Flickering images…
The item is not news. More nostalgia.
What had been the Century Theater in Pleasant Hill, CA is no more. The large dome gave way to demolition.
Call me lucky enough to have enjoyed more than a good number of films there over the years. Some moments in the dark that stand out include the full cannon barrage from “Gettysburg”, the revival of the HAL 9000 computer in “2010” and the classic model porn of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.”
Looking back, when I lived in central Contra Costa County, there were so many theaters where one could enjoy film. Long before cable tv and home video made their dents into how we view motion pictures. So, pardon me if I list them as I recall the years of flickering images on screens.
Walnut Creek was where I moved with my family in the summer of 1970. At that time, the city had one theater, the El Rey. It had definitely seen better days and better films, but it still had good times ahead. Especially as it became an art house and discovered late night films, in particular “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. A memorable double bill in the early 80’s offered “The Wicker Man” and “The Last Wave”. The El Rey gave way to just another office building, valuable real estate at a major intersection in downtown.
The Festival Cinemas came to town in the guise of a cinder block multiplex in the early 70’s, taking first run films away from the El Rey. It had one large theater and a collection of smaller rooms – five, if I recall correctly. As theaters go, not particularly memorable. But it was where I saw a number of memorable films for the first time including Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alien and more. Festival was the upstart theater chain. Taking on the older and more established Syufy theaters. Both were family owned at one time.
Syufy had it’s Century Theaters with many having the unique dome theaters offering a big screen experience. Pleasant Hill had one (as noted to start today’s effort). I know that I saw at least one film in 70mm there in the dome, but can’t recall a name. Yet in the smaller theaters of the multiplex, there was “Deliverance”, “American Graffitti” and “Papillion” to name a few.
Pleasant Hill had a several other theaters of note. Where once had been Sherman Field (a World War II Army Air Corp training field) was what formed the core of downtown as this city grew. The Century Theater was part of a shopping mall that was anchored by Montgomery Wards. Across the Interstate 680 freeway once was the base theater. But it was also the home to the Pleasant Hill Motor Movies. And later on, another cinderblock multiplex from Festival, the Regency Theater was further up Contra Costa Blvd. It also had a video game arcade in a adjacent strip mall and did a good business until Festival was swallowed up by a larger chain of theaters.
I had friends who worked for both chains. And yes, I can admit to having enjoyed more than a few freebies along the way. Oddly enough, with the passing of the dome, all of these theaters are now gone. Today’s Century Theater in the new downtown Pleasant Hill took the name and the dome complex became CineArts. Festival Cinemas gave way to a variety of shops and restaurants. The Motor Movies became a shopping center with a Safeway as it’s anchor. The Regency became a Lamps Plus store.
Pleasant Hill also has the movie theater at Diablo Valley College. While attending the school, there were plenty of great films shown on 16mm prints, all for free. I took in as many of those as time and work allowed.
Other theaters in the area included Concord’s collection – The Capri Theater, a large one screen house (eventually multiplexed and showing second and third run films for reduced prices) on the second floor of a former department store; The Enea, where I saw “The Hot Rock” before it became a porn theater eventually purchased by an adjoining church (and yes, the church did make money from porn until the buildings lease ran out); The Fox, another cinder block big screen house, now a 24 hour fitness location; The Sun Valley Cinema, part of the shopping mall with the same name that featured one large screen, eventually broken into two, where Saturday matinees of Disney films like “Snowball Express”, “The Boatniks’ and “The Black Hole” held kids during Mom’s shopping expeditions, now a sporting goods store; The Concord Motor Movies, right across a flood control channel, where one could watch the film for free, especially good for date nights when you really were not paying attention to the soundtrack anyway; The Solano Drive In, part of the Syufy chain, still with us and more known for it’s weekend flea markets under the flight path of nearby Buchanan Field (another WW II training base, now the major airport for general aviation in the county). Today, Concord has a new theater complex downtown, the Brenden 14.
Others included the Orinda Theater, which had “Casablanca” shown when it was revived/restored to it’s art deco glory; the Park Theater in Lafayette and the Rheem Theater in Moraga. The Park tried to hold on but closed it’s doors. The Rheem became more of a performing arts venue with an occasional film shown. Danville had likewise with the Village theater, now with a similar fate. It has been home to a Children’s Film Festival from time to time. San Ramon saw it’s first theater with an expansion from Festival in another cinder block wonder, and is still in business today. Blackhawk has a multiplex there by the same name. Martinez has another one of the Festival cinder block structures, The Contra Costa Cinema’s. At one time, that city was home to the State Theater, but that was before my time.
Overall, I would have to say I was extremely lucky to have so many theaters to chose from over the years. None of them were movie palaces such as the Oakland Paramount, but they all were great times. Places where flickering images in the dark brought enjoyment.
