Marshall and the Movies

George Grube (left) with wife Cherri (middle) and Tom Moroch (right)

I’ll be weighing in with more about my origins on my one-year-“blogoversary,” but I had to write about something that has been weighing heavy on my heart recently.  Yesterday, I found out that a man who played a large part in shaping my obsession of movies had passed away.

George Grube was a movie promoter in Oklahoma City, my childhood home.  I go back often and visit family that still lives there, and as a child, my uncle would always take me down to his office, knowing that I loved movies.  The annual visit was a day that I always looked forward to like Charlie anticipated going to Willy Wonka’s factory.  For me, his office was just as magical as any movie set.  They had contacts with Hollywood head honchos, and that was about the coolest thing in the world to me.

He always encouraged me, always applauding my latest efforts.  I wouldn’t be surprised if I came in there with a six-page script asking him to turn it into a movie.  I do know for a fact that in 2002, I came loaded with a sheet of movie slogans that I suggested that he run in his ads.  He was always kind to me and always showed me respect.  I’ll never forget the giddy rush of when he and Michelle, another benevolent movie lover working in his office, would dig into the promotional closet and shower me with all sorts of movie merchandise.  I remember in 2000, they gave me a whole set of stuffed chickens from the movie “Chicken Run,” and I still have one to this day.

George Grube was a man who loved movies and loved sharing that love with everyone else.   That included me, who saw him as not just a man but someone doing what I loved as a career.  While other kids wanted to be firemen or sports players, I wanted George Grube’s job.  His kindness whenever I visited his office was definitely something that kept my love of movies at such an extremely high level, and he is easily one of the early shapers of the fanaticism I still display to this day.

So here, I give a cheer to the incredibly influential man and the great life he lived.  Without him, you might not be reading this blog.