For the past week plus or so, the last movie theater in my area has been shut, but it’s at least not as terrible as I’d initially thought. When I first strolled past on my usual route a block away, I noticed the blank marquee and side panels and immediately thought the place was out of business and gone forever. That would have been COMPLETELY lousy, as it would mean Parkchester going from having five or six movie theaters in the 1970’s when we moved here to having ZERO for a pretty large community of people. Granted, the last few theaters before the American shut down in the late 80’s and 90’s and all have been turned into stupidly useless shops, a church and at least one gym that aren’t needed at all because we have PLENTY of those already in the area. So no one of a certain (younger) age knows that there were plenty of options every night of the week for seeing movies in this area other than The American.

And yes, it’s too bad for them that those older theaters are dead and gone…

The American (which was a Loews theater back in the day, I believe) is simply getting some asbestos abatement done, according to the signs inside the gate. This is great news for the future, but it also sucks in a way because I recall spending many hours in that old hole catching plenty of movies, good, bad and pretty darn ugly.

Granted, I haven’t been there recently as the bigger and indie screenings I get invites to are in New York City at assorted locations. But having a neighborhood theater about five or so minutes away is important for a few key reasons (cost and travel time being the big two) and I hope the work gets done and the formerly ugly theater gets a nice cleanup. Of course, if it’s been bought up by AMC or whomever else runs those more modern movieplexes these days, I’ll expect a more complete and longer renovation job followed by a big jump in ticket prices to reflect the fancy updates. Still, the rather quiet closing and no signs outside saying WHY or WHEN has me a tad worried that we may have no theater here at all when all is said and done. Whomever owns that property better have NOT sold that place to a mattress store (we have five or six) some other dumb retailer or leased it to a church is all I’m saying, grrrr!

Bleh. I miss the days when the place was overrun by stray cats who moved in thanks to a rodent problem the place used to have many years back (which is what happens when you store your trash out back or leave it in the damn theater!). Even if the film was crap, you at least got the “pleasure” of seeing cats run around in front of the theater or worse, old ladies who’d buy movie tickets just to smuggle tins of cat food in to feed the feral kitties. Yeah, that Senior Citizen discount affords you some mighty silly privileges, huh? Anyway, more on The American as things progress. Hell, I have NO movie theater to go to within a proper walking distance, so I may as well waste what little spare time I do have on something constructive, no?