Monday, October 5, 2009

Movie palace, Paris Trout and angels

- Driving through the heart of my hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia, I am thrilled to see workers sprucing up the long closed up Campus Theatre. It opened in 1935 and showed its last film in 1983. A local accountant kept his offices upstairs and would not consider selling the building until the nearby university purchased it last year. It will be used for occasional performances and as the college bookstore. Hopefully they will light up the marquee again. I have missed it.

- The upstairs offices were the scene of an infamous crime in 1953. A fictionalized account of the story was written by Peter Dexter, who won the National Book Award for "Paris Trout."

- In a less famous area of town, a woman and her son are mowing, trimming and edging my parents' lawn and shrubbery. It is a lovely surprise because no one expected them to do this and they will not let me pay them, saying they do it because they love my parents. I call them angels.

17 comments:

Cathy said...

i love old movie theaters--so glad that will be preserved!

Blue Bunny said...

i like going to the moovees in olde teeaters liek that.

I seed "Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" almost 500 times now.

Lance said...

Hi Lynn,
I love the old theatre! And what a wonderful thing the woman and her son did for your parents! More of that in our world would be such a great thing!

Jannie Funster said...

I think Blogger munched my other comment.

I said those people are angels indeed and that I love it when people care enough to bring old landmarks back to their former glory. yay! Great things do happen and on a super-regular basis.

TALON said...

What a beautiful building! I hope they light the marquee too!

It's wonderful when good people restore our faith.

Lynn said...

Cathy -

My vision was that it could show art films and the like, but this use will be better than being closed up. I used to spend summer Saturdays there - double features, but mainly there to be with friends, hardly watching the movies at all. I had my first date there, so it is special to me for so many reasons.

BB -

I love Wallace & Gromit, too!

Lance -

Yes - and the thing is, I think she could use the money. Angels.

Jannie -

Great things do happen on a regular basis! (And I imagine some sort of pac-man blogger comment muncher.)

Talon -

The downtown area is kind of dead - Wal-mart killed it. :) But it is bouncing back slowly thanks to efforts such as this.

Yes - my faith in people is affirmed by things like that.

Riot Kitty said...

That *is* angelic of those people. And what a neat building! It seems like the perfect place for a bookstore.

Lynn said...

Riot Kitty -

I think it would be perfect if they put in chairs and coffee for the bookstore. It's within a block of the school.

Maude Lynn said...

What a gorgeous old theater!

G-Man said...

I bet it had a balcony...
And I bet there were crushed velvet ropes somewhere in that Theater!!

Lynn said...

Mama Zen -

It is gorgeous.

G-man -

Yep - there is a balcony and crushed velvet ropes. And there was always a man in a major domo uniform taking tickets.

LL Cool Joe said...

That is a very American looking building. It's beautiful.

The murder..not so beautiful.

We could all do with some angels couldn't we?

Lynn said...

Joe -

I'm glad the building could be saved.

I only mention the murder because a rather well-known book came out of. My home town has its share of colorful stories.

We could all do with angels.

G. B. Miller said...

Who says that the unexpected gift of someone doing somethng for someone else is a thing of the past?

Lynn said...

G -

Not me. :)

Snaggle Tooth said...

i'm all for local good live entertainment venues-
I wonder if the ghost of Ennis haunts the office?

Sometimes "home" means wonderful neighbors... how nice!

Lynn said...

Snaggle -

I wonder, too - my dad knew that guy who did the crime and it is still a last name you hear around there.

Yes - lovely people.