The Alex Theatre is going to be having its 8th annual Vaudeville Extravaganza! on Saturday, Sept. 15, which the theater is proclaiming in a press release as the "most anticipated family event held annually at the grand theatre." That's right folks, the artform that brought us the terms big time and alley-oop is coming to the Alex.

The Alex Theatre opened as a Vaudeville and movie house in 1925. Shortly after that, movies got sound and thousands of movie house musicians hit the street looking for work, along with squeeky-voiced actors. Then television was invented and everyone realized they'd rather get their entertainment for free, sentencing us all to years of interviews with George Burns telling us about the "good old days."

The Alex Theatre's show will feature "The Night Blooming Jazzmen" playing nostalgic music, then Reid & Faversham in a tribute to Stan and Ollie (wait that's Laurel and Hardy, who also have a movie in the program), then Farrah Siegel, America's Yo-Yo Champion, then a couple other acts who I'm not sure what they do. The evening will conclude with a cartoon, a vintage newsreel, the Laurel and Hardy movie "The Music Box" and the Three Stooges movie "An Ache in Every Stake."

Suddenly I feel like I should be typing on an Underwood Five typewriter and going out to Ebbets Field to watch the Dodgers play. Actually I'll stick with the computer and Chavez Ravine. But for all you Vaudeville buffs, the show is Saturday, Sept. 15 at 8 p.m., and the cost is $25, and $17.50 for seniors and children. The event is put on by the Alex Film Society, and AFS members get in for only $12.50, unlike the rest of you bananas.