While many couples will hit cinemas throughout the country for date night on Valentine’s Day, other couples, such as Colleen and Bill Barstow in Elkhorn, Neb., Or Andrew and Juanita Thomas in Houston, will ensure that the projectors are running smoothly and the popcorn is Fresh – just like they do every night.
They are not the only ones. Yahoo Entertainment spoke with different couples throughout the country that theater owners have become in their respective communities, revitalizing silver screens and giving the locals a place to connect.
For many of them, making the film business was a decision they had never planned.
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“Some people come in this industry where they love the gears of a projector or they have the love affair with films. And while [Colleen and I] Certainly had that, “Bill told Yahoo Entertainment,” nothing in our background would prepare us for this. ‘
That said, none of the pairs could imagine in a different way, and they enjoyed the vital roles they played in their communities.
Meet the four couples who have moved their career to local theater owners.
Colleen and Bill Barstow – Elkhorn, Neb.
Colleen and Bill Barstow opened Main Street theaters in 1988 (Colleen and Bill Barstow)
After spending eight years at the Air Force, Bill Barstow was looking for something else in his new house outside Omaha. In the late 1980s, he and his wife, Colleen, were at that time ‘Blut’ and ‘looking for survival’. Originally from Detroit, the few hundreds of kilometers away from their support system was.
Then Bill saw a newspaper advertisement with a theater with one screen for sale.
“I went home and I told Colleen that I thought we could do this,” he said Yahoo. “She thought I was crazy.”
After talking about the owner of monthly payments and borrowing $ 1,200 of three different credit cards, the barstows made their purchase and called their company Main Street Theaters (now ACX Cinemas).
The couple, which ‘side by side from day 1, worked on this’, wanted to change the perception of so-called ‘mother and pop’ theaters.
“We treated it as if we invited people in our house,” Bill explained. “When they enter your house, everything had to be perfect.”
A favorite film that the couple often return to is the 1988 film Mystical pizzaWho hit the cinema around the same time that they opened theirs.
“It was the magic of films and it launched Julia Roberts,” said Bill. “There was a series of films where you could stand in an auditorium and see people respond to things. And we thought that was great. Like, they were in our living room. They made the choice to come to us. ‘
The Barstows now have theaters in five states, and their three children help run their growing things, including individual restaurants and bars.
“One of the reasons that continued to move us to keep working hard was that we had a product that the community could come under one roof, and we allowed people of all layers of life to create their own memories of:” Oh, I saw this film for the first time with my mother, my father, “Colleen said.
Beth and Kevin Burrows – North Bend, Wash.
Kevin and Beth Burrows are the owner of the North Bend Theater, located in the city where Twin Peaks was filmed. (Thanks to Kevin and Beth Burrows)
Beth and Kevin Burrows own the single-screen North Bend Theater in the city where the popular TV series Twin Peaks was filmed. The couple moved to the city in 1989, just before the show was broadcast, but their love for films started earlier.
“We started to date in high school, and one of our very first dates was for a film,” Beth told Yahoo. It was the struggle film from 1979 Take downAnd, says Beth, “That has cemented our relationship with each other, and films have played such an important role throughout our life.”
Their film Fandom continued in parenting, while they took their two children to see Harry Potterthe Narnia movies and the Hungry games trilogy.
“So when our local theater came for sale,” she said, “we wanted to make sure it remained as it has been since 1941.”
Adding that she and her husband “never thought we would do this,” Beth said, “It’s just a bit clicked together.”
On April 1, 2018 they opened and played everything, from regular films to vintage art house releases. “That was a big joke from April Fool about each other,” she said. “It was never in our plans.”
The couple has since had heavy in the Twin Peaks Lore, who continued the historic link from then on his maker, David Lynch, the writer, Mark Frost, and a large part of the cast visited the theater for a taste of the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me in August 1992.
‘We have Twin Peaks Days the last weekend in February, “she said. “We started with something cool with the theater, the North Bend Walk of Fame, where we have handprints and stars from Kyle Maclachlan and Sheryl Lee.”
