S’mores… just like Mom used to make!

‘Rings’ buzz starts months before December release

By Jennifer Hamm

LA Daily News – January 13, 2001

BURBANK — After driving 215 miles from the Yosemite Valley, David Schulze stood 12 hours in the pouring rain outside the AMC Theaters before rushing inside Friday to grab a prime seat — not for the premiere of a star-studded epic movie, but the one-minute, 46-second preview for one.

He and about 20 other hard-core fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” withstood rain and bone-chilling cold in order to see the trailer for the movie version of the classic fantasy trilogy, scheduled for release Dec. 19.

“Waiting overnight was nothing,” said Schulze, a 45-year-old construction worker who first entered Tolkien’s world of hobbits and wizards as a teen-ager. “I’ve been waiting since 1973.”

Schulze and the other fans gathered in front of the AMC theaters on Palm Avenue well before midnight Thursday. They erected a makeshift tent to keep dry, then roasted marshmallows and posted live updates of their escapade on the Internet.

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