CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — With demolition now underway on the fire-damaged portions of the Marquee at Cedar Lee development, Cedar Lee Theatre will be offering a free screening on April 2 and April 3 of the new documentary about local Rock and Roll Manager David Spero.
The film by Akron native Pat Donovan looks at Spero's long career in Rock and Roll, starting with his days as a child working with his father, who was the producer of the syndicated music show "Upbeat," which originated here at WEWS-TV to his days as a disc jockey and his career as a manager for acts like Michael Stanley, Joe Walsh, Dickie Betts, Bad Company and many others.
"The cool part is he hired an animator. So, so many scenes that we're actually talking about, I talk about James Brown is at Burke Airport and I go to pick him up to bring him over for Upbeat and he goes 'hey I got a new plane. Do you want to take a ride?' And he takes me for this ride in the plane. Well the cartoonist created this whole scene of getting in the plane, coming back and my Dad freaking out that we were late for rehearsal," Spero said.
"We were trying to get into the Cleveland Film Festival this year, and I guess we were a little late, and Jon Forman at the Cedar Lee Theatre said, 'Well, why don't you show it here for a couple of nights in April.' So April 2 and Wednesday and Thursday we've got a free showing at 7 p.m."
Tickets are required, but you can get them for free by emailing the number that you need and the nights you would like to go, April 2 or 3, to clevelandrocksmovie@gmail.com
They decided to make it free to encourage people to come down and lend support to the local businesses impacted by the fire, the demolition, and the soon-to-be reconstruction.
"Because of the demolition and all I think people have an idea that they shouldn't come to the area," Spero said. "But there's a lot of businesses there and so we thought, well let's do it as a free screening bring people in, buy some popcorn and let people know that everything is up and running again."