Star Wars Theme Park? Hello Florida…
Why look back when the future is ahead?
No, there is no scoop here today. I do not have great news to share about Disney plans for a new theme park for the Florida property. No Imagineers burned their career bridges to tell of a great adventure yet to be.
But, having said that… in my humble opinion, there must be some folks somewhere inside the Disney organization who are giving the matter some serious thought.
It’s no secret that the folks at Universal seriously upped the ante with what they brought in Harry Potter first to Florida and soon to Hollywood. One of the biggest draws in popular culture brought to life so that guests could put themselves into this fantasy world. Yes, even muggles can now enjoy their butterbeer while taking it all in. A win in the book of themed entertainment.
A whole lot of folks look on Disney’s recent purchase of the Lucas empire as a turning point. Why not? Motion pictures planned to rake in a boatload and then some of disposable incomes world wide. Not to mention all of the licensing of merchandise from pins to t-shirts to toys, waiting to generate revenue for Burbank and the stockholders.
But why stop there? Star Tours has whet appetites for more in Anaheim, Orlando, Tokyo and Marne de Valle. And been extremely well received at each stop. But why only add tastes of the universe of the Star Wars franchise when you could dive in and create the total immersion?
That’s my thinking when it comes to the theme park experience awaiting. Disney owns enough property in Florida that another theme park could easily be added to the existing ones. And given the popularity of the franchise, an all Star Wars park could be just the thing to take Universal and any other park down more than a few rungs on the ladder.
And if Disney plays everything just right, a park solely devoted to such a rich environment as the Star Wars universe, could be more popular than anything the company has ever done, including the original Disneyland. One only needed to visit the Disney Studios in Orlando last week to get a glimpse into such a future. The demand for the limited merchandise on sale as well as the overwhelming number of guests? As Bill Engvall says, “There’s your sign.”
Now, the idea here will cost more than folks at Disney in Orlando usually want to spend. No way to cheap out and cut corners. Disney can’t afford to have another DCA or Euro Disneyland on it’s hands. Stockholders would revolt, seriously. Why just go for the bunt when there is a grand slam waiting easily in your reach? This is a park that will prove everything Walt knew when Disneyland first opened. Quality will out, and the little things do matter in their roles in the overall big picture. The kind of investments needed here are those we have seen elsewhere such as Tokyo and Hong Kong. Spend the big bucks now to reap the big rewards when such a park opens and the public pays to take it all in.
Somewhere, that person waits to take the stand and lead the revolution to give the world the kind of kick butt experience that a Star Wars park can do. One where Mickey and Minnie are not part of the scene. Where Princesses are Leia and Amadala. Where little boys and girls share dreams with their parents of making that desperate flight down the trench over the Death Star. Where the imagination of guests meets the world of “wow” created by the best Disney can provide.
And that is just the beginning…
We can’t save everything.
It can be a funny world out there. Take for example, the old phrase “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
Without too much effort, I can point you to an easy dozen examples that prove that statement as truth. Things of all shapes and sizes that some one looked upon as worthy of being “saved” for posterity. And so these things sit. Gathering dust, rust and who knows what.
Some have managed to keep right on doing what they were originally designed to do. Against the odds, still with us. San Francisco’s vaunted and much loved cable cars come to mind. Climbing the hills of the City at all of nine miles per hour, carrying people up and down since the first car climbed Clay Street in August of 1873. But over all the years, more has been lost than saved. Cars gone on to other lives or simply burned to collect the scrap metal from the wood. And even more ironic, some cars have been rebuilt 3 or more times over their lives, as good wood becomes bad and relives again in a process not far removed from how it all began. Hand labor building and rebuilding. No machines painting mass produced cars here. Lovingly cared for by craftsman, schooled in traditions by those who came before.
And yet, these classic little cars almost ended their lives in the 1940’s. Down to just a handful of lines left in operation, their days were numbered. If it hadn’t been for a vote by a margin of 3 to 1 keeping the cars in place, buses would have taken their place. Cable Cars would be just a memory.
Even with support, the cable cars and the machinery that keeps them moving was just to fragile to last. In 1979, the city shut down all cable car lines and began a mass project of rebuilding. From Wikipedia:
“A subsequent engineering evaluation concluded that it needed comprehensive rebuilding at a cost of $60 million. Mayor Dianne Feinstein took charge of the effort, and helped win federal funding for the bulk of the rebuilding job. In 1982 the cable car system was closed again for a complete rebuild. This involved the complete replacement of 69 city blocks’ worth of tracks and cable channels, the demolition and rebuilding of the car barn and powerhouse, new propulsion equipment, and the repair or rebuild of 37 cable cars. The system reopened on June 21, 1984, in time to benefit from the publicity that accompanied San Francisco’s hosting of that year’s Democratic National Convention.”
