‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,’ stops at Apollo
Sixty years ago was a golden time for Hollywood, and besides “Gone with the Wind,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Stagecoach” and many other gems, director Frank Capra’s “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” was a popular Oscar winner.
The 130-minute drama is scheduled to show at 7 p.m. Saturday, January 24 at Peoria’s downtown Apollo Theater.
In “Mr. Smith,” Capra made a star of likeable Jimmy Stewart, starring as a principled but naïve young man appointed to fill in for a U.S. Senator on Capitol Hill.
The touching film fable follows him as he runs afoul of inside-the-beltway corruption, from Congressional colleagues to the press. A bipartisan and populist celebration of idealism more than an indictment of government, “Mr. Smith” won an Academy Award for Best Story, and was honored with seven other Oscar nominations.
It co-stars Claude Rains, Thomas Mitchell, Jean Arthur and Guy Kibbee, a familiar character actor who got his start in a vaudeville act co-starring Peorian Harry Bay, a major league baseball player for Cincinnati and Cleveland.
The suggested donation at the nonprofit Apollo is $5 and $4 for kids, students and seniors. For details call (309) 673-4343.
