Dear Moviegoer,

You have probably heard that movie theaters are having a tough go of it right now. It’s pretty bad for them right now and frankly I am writing to you in the hope you can help them out. Movie theaters have been there for us, so I think it’s right for us to be there for them right now.

There are many things in this life that are worthwhile. When you are a child it is the process of learning and discovery, that if you are raised with love and care the world opens up for you and takes various opportunities to show how wonderful it is. As you get older you start taking an interest in sex and all its inter-workings. When you get much older you marry and then you realize that sex is the carrot that gets the donkey in the barn and getting on with the business of life. It stops being a pursuit and becomes a gentle celebration of commitment. You may be shocked at this, but then you realize that the tiny humans bouncing on your bed are a result of this tender charade. Your partner hopefully becomes a celebration of the struggles you face together and evolves into a committed co-traveler on this journey you call life. You get older, your kids get their own cars and are starting to define themselves in ways that are amusing because it brings back memories and is scary for the same reason.

There are always times in all our lives that change our thinking and widen our perspective on things. For me a lot of that change came as a result of the movies.

My Uncle, when I was six, took me and my ever so boisterous cousins to go see “The Sound Of Music”. I did not know what to expect. The lights went down, my cousins went quiet, and lights flickered on the large 40 foot screen. Music seduced me to pay deeper attention. The rest of the world faded away and I was a tourist on a trip to beautiful Austria in the late 1930’s. It was like a tractor beam grabbed my whole being and everything else disappeared. It was transcendent. The movie took hold of me and at that young age I saw their deep value. When I left accompanied by the serenade of my arguing cousins I realized something had changed.

Another episode which springs to mind is when my uncle, a high school teacher and brought home a 16mm print of “Cat Ballou” starring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin. He decided to screen the print in his basement. When the movie began there were ten kids watching the screen, when the movie was coming to and end and Cat got her revenge, I was sitting on a folding chair by myself in an empty basement.

In the beginning of the summer of 1977, I sat with six of my high school friends and sat near the back of the Uptown Theater. It was a matinee and we only had a half day of school. We caught the 2:30 PM show of this movie called “Star Wars”. Trailers played, then suddenly the Fox fanfare was heard followed by a green title card with Lucasfilm on it and another title card that simply stated “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….” the title Star Wars dropped quickly in and then receded out, a preamble tilted at 45 degrees, a tiled down to a planet and them screeching into view a diplomatic ship and a Star Destroyer. The Star Destroyer strutted its enormity slowly and purposefully. Breath had suddenly left my body and I knew that something important just happened.

Movies are a passion for me. I am sure in some ways we all carry a bushel of memories tied to events in your life that are tied to movies. Movies for a lot of people were a way of interpreting the world around them. They were a distraction during the great Depression and a catharsis during the fearful days of World War II. They were an inexpensive medium for social gathering and an exercise in recommitting to community. Movies are a celebration of our own experience until as of late when they became 2 hour long commercials for toys. Hollywood has completely losing sight of what is important when it comes to movies. I would even have to go as far to say that they really do not tell effective stories which reflect the human condition, they now exploit and no longer celebrate. I am pretty miffed about this and I am asking for your ideas what we should do about it.

I am also asking you, the movie goers past and present to reflect on the meaning of what moviegoing once was. Think about the memories that abound centered around small single screen theaters. Romance erupted and laughter cascaded over the seats and out into the streets and people thought about their place in the world.

I am asking you to remember how much theaters meant to you and how they can be made vital again. In this time of isolation, the idea of community is electric and it soars in our hearts. To sit in a darkened auditorium and to celebrate the stories that bind us and give us a glimpse into this world of ours. It is important, very important. Theaters in many ways are living organisms, purveyors of dreams, of hopes and of celebration.

Most importantly Moviegoer, please remember the theater owners who pour blood sweat and tears into the dreams that entertain us. These theaters stand wounded before an increasingly uncaring Hollywood and a pandemic that is brutal and indiscriminate. What you may not realize is that if these small-town theaters shutter, the heart of towns across America will forever stop beating. The town will diminish and people will wonder why. The peril that theaters are facing are threatening to erode the fabric of small town America once and for all.

These theaters cannot issue junk bonds to prevent disaster. Independent theaters opposed to the major circuit have little or no safety net….all they have is you.

This holiday season. Go buy some concessions if you are watching a movie at home. Lobby your local government to create programs to support independent theaters. Go buy gift certificates and place them in a “giving Christmas basket” to be distributed. Tell the operator of that independent theater, thank you. Tell them they supported your town and now I will support you. Think about their importance in the past, the present and hopefully the future.

Always remember when and if that theater is locked for the last time, the heart of your town stops beating and we as a people as lessened.

Thanks for listening

Bill

P.S. Write Congress and tell them to pass the SAVE OUR STAGES initiative.