As a person born in the past century, going to the movies represents something that I have lost in this one. I have a friend, John Lekich who would agree on this. We are both romantics when we talk about the old movies of our youth.Would anybody know about Beau Geste?

It was with a special glee that Lekich either suggested or was assigned by Georgia Straight Editor Charles Campbell in 1996 to do an essay on one of Vancouver’s last independent cinemas, the Hollywood on West Broadway and Balaclava (around the corner from where I live on 7^th and Trutch).

The story that Lekich wrote was about 80 year-old David Fairleigh who for many years opened the door to several generations of movie goers.

For the photograph to illustrate the story, Lekich suggested an image that would parallel that quintessential film about going to the movies, the 1988 Italian film directed and written by Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso. 

Now in this month of October 2017 I can sadly report that while the Hollywood is still standing it has only been used by the folks that make the series iZombie.

Talking to one of the crew I told her that there were plans to convert the theatre to a church. She answered back with a big smile, “That would even be better for us!”

The last film I saw at the Hollywood was the Wizard of Oz with my Rosemary and two very young-at-the-time granddaughters Rebecca and Lauren.

For me the experience was odious. From the moment we opened the door I was hit by the noise of the computer games and pinball machines on the left and the smell of greasy food. On our right there were automatic vending machines and one lonely person selling tickets with a long line of people my age who did not want to deal with a machine.

We entered our cinema (was it unit 17 or unit 18?) 20 minutes before screen time. We were lambasted by very loud ads featuring a young idiot telling us to play some game as we could win fantastic packaged pop-corn that came in all kinds of flavours. When the film was supposed to start we again saw 20 more minutes of trailers and more ads.

If I ever go again to any of these Cineplexes (the VIP moniker meant that you could wait in a darkened lounge and perhaps skip all the ads) I will bring my Radio Shack sound meter. I am convinced that the trailers and part of the feature film exceed 120 decibels. Going to this sort of movie house is experiencing a movie that is devoid or romance. 

 David Fairleigh please come back from wherever you are and save us.

Enjoy the show! Enjoy the show!