The Movie That Saved Cain Park

You may remember hearing something about the 1980 movie Those Lips, Those Eyes - maybe that it was filmed in the Cleveland area. But what you may not know is that it was not only filmed here, in and around Cain Park in Cleveland Heights, but that it actually helped to save Cain Park - at least the arts and entertainment aspect of the park. Something else may have eventually come along to save Cain Park, but the production company responsible for Those Lips, Those Eyes actually invested a lot of money to restore Cain Park's amphitheater back to working condition so that they could shoot the film there.

Those Lips, Those Eyes is about a place that is just like Cain Park was in the 1950s. The movie, starring Frank Langella, Thomas Hulce and Glynnis O'Connor, is a coming-of-age story about a young man who works behind the scenes at a summer theater like Cain Park was in those days. In the late '50s and '60s, TV stars would appear in Cain Park productions of Broadway musicals, and top-name entertainers, such as Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte, Johnny Mathis, Jerry Lewis and Sammy Davis, Jr., would come in for one- or two-nighters. But, for several reasons, by the late '70s the amphitheater had fallen into disrepair.

David Shaber, a successful Hollywood screenwriter and a Cleveland Heights native, who had worked at Cain Park during summers when he was a pre-med student at what is now Case Western Reserve University, wrote Those Lips, Those Eyes based on his own experiences at Cain Park and recommended it as the location for the movie.

The filming of Those Lips, Those Eyes in 1979 helped to enable Cain Park to start programming in the amphitheater again. And the success of that programming enabled the passage of a late-'80s bond issue that allowed the City of Cleveland Heights, which owns and operates the park, to do a complete renovation of the amphitheater.

The movie doesn't get shown much anymore. I saw it several months ago on TCM at about 2:00 a.m. and it was better than I'd remembered. It's not a great achievement in filmmaking, but it's quite enjoyable, and it did receive favorable reviews when it was released. Langella, Hulce and O'Connor are all very young, but good in this movie. And Jerry Stiller plays the kid's father - before he went on to play everyone's father. But one of the film's most important assets is the historical one. The movie was filmed before Cain Park's amphitheater had a roof - back then, usually, if it started raining hard, the show was over - and when it still had stone and concrete boxes and wooden benches, rather than the seats it has now. So the film provides not only a look at life in Cleveland Heights - and the rest of the country - in the '50s, but it's also a real historical documentation of the original Cain Park.

That's what gave me the idea to show it as a fund-raiser for the Friends of Cain Park, a non-profit organization I'm involved in, and which, as you might guess, helps support Cain Park. This is the 30th anniversary of the film - and, by extension, of Cain Park as we know it today. So the Friends of Cain Park will present a one-time-only showing of Those Lips, Those Eyes at the Cedar Lee Theater on Sun 2/21 at 2PM. People who attend this benefit screening will also get movie candy, popcorn, pastries, wine and other beverages.

Friends of Cain Park raises money to sponsor or co-sponsor shows at Cain Park, especially family-friendly fare, and some shows that are presented for free to the community. FOCP also provides three $1,000 scholarships to graduating Heights High seniors every year to help them continue their studies of visual, musical and dramatic arts at the college level.

Tickets for this 30th-anniversary benefit on Sun 2/21 are $30 each. For reservations send a check to Friends of Cain Park, 2195 Delaware Drive, Cleve. Hts., OH 44106, along with names of the attendees. For information, contact popcycles@sbcglobal.net or 216-791-5149. More info here

David Budin is a freelance writer and a folk and rock musician, whose folk group, Long Road, performs occasionally. He is a former editor of Northern Ohio Live and Cleveland Magazine.

His writing focuses on the arts, and especially on pop culture and pop music history. He is currently working on two pop-music-related books.