(this is a copy of a letter I’ve also sent to the OWH page)
You can build all the new theatres you want, with all the flash and glitz available, but if you take away history, what in the present becomes worth holding on to?
The first movie I ever remember seeing was Disney’s Fantasia when it was first re-released back in the early 80’s, and I saw it at the Indian Hills. It has always my favorite theatre building, and later when my friends and I were in our late teen’s, despite the growing multi-plexes we would often choose the Hills for movies for its centralized location, and the quality and atmosphere of the theatre. I had as fond of memories of the old Peony Park when it was still around. When I come back to visit Omaha it seems like more and more of the familiar landmarks are gone and the places I can show my little niece and nephew are becoming less. I hope that the company that is trying to buy the Hills does so successfully and soon. Or I fear, like Peony Park, we are going to have another scar on our landscape and another empty place in our Hearts that aches to see the new hole we have created in our lives. As we recently learned here in Indiana with the destruction of the RCA dome, it takes only a few hours to destroy, and a few months to clean up. But it will take people more then a generation to forget.
Please, for everyone, hold the wrecking balls and give people time to act. They saved The Rose, and given time they can also save Indian Hills.
(this is a copy of a letter I’ve also sent to the OWH page)
You can build all the new theatres you want, with all the flash and glitz available, but if you take away history, what in the present becomes worth holding on to?
The first movie I ever remember seeing was Disney’s Fantasia when it was first re-released back in the early 80’s, and I saw it at the Indian Hills. It has always my favorite theatre building, and later when my friends and I were in our late teen’s, despite the growing multi-plexes we would often choose the Hills for movies for its centralized location, and the quality and atmosphere of the theatre. I had as fond of memories of the old Peony Park when it was still around. When I come back to visit Omaha it seems like more and more of the familiar landmarks are gone and the places I can show my little niece and nephew are becoming less. I hope that the company that is trying to buy the Hills does so successfully and soon. Or I fear, like Peony Park, we are going to have another scar on our landscape and another empty place in our Hearts that aches to see the new hole we have created in our lives. As we recently learned here in Indiana with the destruction of the RCA dome, it takes only a few hours to destroy, and a few months to clean up. But it will take people more then a generation to forget.
Please, for everyone, hold the wrecking balls and give people time to act. They saved The Rose, and given time they can also save Indian Hills.
Catherine Coate,
former resident of Omaha