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THINKING BACK

photo: courtesy of the CWRU Film Society

On a chilly January evening in 1976, the lights dimmed in Strosacker Auditorium—and the CWRU Film Society's first 30-hour-plus sci-fi marathon began with a showing of films from the 1925 The Lost World to the 1974 Dark Star. Forty years and 610 movies later (436 if you don't count repeats), the "thon" is a university fixture, where devotees yell at the movie designated each year as the terrible blockbuster, catch naps in sleeping bags on the stage, and eat pizza at 9 p.m. and doughnuts at midnight. They also welcome back alumni who join the audience or help run the (mostly) 35 mm films. Charley Knox (CIT '74, GRS '78, physics), an associate astronomer at the university, helped launch the marathon, has attended every one of them and still is a projectionist. "The movies appeal to the inner sense of wonder," Knox said. "There are things beyond the everyday and mundane that you can contemplate."

What are your memories—funny, sci-fi-ish or otherwise—of the marathon? Write to us at think@case.edu.