posted 04-05-2011 07:39 PM                    

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Some small-town exhibitors from the surrounding area were obviously intrigued. They couldn’t afford to convert to digital/3D, but this offered a cheaper option. Nobody mentioned it during the demo, but the other obvious implication seemed to be, if you just rent your equipment, you won’t lose out if the 3D craze fizzles out. The firm anticipated having over 500 systems installed in the U.S. by the end of 2010. (For a case of a theater in Decatur, Illinois that canceled its deal with Technicolor, see here; the management failed to understand that one has to charge higher admission for 3D tickets because the print rental fees and 3D system cost more, and the projectionist keeps referring to the 3D lens as a “camera.” On the whole, one can’t feel that in this case the Technicolor system itself was to blame. The 25 equipped screens out of the 150 in the Bow Tie Cinemas chain in California presumably have fared better.)

[Added later the same day: Skip Huston, who run Huston's Avon Theater 3 in Decatur, tells me that the reporter was the one who called the lens a "camera." (Knowing what it is to be misquoted by a reporter, I can well believe it.) The owners tried to avoid raising ticket prices for their customers, but that just doesn't work with 3D. Mr. Huston's theater is a mom-and-pop establishment competing with two Carmike multiplexes. Those wishing to avoid 3D have the option of 100% 2D at the Avon.]

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The Avon in Decatur, Illinois, for instance, can't evict its early title holder. Current owner Skip Huston was rummaging through a bin of marquee letters in the abandoned theater several years ago when he heard an odd noise: footsteps. He glanced over his shoulder. Nothing. A few minutes later, he heard it again. And again. The fourth time, he turned toward the sound. There, in the doorway, stood a man, clad in a white shirt and black pants. Huston spoke to him, but the man stepped out of sight. Huston didn't know who he'd glimpsed until he stumbled across the obituary for the Avon's second owner, Gust Constan. Constan reopened the Avon theater with his brothers in 1924. According to local legend, he ran it for most of his life, only to be tossed into the street after the Kerasotes theater chain bought him out. Great story, but not true. Constan died on February 24, 1965. His brothers did not sell the theater to Kerasotes until April 1966, more than a year after Constan's death.

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Ghosts can, in fact, be quite sweet. They've been known to illuminate unplugged lights and even offer advice. When Chris Barnett, projectionist at Decatur's Avon Theatre, was struggling with an ancient projector moments before showtime, he suddenly received a "directive" from the ether about how to operate the equipment. So it's almost understandable why Avon owner Skip Huston is, perhaps, a bit too charmed by his resident spook. "When I die," he says with a chuckle, "I'm moving in."

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posted 04-07-2011 02:52 AM                    

quote: Michael Brown

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He ask me if I'd get the "cameraman" to wait for him

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posted 04-15-2011 03:18 AM                    

quote: Joe Elliott

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book about the country's 6 'most haunted' theaters.

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posted 04-18-2011 02:23 PM                    

quote: Louis Bornwasser

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"a million monkeys with typrwriters. . . "

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