Morris is lucky to have a wonderful art deco movie theatre from the 1940’s that is still a single screen first run theatre. It went up for sale this summer, and there were concerns that we might lose our cinema. Happily, a group came together on fairly short notice (essentially over the weekend) that was able to make a successful offer on the theatre.
As one might guess from the photo, the theatre could use some rennovation, and some creative changes to the business model wouldn’t hurt either. Still, I was extremely impressed by the group’s enthusiasm for saving the theatre, and the creative energy at the meetings over the weekend.
People asked WeatherGirl to be on the Board of Directors for the theatre, but the fact that we’re leaving the country for a year in three weeks kind of killed that :-). We’re probably going to be setting up a web site for them, so I ran out and took a bunch of photos of the theatre, including this.
I remember standing in the lobby of this theatre on very cold nights, feeling as if I had been flung back into the 1950’s. I am glad to know tha it will continue to stand and serve the community.
I suspect there are a lot of alums that have strong memories of the theatre. It’s such an unusual place that it’s bound to leave an impression. I think a lot of students initially think of it as kind of ratty, but down the road hopefully come to realize what a treasure it is. Maybe we should get the alumni office tapped into this and let alum know that it’s happening. I could easily imagine that there’d be interest.
I think we can do a lot to refurb the place, if all goes well turning it into something that is used to promote both the community and the University.
I don’t think it would hurt to contact the Alumni relations folks. Sometimes partnerships like that build synergy between alumni, college, and town. If you do renovate, please keep the retro element in tact in some way. It’s that irreplaceable ‘charm’ that I remember.