In the weekend of February 22, Twin Peaks Actor Ray Wise will visit the theater to participate in post-screening Q & AS and add his handprints to the sidewalk.
“We are stopped as often when we get away,” Beth added, “and people will just say,” Oh, we love what you do in the theater. It is so much more than just films. ” ‘
The burrows keep their love for films in the family and have now recorded their son and his fiancé to help run their business.
Ky J. Boyd and Michael O’Rand – North California
Kyle J. Boyd, Right and Michael O’Rand now have three Rialto Cinemas locations in North California. (Photo by Chris Goodfellow)
Ky J. Boyd fell in love with films and cinemas after seeing his first film, the 1970s The AristocatsIn the Liberty Falls Theater in Great Falls, Mont., where he grew up.
“I actually played cinema in my parents’ basement,” Boyd told Yahoo Entertainment. “I chose super 8 films.”
He later became interested in opening an arthouse theater while he lived in San Francisco with his husband, Michael O’Rand, and in 2000 he opened Rialto Cinemas, a theater with five screens in Santa Rosa, about an hour north of the city.
While O’Rand “supported from the start,” said Boyd, “In our relationship I am the optimist and the dreamer, and Michael is the realist.”
That meant the preparation of a solid business plan and showing all figures to prove how this investment could work. Boyd added that he “really pushed me to do the research.”
The theater “succeeded further than our wildest expectations.” He said it helped that four important films opened around the same time: Best in show” Billy Elliot” You can count on me And O brother where you art?
“When you open an Kunsthuis, you have to let the public learn to trust and trust your taste and learn to take risks about things they might not look for,” he explained.
While Boyd and O’Rand have closed the Santa Rosa location since then, they have three other Rialto cinemas in California, in Sebastopol, Berkeley and El Cerrito.
Boyd said that he wanted to make his theaters a ‘third place’ after home and work, “where people gather and the community comes together.”
“I like to be in the lobby on Friday or Saturday evening and just watch and see when a set of films is getting out and another set goes in and the people who meet each other and, you know, family Or friends, “he said. “It is just so important that we as cinemas recognize that we are not just entertainment. We are part of the communities in which we work. ‘
Andrew and Juanita Thomas – Houston
Juanita and Andrew Thomas in their Moonstruck Drive-in Theater in Houston. (Thanks to Andrew and Juanita Thomas)
On one of their early dates, Andrew Thomas spoke with his then girlfriend, Juanita, about what kind of companies they would all have if they could start one.
“I said,” I would have a cinema, “and she said she would have a restaurant,” Thomas told Yahoo. “And, you know, that was just – we were young.”
Fast-Forward Fits College, a marriage and three children, and Thomas, who had a main subject economy, said he did not want a conventional job “in the strictest sense”.
“So my wife said:” Hey, you’ve had a long time about this cinema stuff and an old cinema has been closed in the next city. Why don’t you just look at it and watch what you think? “
While he started a company “seemed really crazy”, Thomas couldn’t get the theater out of his head.
After viewing their finances and having a ‘Jerry Maguire Moment ”When he asked the then owner of the theater for an investment of $ 150,000 to renovate the location, he and Juanita were on the way.
“My wife is just one of the most supporting people,” said Thomas. “They were just such moments where we had to grab each other and jump at the same time.”
The couple opened Bellet cinemas in Alvin, Texas, on Christmas Day 2013. They have since opened the Moonstruck-Drive-in in the center of Houston and acquired a drive-in in North Virginia.
Thomas praised the constant support of his wife and said he “knew that this was the girl for me 100%” when they saw the 2003 movie Dead Bill Together and loved it.
“It’s like one of those moments when we see a film together, we realized what kind of connection we had with each other,” he said.
Their shared taste in films is something that Thomas appreciates and calls it ‘part of our story’.
‘We will show The notebookAnd there are many couples that come out, and they will have a great time to watch the romantic film, “he said. “And our romantic film is a woman who takes revenge on her former love – we are.”
