Town’s effort to save historic theatre touches hearts across the country

“He who loves an old house never loves in vain.” – Isabel La Howe Conant, late 19th Century author. Saving a small town landmark is no easy task when the digital world changes the rules and if you are in the fight by yourself. Small town theatres, such as The Davis Theatre, circa 1934, in …

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Alzheimer’s, a season of ‘lasts’

“Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought.” – Emily Dickinson Most stories about Alzheimer’s catch my eye, but none more than one I read this past week, a USA Today story about a family’s ongoing blog about Alzheimer’s. I am interested in this because my mother, 94, was officially diagnosed with …

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Do we really need new sheets, calendars, housecleaning and new thoughts in January?

“If you can’t make it better, you can laugh at it” – Erma Bombeck Adaptation is what we need in January, we tell ourselves this time of year. I do not know about you, but the older I become the less adaptive I care to be. Encarta Encyclopedia describes “alteration” as the state of changing …

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Playing word game online saves a life across the world

“Risk-taking, trust, and serendipity are key ingredients of joy. Without risk, nothing new ever happens. Without trust, fear creeps in. Without serendipity, there are no surprises.” Rita Golden Gelman, children’s author I guess I could try to claim a little credit for introducing my friend Beth Legler of Blue Springs to the online game, Words …

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Top reasons why it’s time for 2011 to end

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language.?And next year’s words await another voice.?– T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding” For the past two years at the end of December, I shared with you my top ten reasons why I was ready for that year to end. And here we are again at the close of …

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Town’s effort to save historic theatre touches hearts across the country Alzheimer’s, a season of ‘lasts’ Do we really need new sheets, calendars, housecleaning and new thoughts in January? Playing word game online saves a life across the world Top reasons why it’s time for 2011 to end

Jan
26

Town’s effort to save historic theatre touches hearts across the country

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“He who loves an old house never loves in vain.”
– Isabel La Howe Conant, late 19th Century author.

Saving a small town landmark is no easy task when the digital world changes the rules and if you are in the fight by yourself.

Small town theatres, such as The Davis Theatre, circa 1934, in Higginsville, Missouri, are faced with such a reality because movie studios will no longer offer 35 mm films and will require digital equipment that can cost nearly $90,000 per movie screen.

The Davis Theatre has four screens requiring that a minimum of $300,000 will be needed to upgrade the entire complex.

This is a Herculean task for many small-town theatres that are break-even enterprises at best. In a nutshell as technology changes, small town movie theatres will be forced to close, an outcome that is already happening across the country.

However, word of this west central Missouri town’s dilemma spread fast this past week (fueled by social media networking and media reports). The plight of the historic art deco Davis Theatre in Higginsville, 30 miles east of Independence, drew attention from scores of folks wanting to know how they could help.

The Friends of Davis Theatre, a volunteer non-profit organization, and others from across the country are taking on the challenge to keep the historic theatre from closing. The Friends organization is currently seeking 501c3 IRS status with the intention of one day buying the theatre to operate it as a movie house but also as a performing arts center.

Besides the bake sales and benefits, the Friends are involved in a mammoth fundraising project, a Reader’s Digest contest titled “We Hear You America”. First prize is $50,000, and currently Higginsville is in second place with online voting. It’s simple—visit wehearyouamerica.readersdigest.com and enter zip code 64037, then your email address and vote. Anyone 18 and older can vote unlimited times.

Higginsville has recently passed the 2 million-vote mark.

I visited the theatre one recent afternoon before show time because I wanted Fran Schwarzer, owner, to give me a “real” tour of the building and tell me about the history behind its walls.

She looked at me a little perplexed when I said, “Take me to the bowels of this edifice. I want to see the ‘inner sanctum sanctorum.’ For the record, that is the Latin translation meaning the “holy of holies” or the most holy place in the building.

Fran understood what I wanted to see and led me to an unremarkable door that opens off the lobby and takes you to a steep, concrete incline toward the dark basement beneath.

I was expecting the Phantom of the Opera to appear any moment.

For movie history buffs, what she showed me was breathtaking.

Categorized by alpha and topic, Fran showed me rolls and rolls of movie posters.

Fran said when they bought the building in 1998 and began its restoration, she and George found movie and boxing match posters thrown in a pile and covered with trash. Instantly, they knew they had a “find”.

Over the years, Fran and George Schwarzer added to their poster collection so that today the halls of the theatre feature a virtual museum of movies from the past.

As Fran walked me through the lobby, she explained each poster, stopping to point out her favorite–the original War of the Worlds movie poster. I was speechless.

There are so many others, but here are a few I loved: White Christmas, The Ten Commandments, Gone with the Wind, the complete collection of Spider Man posters, the complete collection of Lord of the Rings posters, The Hideous Sun Demon (remember that creepy, B movie of the 50s), Bus Top with Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray, and the Harold Lloyd posters (He was the silent screen star known for his stunts such as sitting on a flag pole on a New York skyscraper.)

And the pièce de résistance, an original Sugar Ray Robinson fight poster.

Fran says that back in the day people got their news at the movies from newsreels and posters. Fights, for example, were advertised on posters at theatres.

The Davis Theatre and its fascinating history, its gallery of posters and ambiance makes it indeed a rather magical place, I would have to say.

After all, movies are all about magic, aren’t they? But magic can’t last, at least for this small town, without the reality of making big plans and aiming high.

Note: If you would like to help the Friends of the Davis Theatre, vote online at the address above or send tax-deductible donations to:

Mainstreet Higginsville, Inc., a 501c3, mailed to
First Central Bank,
P.O. Box 718,
Higginsville, Mo
64037,
noting in the memo line that it is for Davis Theatre.

