The Return of The Boom - The Movie
By Andrew Reynolds
Filmmaker John Keitel’s Saving the Boom, a documentary covering the fight to save the shuttered Boom Boom Room and Coast Inn in Laguna Beach, Calif., returns home on July 16 as part of a Laguna Beach Film Society screening. The event marks the first time the documentary has screened publicly in the seaside community it chronicles.
The Boom Boom Room and Coast Inn was purchased in 2005 by International Lease Finance Corporation CEO Steven Udvar-Házy, a staple on Forbes’ list of richest people. Udvar-Hazy wants to transform the establishment into a boutique hotel and restaurant similar to many of its neighbors. However, many former patrons hope to keep the building’s gay heritage.
The evening begins with a reception in the Wells Fargo community room on Ocean Avenue at 6 p.m., followed by the screening at 7 p.m. at the nearby Regency South Coast Cinema. Both Keitel and Fred Karger, who founded of the Save the Boom organization and is the film’s subject, are scheduled to attend.
“The theme for the evening will be ‘Laguna Beach stories,’” said JoAnne Story, Laguna Beach Film Society spokesperson and a former Boom patron. “This film represents part of Laguna Beach’s diverse community.
Keiko Beatie of Cinema Paradiso handles the organization’s programming and included the short among other films about Laguna Beach or created by local filmmakers.
“Though the film is a local story, it has ties to a larger scope: It asks what gay heritage is and how we plan to preserve it,” said Keitel, who describes the film as a “personal labor of love.” Saving the Boom premiered at Outfest: the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian film festival nearly a year ago. Since then, Keitel has updated and screened it at the Newport Beach and Long Beach film festivals. A University of California, Irvine, class called “The History of Gay Nightlife” used the documentary as source material. The film also has been invited to the Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival.
The film weaves together two storylines: one chronicles the activities of Karger and Save the Boom; the other delves into a nostalgic retrospective of one of the oldest gay establishments on the West Coast, as told by a host of former patrons — including Los Angeles Councilmember Bill Rosendahl and former Laguna Beach Mayor Bob Gentry, one of the first openly gay, elected officials in the nation.
Highlights include Karger’s trucking a wheelbarrow filled with 5,000 signed petitions into city hall and casting for the 2008 Men of Laguna Beach Calendar — created to raise money for the cause — which sees Save the Boom staffers approaching everybody from straight lifeguards to the secretary at the police station to post flyers for the casting call. These funny moments are interlaced with more heartfelt scenes in which Rosendahl reminisces about a deceased lover and the Save the Boom crew faces some close-minded opposition from other residents who label their efforts an “abomination.”
The latter part of the film follows up after the Boom’s closure, documenting a cleanup of the Garden of Peace & Love, the tiny, beachfront park adjoining the Coast Inn that became an unofficial AIDS memorial in the 1980s, when Laguna Beach had the highest per capita AIDS incidence in the nation. One of the most enchanting places in Laguna, the garden was created and cared for by Michel Martinay until he fell ill and other gay and lesbian residents proudly stepped up to continue Martinay’s effort.
“The Boom’s closing was the end of an era,” said Keitel, whose work includes the documentary Prodigal Sons and the renegade gay marriage movie Justly Married.
The Laguna Beach Film Society screens films on the third Thursday of every month. Screenings and the accompanying receptions are free for members and $20 for non-members. Non-members can attend the screening only for $15. For more information on the Laguna Beach Film Society, visit www.lagunaartmuseum.org/Councils.html.