A little history

Hi again.
A little history on movies - movie theaters - in Saranac Lake.
Most folks of the Boomer generation and before probably remember the Pontiac Theater. It's located where the Berkley parking lot is now. It operated for many years - sorry, my history studies don't dig that far - as the traditional downtown theater in town. It had a marquee, it was where dates happened, it helped folks through the long winters, gave summer folks something to do on rainy days. It was owned - for much of its lifetime - by Tony White, who also served as the Village Mayor for a time, and after whom the bandshell by Lake Flower is named.
The Pontiac burned in a spectacular fire in the early 1970s.
For a long time there was also the old Sara-Placid Drive-In (known also by some as the Twin-Flavors drive-in, after the great ice cream stand at the entrance), located a little more than half way to Lake Placid along Route 86 in a location that is fast returning to forest now. Ah, now there is a place of memories too.

After quite a few years without a theater, Reg Clark, the owner of the Palace Theater in Lake Placid worked out a deal with the owner of the Berkley building (now home of the Pasta/Pizza restaurant across from the Hotel Saranac) to take over the lower level of that building and operate a small movie theater there. The Berkley Theater was small, but it lasted into the 1990s. Mr. Clark had a good deal, basically covering the utility bills for the space, the Berkley was where he could play less popular films he'd run in order to secure the top grossing pictures to play at his bigger theater in Lake Placid. Now, this was back when the Palace had only one screen. Then Mr. Clark undertook his renovation, and the balcony was sectioned off, creating two more smaller screening rooms, and another space was opened into a still-smaller, almost private-screening-room size theater. So once the Palace had four screens to fill, the Berkley wasn't as important. When the Berkley building sold, and the new landlords approached Mr. Clark to discuss rent, he could reply "Rent?!? Are you kidding? I barely make enough to cover the utilities for this place!" Then he could pack up his gear and head home to Placid.
Since then, Saranac Lake's had to live movie-theater-free.
Now it's time to plan for the future.

Now if you stumble upon this blog and have more historical information to share about the movies in Saranac Lake, I love history, personal anecdotes, etc. Just leave a comment and reminisce.

Thanks.

p.s. Anybody hear about the latest return of the 3-D movie craze? I'm not sure I'll be able to catch this wave as it comes back around, but I'd guess within a few years there'll be more such movies released again, and I'd sure love to fill seats with folks wearing those funky red/blue cardboard-framed glasses.

Greetings!

Hello visitors.

This is the quiet little grand opening of this blog: Cinema Saranac Lake, devoted to bringing a movie theater back to town.

This first posting will serve to bring folks new to the topic up to the same level of cosmic (or at least cinematic?) awareness as everybody else. Well, okay, not cosmic awareness, but it sounded good at the time.

My name's Peter, and I've been plotting the return of the movies to Saranac Lake for several years now.

This is not to say that Saranac Lake has been devoid of film. I'm a big fan of the Cabin Fever film series every March, and there have been periodic showings of films in the park during summers, and various other exhibitions over the years.

But there hasn't been a theater here in quite a while.

Now, I'm not an impressario. I'm just a local resident and businessperson who's been looking at this void for some years and hoping somebody - anybody - would make the move.

I'm pretty busy running my own business, Major Plowshares Army & Navy Surplus, and I always figured having a theater downtown would really perk up the area, keep folks in town into an evening, and spur more downtown growth.

Well, I waited. I even sent emails a few years back to small theater chains, passing along information on our little gem of a village, and asking if they'd be interested in opening up here. The economy was good, theaters were doing fine, I thought: if I ran theaters, I'd be interested. But they weren't. I got polite "thanks but no thanks" emails back from all those who bothered returning my inquiries.

Then almost three years ago, a shopper stopped by my store who left an impression. He was a very friendly fellow, just wandering town, 'round about Thanksgiving time - not exactly peak season for Saranac Lake. We got to talking.

He: "You've got a really nice little town here, I'm impressed!"

Me: "Well, thanks, it's always a work in progress, but we love it here."

He: "No, really, you don't know what you've got - it's nice to see a town with a real live downtown. And the people are friendly, I mean it, a really nice town."

Me: "I agree, absolutely, and I like to think it keeps getting better with age."

He: "One question, though"

Me: "Fire away..."

He: "You got a movie theater in this town?"

Me: (heaving a big sigh) "Sad to say, no, not that there aren't a bunch of us who'd love to have one here again..."

He: "Well, if you - or anybody else around here - gets going on one, let me give you my name and number, I'd be happy to help you out!"

There began a lengthy conversation as this fellow introduced himself and made the idea of a movie theater not only more intriguing, but even within the realm of possibility. He would be described as a film impressario; comes from a film production, film promotion, and currently - a film festival background.

He told me several interesting things:

• with digital projectors, theaters are less expensive to start, and less expensive to operate.


• independent producers and distributors are dying to find more theaters for their product, and, it seemed to him, Saranac Lake would be a great spot for periodic independent debuts.


• distributors, using the new technology, are easier to work with than when it was all on film reels.

So I took down his information, and the seed was planted.



Since that time, I've done more research, and my eyes were always peeled for possible locations, all with a thought that someday, maybe, just possibly circumstances might allow me to move forward...

So this spring, I finally decided that it was time to take the next step.

Because I run my own business, it's more than a full time job. I knew I couldn't put a theater together and run my shop. I've been established for 11 years now, have a good clientele, and have room to grow. I decided to put the shop up for sale as a turn-key operation, and did so quietly through a local real estate agent. If you're interested, just call Joann Sandone Reed at Prudential Terry Horrocks Real Estate; she's the Business Brokerage specialist for that agency, and will provide you with a slew of info.

A few folks have inquired, I've even been able to detect a few gears starting to turn as folks have contemplated the charms and potentials of taking over here, but thus far, I'm still waiting for the first serious offer. It may take a while, but if you're as psyched as I am about bringing a movie theater to town, spread the word to anybody you can think of! Thanks.

Okay, enough for my first post. I'll come back again soon and perhaps in my next entry give a quick summary of the history of cinema in Saranac Lake...

I've