In 2016, I started driving two-lane roads through small towns all over the United States, looking for vintage movie theaters: movie theaters with just one or two screens, usually built somewhere between 1920 and 1960, and usually in dusty downtowns or rundown suburbs.
Eight years later, I’ve documented over two hundred such movie theaters. Some thriving, some abandoned, most just hanging in there.
I stop, I take a few pictures, and, if I’m lucky, I hear a story from someone about what that theater means to them. What that theater means… to their town.
Join me as I visit eight vintage American movie theaters and share their stories—stories about everything from childhood matinees and bad dates, to cult movies and concession stands.
The Colonial in Belfast, Maine
In this first episode of I visit the Colonial, in Belfast, Maine. Belfast has seen some hard times, but this funky, colorful downtown institution has survived, even thrived, under the ownership of Mike Hurley and Therese Bagnardi. I hear about how they put an elephant on the roof, how they built a tunnel to Dreamland, and about when cleanup calls for the leafblower.
The Foster in Youngstown, Ohio
In this episode I journey to Youngstown, Ohio, to tour the Foster Theater on Youngstown's South Side. I'm joined by Lana Shagrin Oyer, whose father, Joseph Shagrin, built the Foster and managed it for twenty-five years. Along the way we learn about the Foster's history, the forces that have shaped the neighborhood over the last eighty years, and what the future holds for this theater.