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Jan
19

Alzheimer’s, a season of ‘lasts’

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“Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought.” – Emily Dickinson

Most stories about Alzheimer’s catch my eye, but none more than one I read this past week, a USA Today story about a family’s ongoing blog about Alzheimer’s.

I am interested in this because my mother, 94, was officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s more than 12 years ago. We have been in the throes of this dreaded disease ever since, so naturally I am interested in everything Alzheimer’s. And I must admit, I worry about getting it myself.

The story mentioned above is named simply Bob’s Blog, a personal journal kept in association with USA Today. It is about Bob Blackwell, 69, a retired and once brilliant and highly talented CIA analyst who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s five years ago.

At first, he started writing about his battle with the illness, but soon thereafter, his wife Carol took over blogging about their personal journey.

She tells poignant, sometimes humorous and always loving tales about their daily lives. Recently, Carol has been writing the blog they keep for USA Today about “the season of lasts — listing things Bob has done for the last time. He has been a lifelong fan of University of Georgia football, for instance, but following the games last fall was too challenging.”

And on and on the list of “lasts” continues.

Carol writes: “Here we are, and there’s no cure and no promise of a cure…I know it’s too late for a cure for Bob, the disease has moved into many parts of his brain, but I’m praying for my children and grandchildren. We have to find a cure.”

If you are close to someone who is afflicted with Alzheimer’s, I imagine that you drink in every word as well on the subject of finding a cure for future generations and for ourselves.

Unfortunately, the very definition of Alzheimer’s is indeed foreboding.

Health reporter Janice Lloyd describes Alzheimer’s as “a form of dementia that causes progressive loss of intellectual and social skills, the only disease among the top killers for which there is no prevention, cure or treatment that will slow its progression”.

We hear constantly in the news these days that disease is thought to run in families and the growth of Alzheimers, the projected number of people over the age of 65 in the U.S., is now in the millions.

WebMD further explains: “Dementia is considered a late-life disease because it tends to develop mostly in elderly people. About 5 to 8 percent of all people over the age of 65 have some form of dementia, and this number doubles every five years above that age. It is estimated that as many as half of people in their 80s suffer from dementia.”

I find better news in the fact that new efforts are being made to raise public awareness, provide more funding for research and speed up the timeline to find a cure.

And even better news in the fact that once in awhile our loved ones with Alzheimer’s emerge ever so briefly from the fog and come back, sometimes long enough for us to catch a glimmer of the person we used to know.

For example, the other day I could not get my mother to open her eyes. It was lunchtime at the special care Alzheimer’s unit where she resides.

I tried to entice her to smell and taste her food and to take a sip of coffee, which incidentally she has adored her entire life.

It was the coffee I gave her that I believe brought her back to life. Right away, she opened her eyes and smiled. Then she squealed, “Oooooo, coffee. That’s good.” She then turned to a neighbor at the dining table and said, “Have you met my mother”, pointing to me. Looking at me she said, “Kay Jean (the name she has always called me) have you met my mother?”

And that is how it goes most days, but this particular day she recognized the smell and taste of coffee and said “ooooo, that’s good”, and for ever so briefly, she was back.

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Jan
12

Do we really need new sheets, calendars, housecleaning and new thoughts in January?

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“If you can’t make it better, you can laugh at it” – Erma Bombeck

Adaptation is what we need in January, we tell ourselves this time of year.

I do not know about you, but the older I become the less adaptive I care to be.

Encarta Encyclopedia describes “alteration” as the state of changing to fit new circumstances or conditions, a revision if you will.

It is curious to me that I used to love change, but now I am not so sure I like it.

Come January most of us resolve to try something new. Buy new sheets. Try to understand a calendar that begins on a Monday. Move the chairs and furniture around, put away Christmas decorations, clean the closets, think new thoughts and look at life differently. And oh yes, if there is time, organize those photographs that reside in boxes in the basement or in files on one’s computer.

I began these January tasks by putting away Christmas decorations and thoroughly cleaning the house. However, I quickly became bored and instead spent the afternoon watching two back-to-back chick flicks, popped popcorn and enjoyed a Root Beer. Don’t tell the spousal unit.

The next day I attempted to take down Christmas decorations again, and this time as I was carrying two many boxes and sacks down the basement steps, twisted my knee and fell on my wrist. No serious damage was done, although I am wearing support braces on both appendages.

So much for housekeeping. You see, as Erma Bombeck once said, “Housework can kill you if done right.”

Then there are the annual January white sales in all my favorite stores, and I am confident this will be the year I replace the sheets. Maybe I will cover the sofa and buy a new bedskirt and comforter set as well. Usually by the time I decide what I want, the sales are over.

New calendars arrive, but some of them begin with Monday instead of Sunday. I cannot fathom these at all, so I probably will not use them. I have to wonder who designed these calendars, some 23-year-old commercial art student fresh out of college? Don’t they know we baby boomers have to have our calendars start on Sunday because that is all we have ever known? Ok, Ok, I suppose they are designed for the business week, but why?

As I was saying, we baby boomers may like to think we are open to new ways, but truth be told, we drag our feet kicking and screaming into the new year and into anything new at all. The old year and our old ways were just fine with us.

Farmers in the Midwest, have a saying for our January conundrum, “Don’t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t botherin’ you none,” like last year.

In many ways though, last year did bother us a lot. Every year does.

So, we contemplate change each January and hope that this January change will actually happen, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Although come to think of it, according to Washington Irving, “There is a certain relief in change, even though it may be from bad to worse As I have often found in traveling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one’s position and be bruised in a new place!”

I think I am ready for February.

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