Lauren Bacall @ River Oaks Three part II

It was the worst of times and the best of times. No, I'm not referring to the French Revolution, but rather to the Brilliant Lecture Series presentation of Lauren Bacall last week (March 11) at the River Oaks Three theater. Here's the rub.
The evening was smooth, starting with a flawless 35mm print of To Have and Have Not that was to be followed by a Q&A with Lauren Bacall, one of the stars of the film along with her then future husband Humphrey Bogart.
When it came time for the post-screening Q&A is where the uneasiness sets in. The Brilliant Lecture Series is to be commended for bringing such great talent to Space City, what with Bacall and then later this month Caroline Kennedy (at Jones Hall). But at $65 a ticket it was unbelievable how inept the conversation part of the evening was handled. There were well over 400 people in the audience, and one could also attend a reception at Lynn Wyatt's for a $250 ducat.
First of all the mics were feeding back. Bacall was holding the mic at waist level so someone had turned up the gain until there was a piercing ear-splitting shriek. Then there was no moderator, but rather questions (a mere six) were taken from the audience. Instead of having a standing mic set up in one of the aisles for people to queue up at or having had people write their questions out beforehand so they could be screened, a woman with the lecture series went around the audience with a wireless mic to people who had their hands raised.
The head hanging shame came when one woman asked: "My parents named me Lauren after you. My question is can I come up there and get my picture taken with you?"
Six questions were allowed folks; getting pictures taken is what the $250 tickets were for.
Bacall showed her intelligence by taking each stupid question (about half of the six queries) and twisting it and telling a story that illustrated her career. She told how on To Have and Have Not (it was her first film) she was so shy that director Howard Hawks used that emotion and had her tuck her chin down and glance up while she delivered her lines. That become Bacall's look.
Another question was about Casablanca. Bacall handled this question with such grace and integrity by talking about how she started her career as a teen in the theater. Then she segued into a story about a woman who one time asked her to sign a record album of the soundtrack to Casablanca.
"I wasn't in Casablanca"
"Yes you were."
"No, I wasn't in Casablanca."
"Yes you were in Casablanca."
"No, I wasn't in Casablanca unless my name is Ingrid Bergman."
The Brilliant Lecture Series remains a worthwhile non-profit that brings in quality speakers on a semi-monthly basis. And considering how much money I've spent on, say, U2 tickets at the Summit, the amount of $65 a ducat really isn't that much. But the org needs to get its act together regarding the quality of the equipment, and the technical requirements for executing a flawless Q&A with a large audience.