So, even though they still soldier on today, this technological marvel of the 1870’s could have been sent off to transit Valhalla instead. In cities around the globe, such was the case and progress marched on.
The same story can be told in the case of aircraft after World War II. Plenty of brand new planes were surplussed after the war. Many never saw use – training or combat. Simply flown from the factory to the surplus depots across the country. Or those combat veteran aircraft? Cheaper to scrap where they were than waste the fuel to fly them home. Stories of planes bulldozed into waiting holes in the ground. One story I heard was of a farmer who flew a brand-new P38 Lightning fighter into a small airfield where he used a chainsaw to remove the engines, leaving the rest of the plane to rust away, until he sold it for scrap. The thought makes me cry…
Today, there are fewer and fewer of them in museums or better yet, flying as intended by their designers and builders. As good as they were, the lifespan of these aircraft was not to have been more than a year a best. If a pilot managed to survive, odds were that his aircraft would transition to another pilot or another command. And in war, damage to aircraft is inevitable at some point. If a plane saw combat, the chances of some damage at some point were high. More than 60 odd years later, none of the aircraft from that era still flying today are the same as they were then. Rebuilt from the ground up in many cases, they best serve to salute the men and women who flew them as well as those who built and maintained them when it mattered most.
It is no secret that I have volunteered at a number of railway museums. Over the years, folks at these places collected equipment that had meaning to someone who funded in the initial acquisition. Well intentioned, these pieces waited their turns in the restoration plan. Occasionally, someone might donate a few bucks toward the project. But it always seems that there is something more urgent or another project comes along that shines brighter in the spotlight. And that caboose, box car or locomotive becomes just another rusty pile of junk, hidden out back. Away from the public eye.
I can’t think of one railway museum that doesn’t have something like this. Sure, ask the right volunteer and he can rattle off the history of the item. Tell you why it should be preserved. The last of this class of equipment owned by the railroad. Only one left. The sad truth is that the railroads got rid of this equipment. Some just because it was worn out. Too costly to repair. And now, most of this junk is just that. It may have meaning to some but in the bigger picture, it’s time has come and gone.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that we should give up. Preservation is importation. Railways, aircraft, cars, music, theater, structures all have some stories to tell. Important stories. Told by people. For we truly can not understand who we are and where we are going if we do not respect where we have been.
But we need to temper what we expend our efforts to save with what we gain by doing so. For all the Disney theme park fans who want to keep Disneyland as it has always been? A vain and selfish effort. We can never go back to days gone by and find everything as we left it. Things will always change. The mark of one footstep upon that of another can not be taken away. The change of one light bulb or a coat of paint over another insures that what we experienced on one visit will not be the same on the next.
It is not an easy thing to decide what to save and what to let go. If you go to one extreme or the other you either have too much or nothing at all. Not the right choices. Again, find the middle, save the best you can and share. Good advice to the museum or the individual.
Used and Abused
Okay… I get that the experience of going to the movies has changed. Theaters need to generate income. Not only at the box office and the concession stands. A small popcorn and a large bottle of water? Over $11.00???
Long gone are the days of the double feature, with cartoon, short subject, news reel and coming attractions.
Now, leaving a blank screen for paying audiences to view before the film is considered old school. Expect a slate of advertisements for local businesses at some theaters. Others make use of a pre-packaged conglomeration of behind the scenes peeks and trailers to fill the time. Heaven forbid that the theater chain should miss out on revenue by just having nothing to tempt their customers with.
Used to be, I was pretty regular when it came to watching movies in theaters. Once, maybe even twice a week would find me taking in the latest that Hollywood had to offer. During that time, I probably watched thousands of previews of coming attractions. Also known as trailers. Many, infinitely forgettable, for movies I would never see. Some for films that I awaited with anticipation. Back in those days, the only place you saw them was in theaters before the feature film.
Not so today. In the days of the Internet, there are a multitude of opportunities to watch clips and trailers for films yet to be released. From web pages dedicated to films, to studios looking to share their summer slate, to social media such as Twitter and Facebook… only a single click of your mouse away. Add in viewing on your iPad or iPhone along with television and DVD’s and you can not miss seeing the trailer for any film in some fashion.
So it was that I found myself at one of the local multiplexes. Traffic heading home was particularly ugly and rather than sit in it, I decided to take in one of the new products from a major studio. Tuesday afternoon at 5 pm seemed the right time. All in all, there may have been 20 people in a theater capable of seating 300 plus. The feature chosen started at 5:10 pm, or at least that is what was indicated on the digital sign outside.
