 I'm Marian Lunds from the Museum's Film Department. I am very proud that you are all here for the opening program in the 15th season of our Movies Houstonians Love series. It is a true privilege to invite notables from throughout our greater community to share their love of movies, to choose a favorite movie, and present it, and then enjoy the unparalleled experience of watching it with an audience on the big screen here, as we are about to do with Dr. Bed Frazier's movie Threshold. Dr. Frazier, in just a moment, will say a few words about how this was the only movie he wanted to show when we invited him to do Movies Houstonians Love. But I want to tell you about a very special aspect of tonight's screening. After the movie, please stay. We will have a conversation on stage with not just Dr. Bed Frazier, but his compatriot, Dr. Billy Cohn, and also the film's director, Richard Pierce, and the film's producer, Michael Burns. Richard and Michael have come to town, and they will tell you and share their excitement in the fact that Threshold has been rediscovered by Dr. Frazier, by us, and for all of you. Now for you to please welcome Dr. Bed Frazier, who is going to speak a bit about his movie choice, Threshold. Please welcome the legendary Dr. Bed Frazier. Thank you very much. Well, it's a great pleasure to be here. This is a movie that was, it was a Canadian movie, and it was very well received up there. But I don't even know if it was ever shown in the movies here. The director says it was, but I never saw it. Because Donald Sutherland, I remember him coming down in the late 70s, early 80s, and he looked like Dr. Cooley. He was about the same height, and he hung around. Very nice, very pleasant. He did a commendable job, and he won sort of acting award in Canada for this movie. When I started to bailer in 1963, I was a history English major, and I'd just, I'd read a lot of Kafka and Chekhov particularly, and I decided I'd go to medical school. I had no particular interest in science. But so I was fortunate enough to be accepted in Houston to bailer, and the only reason I wanted to go there because my girlfriend and current wife was from Houston. That was my criteria. And we had to do a research paper every year at bailer. It was one of the best things that Dr. DeBakey had instilled in. But we started in September, so we had to have an answer of what we were going to do by the 1st of November. And I remember standing by the elevators in the Jewish research building. And a friend of mine, a fraternity brother, came up. It was October the 30th. We had to have our Thailand by November the 1st. And he was a fraternity brother of mine. He was a real gunner. He was always the head of the curve. And he knew me. And I was famous for studying at the last minute. But he came up, and he said, but what's your research problem? And I said, you know, I hadn't thought about it. I've got another day. And he said, I knew you wouldn't have done anything. I've already signed you up. We're going to do this research in surgery. And I can't do it all. I've got to have someone to help me. So that's how I got into surgery. And he turned out he had an intentional tremor. And I started working with Domingo, Leota, and Dr. DeBakey, who were working on the first artificial heart. And Dr. DeBakey, I remember him saying clearly that by 1980, there'd be 100,000 Americans with artificial hearts. It seemed so simple. It's just a pump. But it turned out like a lot of things in life, a little tougher than we thought. And I worked on the postal pumps as my research effort all through my training years. And after that, when I went with Dr. Cooley in his lab and the first pulsatile pump to be approved by the FDA was the one that I developed. But by the early 80s, it became obvious to me, your heart beats 100,000 times over 24 hours if you do nothing. So we had to have a membrane that would flex that many times. And the membranes usually wore out after 18 months to 24 months. So I started working on continuous flow pumps. And now they're the only pumps made for a left ventricular assist devices. There have been over 60,000 of them implanted. I was in Kazakhstan not long ago. And there was a young girl there that they had done. Of course, she didn't know who I was from Adam. But it saved her life. And it was sort of gratifying to see people. There were over 500 hospitals putting in this pump. But there's no total heart. We don't have a total heart replacement. And Billy Cohn came in 2005 to work with me. And he said, you know, I've seen something like this. I said, what are you talking about? He said, yeah, I saw it on TV one time. It's a movie about a continuous flow of total artificial heart, which is what we were working on. And this was 2005. I said, ah, I don't believe it. And I knew nothing about it. I'd never seen it. And so Billy found it. And we saw it. And it's a very engaging movie. And I hope you'll enjoy it tonight.