You may remember me writing about recently finishing the production of a
documentary film about the pre-war M.G. Car Company. Well, after working on
this progrm for 3-1/2 years I decided to celebrate with a little premiere
party for a few of my friends and supporters.
So, I set the date for the event as June 11th and booked the media center
screening room of a local university here in Houston for the showing.
Additionally, I invited Peter Thornley (son of the late John Thornley,
longtime M.G. employee and retired general mgr. of M.G.s) to attend. John
Thornley was a major contributor to the film and was interviewed on camera
for the program. Peter said, "Yes I will come to Houston for the screening."
All seemed fine until Friday evening when I checked my answering machine and
there was a message from the university media center telling me that the air
conditioning was out in the screening room. In Houston that is a major
problem!
I couldn't reach anyone on the phone Friday night but reached the maintenance
shop of the university Saturday morning. "It won't be fixed for a week,"
they said. What was I to do? The screening was to be the next afternoon,
guests had been invited, food had been ordered, beer and wine were chilling
in the fridge...and Peter Thornley was on his way to Houston from Georgia!
The university screening room was on its way to becoming a sauna!
My wife, Rosalind, and I started a daylong search for a new venue for the
event and a replacement projection system. By the time Saturday afternoon
rolled around we had settled on a room in the student center of the same
university and I had located and tested a portable projection syustem that
could be delivered and set up the next day.
We both arrived home just in time for Peter and son John to pull into the
driveway. During the get-acquainted conversation Peter asked, "Is it just
coincidence or did you plan to have this event on what would have been Papa's
86th birthday?" I had no idea that the date I had chosen for the premiere
screeing was John Thornley's birthdate, June 11th! It was quite an
interesting coincidence.
Then things got even stranger when we arrived at the university student
center to find that the room we had booked was OCTAGONAL! In the center of
the floor of this octagonal room was a hardwood octagon onto which Peter,
using some handy masking tape, created the famous M.G. logo.
So it seems that some unseen power was shaping this event, choosing a proper
day and forcing us into the proper room.
The screening went off without a hitch. Everyone attending enjoyed the film.
Peter spoke some kind words about the program and I finally felt a sense of
closure...having finally completed a work that has taken up so much of my
life for the last three years.
Somehow I think it's possible that John Thornley, upon arrival in Heaven,
somehow turned God into an M.G. enthusiast and we all got a little help from
above.
Gary Watson
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