Grand Theatre

jim on July 18, 2006 at 11:58 am

I’m excited that my new documentary, “Preserve Me a Seat” will premiere at The Grand Theatre next week – Wednesday, July 26th at 7:30 p.m. We don’t remember a lot about our distant past, but we do remember our favorite movie theatre. “Preserve Me a Seat” is a documentary about these theaters and the ongoing fight to protect and preserve them for future generations. Featuring efforts to preserve theaters in Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Sat Lake City, and Omaha, “Preserve Me a Seat” will appeal to anyone interested in saving our classic theatres for future generations.

Here’s a link to a news article about the premiere here:

http://omahacityweekly.com/article.php?id=1269

and a local news station report here:

http://www.nebraska.tv/news/local/3338361.html

I hope all of the local Cinema Treasures members will attend! See you next week.
Jim Fields
Writer/Director, “Preserve Me a Seat"
www.apartment101films.com

rajojon on November 1, 2005 at 2:11 pm

We are having lots of fun owning and operating the Grand Theatre. Mike Bockhoven, entertainment writer with the Grand Island Independent, is one of our biggest fans. He and his crew recently produced a section for the Independent on “Ghosts of the Grand”. Be sure to click on the video link to experience their exploration of the non-public areas.

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Ghosthunting at the Grand
By Mike “What the hell was that??” Bockoven

Over the years, Iâ€\d had people tell me there were strange things that happened in the Grand Theater once the marquee darkened, the curtain closed and the lights in the snack bar stopped illuminating M&Ms and Hersheyâ€\s Bars.

Hereâ€\s what Iâ€\d heard:

• Every now and then, a janitor-looking guy could be seen out of the corner of your eye, only to vanish when you turn your head.

• Doors would sometimes open and shut, items such as posters and napkins would be strewn about and an overall uneasy feeling sometimes gripped you if you were in the wrong part of the building, alone.

• Strange banging sounds and the occasional sighting of a specter dressed in a white gown are part of The Grandâ€\s history. Some employees report becoming almost comfortable with the spirit.

So, a bunch of us from IndyKnow decided to shut off all the lights and take a walk through with a flashlight, a video camera and a digital tape recorder. At the very least, weâ€\d have some fun. If things went well, weâ€\d have a hell of a Halloween story for yâ€\all.

What we found was something in the middle.

Here was the plan: Take on the theater part first, move behind to the boiler room/storage area, hit the downstairs, then, if we were all still up for it, pick a spot, shut off all the lights and wait for something to happen.

The theater is a lot less inviting in the dark, but not that bad. What started to get spooky was the projection room. There are little windows that are just the perfect size to catch some sort of movement. If I were stuck between the earthly and the ethereal plane, itâ€\s where Iâ€\d go.

As far as that uneasy feeling you get when you go down in the basement by yourself and suddenly canâ€\t get up the stairs fast enough (letâ€\s call it the AHHHH feeling), nada. Itâ€\s as comfortable in the dark as it is in the dark with a movie playing. Behind the curtain is a different story.

Thereâ€\s an exit that leads to a wrought-iron gate. Inside the gate is a set of cement stairs and at the bottom is some storage and a boiler room. Inside the boiler room is an even smaller room that we all figure was where they used to shovel coal into the boiler. Now itâ€\s used as a way to make people feel constrained and like theyâ€\re 500 feet underground.

AHHHH factor is still pretty low, but itâ€\s creepy. Real creepy.

Downstairs is next. Now, if youâ€\ve never been downstairs at the Grand, itâ€\s basically unlike anywhere youâ€\ve ever been. Itâ€\s labyrinthine, with stone walls and low ceilings lined with pipes, but thatâ€\s not what sets it apart. What makes it special is whatâ€\s lying around.

Once you get past the main rooms to your right, the first room you come to was clearly once a dressing room. Lights line the mirrors, pink paint pokes out from protruding stone and everywhere is theater junk. There are promotional mobiles and old seats and popcorn buckets and whatever else. In the light, it would be a charming reminder of a bygone era. In the dark itâ€\s something out of the video game “Silent Hill.”

