitable. A decade framed by tumult but fueled by hope began. Everything —and everyone — was worth fighting for, and that’s still the case today.
Our country has never truly reckoned with its past horrors or crimes. Our “Mother” lives on, eager to protect its “purity” by any means necessary, all the while whispering, “She wouldn’t even harm a fly.”
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Iowa Writers Collaborative: Roundup
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Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Taylor Decker: Taylor’s Millennial Mindset, Sioux City
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Randy Evans: Stray Thoughts, Des Moines via Bloomfield
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Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji and Sioux Falls
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Hola Iowa: Iowa
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Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
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Ty Rushing :Ty’s Take, Iowa City
Steve Semken: Ice Cube Press, LLC, North Liberty
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