Once again the Weekend Contributors Writing Pool is dry, so I thought I’d post a somewhat “Boris” related post up today, since this normally is his spot, but he’s got a daughter returning to college, so he had a busy week and couldn’t come up with anything for today. So I thought I’d go back in time and rerun some photos from a memorable day on my 365 Bar Crawl.

It was Saturday, July 24th, 2010, day 196 of my 365 bar crawl. The bar I went to wasn’t that interesting, but what happened before was really interesting, at least to me. I’m a huge fan of the film, Goodfellas and they had a special screening of the movie at a theater on St. Marks Place. And the special guest star for the movie was none other than Henry Hill, the man the movie is based on. Well, I decided to go early and try to meet Henry Hill and give him a 365 Bars t-shirt that “Boris” had designed. And the rest is history that you can read by scrolling down and seeing what happened. Hard to believe that was over four years ago! Let’s go take a trip back in time! I’ll be using the original captions from the 365 Bar post, by the way. Okay, let’s go!

Here's the Theatre.

Showtime is 6pm. As usual I'm early so we'll hang around outside till the doors open up.

And who shows up early as well but the real life inspiration for the film, Henry Hill. I gave the former Goodfella a shirt with the original designed "Boris" logo and he happily accepted it. And yeah, I was a little nervous standing out on the street with him, but luckily no one took pot shots at us.

The doors opened and the lobby quickly filled up.

Everyone who bought a ticket got an autographed program and there were other items for sale.

Including paintings by Henry Hill.

A painting of a rat, a gun and one of the first lines from the film.

Here's the inside of the theatre.

The stage and the screen.

And look some asshole has wandered up on the stage.

Whoops, that asshole is me. Okay, I'll take my seat now.

Lou Martini, Jr. opened up the festivities. He's a veteran New York actor and appeared in the last season of The Sopranos. He introduced Henry Hill.

Henry gave a brief talk before the film began.

He's a humble and charming guy and the crowd loved him. And now...showtime!

After the film Henry came back for a question and answer segment but first he brought up Fran McGee, a New York actress who was in the film. She's also appeared in Woody Allen's "Bullets Over Broadway" and is currently working on a film with her daughter titled, "Village Daughter, Village Mom."

Next Henry brought up Ed McDonald. Ed was the prosecuting attorney who put Henry and his family in the witness protection plan. And in a truly bizarre twist, he also played the prosecuting attorney in the film. It turns out that before they started filming, Ed met with some of Scorsese's production people and asked who was going to play him in the movie. They told him it wasn't cast, he jokingly told them that he'd do it and that led to a screen test and he ended up playing himself in the film.

The question and answer period was very entertaining. Henry said that while most everything in the film was true, the infamous "clown" scene was improvised and didn't happen in real life. When asked if he would do things differently if he had a second chance, he said he wouldn't choose the gangster life. He said he'd rather have been a greeter at WalMart than take that path again.

After the Q. and A. there was a spaghetti dinner in the lobby.

Here's Justin, Brian Niemietz and Henry's promoter, Artie. Brian is a writer for the NY Post and wrote an aricle about the American Gangster Museum which is in the theater. Check it out here: Hit Parade.

Here's Lou Martini, Jr. and Liz. Lou opened up the screening and is a veteran New York actor. Check out his website here: Lou Martini, Jr.

Here's Ed and Henry reminiscing.

As the party came to an end I said goodbye to Henry and headed out for bar number 196.

Postscript: Henry Hill died on June 12, 2012 due to heart problems. R.I.P.

I'm a natural born lovers man,
I'm a man.
I'm a rollin' stone.
I'm a man.
I'm a hoochie coochie man.

Surprise link, click on it...I dare you!

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Today’s post was brought to you by Mike's Tavern. Check them and all the other fine businesses helping to support this blog over at the MBIP Bucket List Page. Your Daily Random Linkage awaits you at the bottom of the that page as well!

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