This chain fills the empty time ahead of a screening by showing a pre-packaged block of content from one of the major studios. I am sure that somewhere accountants cheer every time it is shown to patrons. Mercifully, by the time I was relieved of my $11 for that small popcorn and large water and had found my way to a seat in the theater, most of the content had been shown. Next came the obligatory request to silence your cell phone and refrain from texting during the showing.
Now, this is where one can expect that trailers would be shown for a few coming attractions.
Yesterday? I was forced to view eight of them, taking up no less than 20 minutes of my time. Let me repeat that. My time.
The film runs 124 minutes. Throw in the theater chains own bit of promotion including temptations at the concession stand and the total package comes in at 150 minutes. Two hours and thirty minutes. Fill in that with cleaning the theater and showing that pre-packaged content again and you easily have 3 hours between showings, if not more.
In these days when theater chains want every last minute of the day to fit in every possible showing and maximize those audience dollars, one would count every minute as precious. When the staff level is cut to the bone (paid as little as possible) and the theater is using the smallest possible concession stand to wring every cent they can from patrons, you can understand it all from a business perspective.
Understand it? Yes. Like it? A decided “No”.
As a comparison, late last year, I took in another twilight showing of a blockbuster at a different theater chain. For the record, that film ran 169 minutes and had only three trailers shown ahead of it. That chain uses dead time to promote local businesses on it’s screens. Call it philosophical differences, but it was a better experience from the perspective of this paying audience member.
So, all in all, next time I ponder seeing a film, I will be less likely to consider the same theater chain as yesterday’s unpleasantness. And maybe that’s not such as bad thing…
The Sky is not falling.
You heard it right. The Sky is not falling.
Oh sure, there are layoffs at Disney. After the merger with the Lucas empire, it was more than inevitable that some folks would be shown the door. And the writing was on the wall for a while that things were going to change.
Yes, I understand the realities here. Folks who had jobs do not now. You name it and they are gone. Lucas Arts, Lucas Animation and now Disney Animation. The truth is, this happens in industry. Not just entertainment and certainly not just in animation. The days of a job for life anywhere are long gone. After working for one company for 26 years and “moving on to explore other career opportunities”, trust me. I get that.
Sure, people had mortgages, cars and college educations to pay for. Not to mention families to feed. Yet, life does go on. Maybe not as we anticipated, but the world does not stop spinning because someone above your pay grade decided in a change of direction. Really!
Reinventing yourself seems to be the way things are headed. It used to be what have you done. Now it seems to be what can you do. Nothing wrong with that. Just plan to enjoy that moment when things go the way you want. Because it may not last as long as you would like.
Remember above all, things change.
By the way, hand drawn animation is not dead. Ask anyone who uses a Wacom or other tablet. Hand still plays it’s role in the process. Maybe the days of drawing on paper as part of the animation process are passing, but at it’s core, some hand still moves the cursor from point A to point B. That talent and ability is not lost yet.
As things go, Disney is just moving from one era into another. And yes, right now, the suits running the place have their own ideas as to what the public wants to see in entertainment. We get to prove them right or wrong at the box office. Like many of you, I will be more than pleasantly surprised if Disney’s latest take on “The Lone Ranger” manages to do well. I won’t be surprised if it ends up being another “John Carter” and heads into the sunset quietly and quickly.
Funny thing, folks. The entertainment industry, again just other industries, runs on cycles. For example, the success of “Star Wars” bred a whole universe of similarity. Had it not been a success, Disney would not have invested in either “Tron” or “The Black Hole”. Paramount would not have gone ahead with “Star Trek”, nor Universal with “Battlestar Galactica”.
Right now, the trend towards computer generated imagery in film making is still upwards. Animated film or action blockbuster, they rely on the use of CGI as a tool. Given time, the pendulum will swing back the other way. All it will take is a good story that captures the audience, made with practical effects, cheaper than CGI, that wins hearts and minds at the box office. It’s out there, lurking in the shadows, waiting for the moment.
Once that threshold is crossed, others will follow. Only a matter of time.
Until then, how can you as a fan change things? Two ways come to mind immediately. First, if you don’t like the product, don’t purchase it. If box office and video sales drop off, studios get that point loud and clear. And if you do like something, your purchase of the product also sends a message.
Second? Friend Shelly Valladolid has a good idea. Invest. Become a shareholder and bring change from those quarters. Think that the company does not listen to shareholders? Think again. If enough of them express a position, the company that ignores them does so at its peril. Michael Eisner anyone??
If you can see this as opportunity instead of calamity, you get extra points. In my own experience, moving on was the right thing. I didn’t see it as such at the time, but certainly do now.
And that’s just how I hope it all works out here. Somewhere down the line, may we look back and see this as a beginning and not an end. A fork in the road, rather than a dead end.