The air is thicker down here, colder. Thereâ€\s a draft but you donâ€\t know where itâ€\s coming from (and, thanks to years of video game playing, I half-way expected to be attacked by ghoulish little people with blades slashing at my knees). The flashlight doesnâ€\t give you enough light to give you any sort of context. The AHHHH factor starts to rise.

Down one corridor to the right is a friendly enough stretch leading to a place that is honest-to-God called “The Void.” Iâ€\ve seen the schematics, and itâ€\s called “The Void.” Whatâ€\s in “The Void?” We donâ€\t know, itâ€\s a void. As in “null and” and is empty. Fortunately, “The Void,” is bricked up and we can only speculate whatâ€\s in there. I say little ghoulish people with blades just waiting to slash your knees. Tonya says chocolate.

Where things really start to get strange is in the room to the left, the last room on the left, as it were.

Most of us sit on a giant roll of carpet in the center of the room, and immediately notice itâ€\s feeling a little colder than the rest of the basement. The room is mostly empty with a few scraps here and there, but mostly just a big empty room. I sit, facing east and suddenly do really really not want to turn my head in a northerly direction.

Others feel it too. Itâ€\s not a sense that somethingâ€\s in the room with us, exactly. Itâ€\s the sense that if we were here by ourselves, weâ€\d want to get out of Dodge as fast as we could. Heart rates go up. So does the AHHH factor. The mind starts to go fast – whereâ€\s the exit, how do I get out of here, oh God, thereâ€\s no light! We start telling jokes. Heart rates go down. The room gets warmer â€" not noticeably, but thereâ€\s a change.

No one really talks about it, but if thereâ€\s something down in the basement, it was in that room. With us. Right then.

That was our last stop, so we pack it up. Weâ€\re not scared, exactly, and Iâ€\m not sure we ever were. Iâ€\m not sure anyone thought weâ€\d do anything but have a few cheap laughs (we did) and shoot some video. This was more of an experiment than anything, but there was a point where things were getting a little serious.

Thatâ€\s kind of what Halloween is about, really. Itâ€\s about having fun, getting scared with friends, and hoping things donâ€\t get serious. Itâ€\s a thing young people do, and old people are so jealous of being able to do they try to recapture it. Sometimes it works. Sometimes you run into a really cold room and only your friends can help you maintain composure.

Then, there are times when youâ€\re really scared. Sometimes itâ€\s a dream and youâ€\re all alone. Sometimes itâ€\s when things are uncertain. I think thatâ€\s what we ran into, something uncertain, which is truly all thatâ€\s ever scary to us. We fear what we donâ€\t know, and thereâ€\s a whole lot most of us donâ€\t know about.

Is the Grand haunted? I donâ€\t know. Iâ€\m not sure how much I believe in “ghosts,” so much as I do that some places are inherently unfriendly. The Grand isnâ€\t one of them. Itâ€\s a friendly place, minus that one room.

I wish I had a ghost story for you. I really do. I wish an orb had floated by and we caught it on film, or we heard a door slam or nasty little ghoulies had slashed at our knees and we narrowly lived to tell the tale. Instead, Iâ€\ve got some video and some audio to show you what we did. Donâ€\t laugh at us too much and happy Halloween.

Oh, and during the “what the hell was that” clip, donâ€\t let my tone fool you. I wasnâ€\t scared. Not at all.

tadrian on April 19, 2005 at 8:10 am

Ray et al,

I remember going to summer movies at the Grand as a child and even brought my own children there when the summer movie program was still available. Once a week during the summer, we would pile into the family station wagon and get to see a movie just for kids. We bought punch cards – good for all 8 movies. We’d even get a kid-sized snack-pack because they were fairly inexpensive. The daycares in town also enjoyed this program as well. I would really love to see some version of that program re-activated.

rajojon on January 12, 2005 at 7:57 pm

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princessconsuelabananahammock on July 4, 2004 at 2:07 pm

“Midwest Theaters Ban ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’"
"R.L. Fridley, owner of Des Moines-based Fridley Theatres, says the controversial documentary incites terrorism.”

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Is Mr. Fridley honestly afraid that Nebraskans and Iowans will fly airplanes into tall buildings when they see this movie? Or that they’ll go on a beheading frenzy? Maybe what he’s really frightened of is that viewers will learn the truth about George W. Bush and war profiteering.