BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WTVF) — Many years ago, two boys spent their Saturdays watching movies in a Bowling Green, Kentucky, theater. One grew up to be a prominent lawyer and judge. The other has just been given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
"Speech and debate, hmm, I was on that one," Kelly Thompson said, flipping through one of his old high school yearbooks.
There's a pride Kelly has in the graduates of his school. "There I am right there on the track team," he said, flipping to another picture.
Today, Kelly is a justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court. Going to school with him at College High in Bowling Green, Kentucky, were doctors and lawyers. There was also a good friend — filmmaker and music composer John Carpenter. He's often called the "Master of Horror."
"We were the only two children living on Western Kentucky University's campus," Kelly remembered. "My dad was president, so I lived in the president's home, and [John] and his family lived right across the street in a log cabin. His father was the head of the music department at Western. Every time I went into that cabin, it was music, music, music!"
"His mother would take us on Saturdays," Kelly continued, remembering those 1950s visits to the Capitol Theatre in downtown Bowling Green. "We'd watch the same movie four times in a row 'cause what else were you going to do? We went to see 'The Creature From the Black Lagoon.' Scared us to death! He loved Alfred Hitchcock."
"Did you have any idea you were sitting next to the Master of Horror?" I asked Kelly.
"No, I don't think he did either!" he laughed.
Interestingly enough, one of the films the boys saw was "The Thing From Another World." John would remake that film in 1982 with the shortened title "The Thing." Kelly said even as a child, John had an uncommon attentiveness to the films he was watching.
"I was the mischief maker," he said. "He was the good kid."
In the many years after those Saturdays at the Capitol, John would go on to direct the original "Halloween," "The Fog," "Escape From New York," "Christine," and "They Live." His father's favorite was "Starman," a science fiction love story. The early films have a lot of references to Bowling Green.
"Oh, they became cult classics," said Madison Lindsey of the Bowling Green Area Convention and Visitor's Bureau. "Bowling Green's always proud of their little heroes. Here at the Capitol, they have a whole Boos and Brews Festival, where they play a whole day of John Carpenter films just back to back to back. We have a whole walking and driving tour that shows a lot of the places that he got his inspiration from."
"He really is a world-class composer, and that has really made his movies successful," Kelly said.
"It was cool when we had our class reunion," he continued. "[John] came with Adrienne Barbeau!"
John Carpenter has just gotten a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Kelly sees it as quite a journey; two boys in the theater seats of The Capitol, one of them becomes a justice on the Kentucky Supreme Court, one becomes a renowned director. Turns out, Kelly's right. The class at College High did pretty well for itself.
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
My friend and colleague Carrie Sharp had a lot of fun last week, on an adventure to a country more than three thousand miles away! She’s back now – sharing her Adventures in Iceland through stories, and incredible images of this remarkably beautiful and unique island nation (kudos to Chief Photographer Catherine Steward)! But did you know Nashville has something very important in common with Iceland? Tourism! Here, Carrie explains how a volcanic eruption decades ago helped save the country’s economy from collapse!
-Rhori Johnston
