The Intro

Biograph Times & Other Firsthand Stories: Introduction

My name is Rebus. That's me in the Jimmy Buffett-like pose above. As I have always been a cartoon dog the astute reader should know right away that this is one of those yarns with an unreliable narrator. Hey, I'm just a shill, folks ... always was.

My job will be to introduce each of the three sections in this collection of F.T. Rea's firsthand stories. When they are done there will be 27 stories, in all, the same number of outs a team gets in a baseball game. At this writing, 22 of them have been completed. The intros to the three sections, Acts One, Two and Three, are still in the works.

Since Rea invented me in 1972, to be the spokesdog for the Biograph Theatre -- a repertory cinema he managed at the time -- I am accustomed to working for him, barking on key for his various promotions over the years. In my opinion, most of my best work appeared in the pages of SLANT, a little magazine Rea published (1985-94).

So, take heed, if there’s anything close to the truth in these stories, it will not come from me this time.

And, speaking of time, I say time -- that’s what my boss’ stories are usually about, one way or another. What follows is an assortment of little slivers of time -- memoirs in the form of a word collage. Naturally, the illustrations are Rea’s work, too.

At this point what you see here is a work-in-progress.

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