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...

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