On Monday and Tuesday night, Jan. 28-29, Marathon Aquarium Encounters will continue its ’60s “Rockerama” with its “Rockerama Movie Night” at the Marathon Cinema, featuring the world premiere of Richard Warner’s full-length rock documentary movie “The Beatles on Sullivan.” The feature starts at 7p.m., doors open at 6p.m.
Using music and video clips, the movie shows how the Beatles overcame the huge challenges of breaking into the U.S. rock ‘n’ roll market and worked their way up to perform on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Feb 9, 1964. The movie nights are a fundraiser for the Great Hammerhead Project – a program of the Aquarium to study the survival challenges of the great hammerhead shark, of which little is known.
Warner’s full-length feature documentary film is loaded with original photos, songs, film clips, music videos, and other scenes, facts and trivia from the wild year of rock music in 1963 in the U.S. and in Britain. The film digs deep into the American rock artists and songs in competition with the group in 1963, when the Beatles were almost shut out of the U.S. world of rock ‘n’ roll. The movie focuses especially on the grueling three days the group spent in New York City leading up to their triumphant first appearance on Sullivan’s show, which attracted the largest TV entertainment audience ever to that time.
Ticket-donations are $8.50 and can be purchased evenings after 7 p.m. at the Marathon Cinema box office at 5101 Overseas Highway. They can also be purchased online at www.MarathonCinema.com or by calling 352-538-0408. Seating is limited. The evening will also feature a one-minute movie trailer preview of Warner’s live action feature movie shot exclusively in the Middle Keys — “Marathon After Midnight.”
