good news: revival of small-town movie houses

-Star Cinema, Stayton, Oregon

Because bad news every day is a bummer, here's some good news: small towns across the country have banded together to revive their old movie theaters. Not as wildly successful money-makers, but as the community-building, congregation points they were once before. From NYT:

“If we were in Los Angeles or Phoenix, the only reason to go to a movie would be to see it,” said Cecile Wehrman, a newspaper editor who, with members of the nonprofit Meadowlark Arts Council resuscitated the Dakota in Crosby, its plush interiors now a chic black, red and silver. “But in a small town, the theater is like a neighborhood. It’s the see-and-be-seen, bring everyone and sit together kind of place.”

The revival is not confined to North Dakota; Main Street movie houses like the Alamo in Bucksport, Me., the Luna in Clayton, N.M., and the Strand in Old Forge, N.Y., are flourishing as well. But in the Great Plains, where stop signs can be 50 miles apart and the nearest multiplex is 200 miles round trip, the town theater — one screen, one show a night, weekends only — is an anchoring force, especially for families.

It is a tradition that comes with a delicate social choreography (kids up front, teenagers in the back — away from prying parental eyes) and in spite of nature’s ferocity (subzero temperatures can freeze the coconut oil for the popcorn machine).

What works in one town may not work in another, but cultural observers from Malcolm Gladwell to Robert Putnam will agree that community-strengthening institutions like these are definitely good things.

So yay for good news.