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Something to celebrate: Re-opening of the Marion Theatre
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Location: Blogs Now We're Talking |
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| Posted by: Joe Byrnes |
6/14/2007 1:16 AM |
Here's something to celebrate: the Aug. 11 grand re-opening of the 65-year-old Marion Theatre downtown.
I tried to imagine what it was like on opening night, Sept. 11, 1941, when patrons shelled out 39 cents to enter the brightly lit theater and view “Aloma of the South Seas.” As usual, when it's a question of local history, I called David Cook, historian and former Star-Banner editor.
Cook was there on opening night. He was 13 and was fascinated by the penny-sized moths that seemed to be everywhere outside the building at 50 S. Magnolia Ave. They were drawn, perhaps, by dazzling lights brighter than the town had seen before.
“In those days, Ocala rolled up its sidewalks at 6 p.m., and everybody went home,” Cook said. I asked him about the city's other old theaters, and Cook laid out for me, in a matter of minutes, the early history of local movie houses.
First was the Air Dome, an open-air, silent-film theater on the downtown square where the Concord Building is now. Then the Temple theater opened on Fort King Street across from today's City Hall. It had silent movies and stage shows but found religion and became a church during the Great Depression. The Temple Baptist congregation eventually moved to Southeast 36th Avenue and became Central Baptist Church.
Bert Acker built the Ritz theater on Silver Springs Boulevard, and it became the primary theater during the 1930s. The Dixie theater on the west side of the square - now a vacant building next to O'Malley's Alley - seated a couple hundred and showed second-run films.
When Marion Theatre opened, it was the place to go - if you were white. Black moviegoers were not welcome. They were allowed at the Roxy on West Broadway and upstairs at the Ritz.
Arizona Turner, 70, who is black and was a child in Ocala, said the first movie she saw at the Marion Theatre was “Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,” starring Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, which was released in December 1967. The re-opening is “a positive thing,” she said, as long as everyone can enjoy it.
Indeed, it will include free activities and tours during the day for everybody, said Brian Sofsky, executive director of the nonprofit Marion Film & Visual Arts Foundation. That evening the gala will have an opening act, a musical act and a movie, maybe Cecil B. DeMille's "The Greatest Show on Earth" or "The Majestic."
With cooperation from the city, which owns the building, and help from state grants and private donations, the $1.3 million renovation is 70 percent complete.
Former Mayor Gerald Ergle and theater supporter Lee Farkas of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker got a tour of the renovation Tuesday afternoon. I tagged along. Workers were busy bolting down the legs for 327 cushy red velvet seats in the spacious main theater.
When it's up and running, Marion Theatre will have programs for children in its smaller, upstairs theater. It will have film series - weeks of Westerns or DeMille movies or French flicks - plus independent films, musical performances and some improv comedy. On Saturdays it will feature major performers, like The Second City slated for December.
I wondered aloud about French films in Ocala. "That's the goal," Brian Sofsky said, "to give something to Marion County that has never been here before. In film culture, you don't get it 'til you see it." The live events, he said, "will pay the bills."
I, for one, am ready to open the red door next to the ticket booth and walk into an old-Ocala world of movies or live entertainment.
Joe Byrnes may be reached at joe@ocala.com or (352) 867-4112. |
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Re: Something to celebrate: Re-opening of the Marion Theatre |
By Joe on
6/13/2007 3:45 PM |
| I can't wait myself. I've always had a fondness for that building and was overjoyed when I found out they were going to reopen it. I wonder what the first movie shown will be. |
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Re: Something to celebrate: Re-opening of the Marion Theatre |
By Coni Brown on
6/14/2007 10:53 AM |
| This is fanTAStic - Hopefully, they'll show ALL kinds of film festivals & not let 'Certain' 'Groups' dictate what Ocala should and shouldn't see. Could this mean we're really moving up in the world? Now, if we could just have some great downtown art/music festivals like other real cities do...very exciting turn of events! |
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Re: Something to celebrate: Re-opening of the Marion Theatre |
By michael fulmer on
12/24/2007 6:39 AM |
| Can someone at Talyor, Bean and Whitaker please tell me how I can possibly make a payment to you without jumping through hoops? I have tried everything in my power to make a payment to you. First, I tried paying online but TB&W decided that you didn't want it paid by that method. Then a certified check had to be mailed to a different location. That didn't work either. Next I have tried to get it to you by paying $16 to overnight it and was refused stating "we don't accept mail that requires a signature".<br>My credit seem to be going down hill ever since I have had a loan with your company. I desperately need help from a human being that has the power to do something.<br><br>Thank you, <br><br>Michael Fulmer<br>336 Greenwich Drive<br>Aiken, SC 29803 |
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