The Importance of 54

If you're reading this, you're likely aware that Vonna and I have come up with a variety of interesting ways to celebrate my birthday over the years. 

Back in 1991, for my 21st Birthday, my friend Joey, Vonna and I attended a Scientology mixer in Hollywood (they were promoting an L. Ron Hubbard book release [FEAR], and had invited booksellers from around the country to attend). Sadly, none of the A-List scientologists were in attendance, but I did see Jeffrey Tambor — AND got to hear a female scientologist (who was even younger than me) extoll the virtues of L. Ron Hubbard's early pulp stories (she was the last person one would expect to see shilling deluxe leatherbound editions of his creaky pulp fiction!). 

Not our screening, but you get the idea...

As my 30th Birthday approached in 2000, Vonna suggested that we should do something big to celebrate. We came up with renting a theater in downtown San Jose to host a screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. That was a lot of fun – and a first for us. It was great getting to see the film (an actual 35mm film screening, not a digital presentation) with a large crowd of our friends and family on the big screen for the first time in 18 years (since it's 1982 re-release). 

We moved into our new house in 2007, and officially opened The Slaughtered Lamb Cinema the day after Thanksgiving that year. In early 2009, Vonna brought up my 40th Birthday, and I jokingly suggested a 40-hour marathon. While that seemed ridiculous, even to me, it got me thinking even bigger. What if we watched 40 of my favorite movies over the course of my Birthday month? As crazy as it sounded, I mapped out a plan, and in 2010 we screened 40 movies over the course of 30 days. An epic achievement that we haven't (yet) exceeded (though our pre-pandemic Year-End Wrap-Up marathons have tested the limits of how many movies we can squeeze into a few days). I blogged the 40/40 event, both leading up to and throughout the run. You can read all about it here. 

Before we knew it, 2020 was upon us (not to mention so much more that we definitely couldn't have predicted!). The idea of screening 50 movies for my 50th Birthday was dismissed fairly quickly, but as we had just published our first Cimarron Street Books' titles in the Fall of 2019, I had a (well, another) crazy idea. What if I published a book celebrating 50 years of my most significant movie memories that I could give to my friends as a party favor. I sat down and very quickly came up with a list of more than 50 film screenings that resonated with me, and decided to go for it. Keep in mind this was just before New Year's Day, 2020. In order to have the book in hand in time for my Birthday celebration on the 21st, I would need to order copies at least a week in advance. And that meant we'd need to review a physical proof about a week before that. Which basically gave me less than a week to write, design the layout, and submit the book for publication. Somehow, I managed to do it. While there was never any expectation that anyone would buy a copy, much to my amazement, people continue to find and purchase it on Amazon. Shortly before Vonna's Birthday that year, I thought it would be cool to have a copy in full color (as the book included movie posters and other artifacts to make it at least visually interesting), so I released a 'Technicolor' version. And a year later, after Amazon invited me to participate in their beta hardcover publishing program, I tested those waters with a hardcover version of the color edition.

Now, at this point you'd probably think we'd chill out for the next 10 years, but the pandemic that landed just after my Birthday celebration resulted in our closing the Slaughtered Lamb for the foreseeable future. As to me, it was always a communal place, I pretty much avoided screening films in the theater that first year. And while Vonna and I watched a few things in 2021, I decided that we needed to keep the spirit alive until we were available to re-open for guests, and with that, our 52 Pick-Up series was launched on my 52nd Birthday in 2022. For each of the 52 weeks of the year, we watched at least one film from The Slaughtered Lamb Library that I had never seen on the big screen. To make things more interesting, each film for each half of the series would be from a different letter of the alphabet, so we watched 26 films from A to Z, and then cycled through a second time. 

Which brings us to my plan for 54. What's so special about 54, you ask? Well, three seminal influences of mine came into the world in 1954. Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, Godzilla, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon are each celebrating their 70th anniversary this year. As you are probably already aware, I have extensive collections when it comes to these three things, and so for the next 52 weeks, I will be sharing photos of 54 items from my I Am Legend collection (on Mondays), 54 items from my Godzilla collection (on Wednesdays), and 54 items from my Creature from the Black Lagoon collection (on Fridays). To get to 54, I will drop the first 3 items later this evening on my Birthday (Sunday, 1/21), and then maintain the weekly schedule noted above. The 54th entry will drop on the specific 70th anniversary for each. 

Should you choose to join us on this journey, I hope it will be as much fun to follow as I expect it will be to curate!