Hanging on to Tradition

By Mike Olszewski

We lost three more friends in recent weeks. They were big box multiplex theaters on shaky financial footing, struggling with rising film rentals and overhead expenses, operating with skeleton crews.

Those that still had ticket booths typically had employees selling both tickets and popcorn. Ushers? They’ve been long gone. In multiplexes with as many as 10 films, no one monitored customers strolling from screen to screen, further cutting into profits.

Theaters had sticky floors from spilled drinks and candy trash in the aisles that remained until a cleaning crew arrived after closing.

When COVID landed, many theater owners gave up. More may soon close for good. That big movie palace we remember as kids is a distant memory. As I mentioned in a previous column, streaming and big-screen home theaters didn’t help. The huge TV in your living room is about the same size picture you would see from a distance at a theater.

You can pick up huge screens at discount department stores and warehouse clubs for pennies on the dollar from what they cost just a couple of years ago. As store owners have found over the years, and theater owners are seeing now, it’s hard to compete with convenience.

Thankfully, the pop culture convention season is gearing up, attracting folks eager to hang on to a different time. There’s a convention (con) for every genre and interest. One of the oldest is The Columbus Moving Picture Show (formerly Cinevent), held nearly every Memorial Day weekend for over 50 years.

Round-the-clock classic comedies, dramas and animated features attract all ages, even young families with kids. The show includes a couple of silent films accompanied by an organist to give a taste of the movie experience that our grandparents enjoyed.

There’s always a Northeast Ohio connection and this one is important. Morrie Everett is a film poster authority. His Last Moving Picture Company in Kirtland has the world’s largest collection of movie posters. Period. No one else comes close. A few of Everett’s posters have set auction records; he’ll have a room of classic posters in Columbus at the Moving Picture Show.

One last thing concerning classic films: The main branches of the Cleveland Public Library and the Akron-Summit County Public Library have huge movie collections to loan. Check out a few and dive into film history and entertainment.

Last issue, I mentioned a Hollywood star who took a new name after he played at Chin’s Restaurant in Cleveland. There was a lot of prejudice against the Japanese after World War II and Goro Suzuki saw it first-hand, even though he was a loyal American. When he brought his nightclub act to Chin’s, he was advised by the owner to take a Chinese stage name. He did, and Suzuki became Jack Soo, later to gain TV immortality as Detective Nick Yemana on “Barney Miller.”

For next time, we’re ready for some baseball. Pitcher Mel Harder had a long career with the Tribe but he’ll always be known for two significant pitches. When and where? I’ll have the answer in the next issue.