The Palace Theater, downtown Lorain. The place is really beautiful! The Palace Theater has been a place of entertainment in Lorain for 77 years. This has been renovated in the last 10 years and it is really quite a sight. The crystal chandelier is beyond description, you must really see it to appreciate it. Walking into this theater was like walking into my past.
In the days of old, Maura and I spent a lot of our youth in the various theaters of Erie. Mainly the Warner or the Strand theater. Remember those old, luxurious theaters downtown? So many adventures started walking in the doors of those theaters. I remember so well we would sit in the front row of the theater to watch a movie, then we'd hunker down in our seats and sneak a cigarette. Picture that. We're down hill from everyone, in front of everyone, smoking. You know smoke rises. We thought we were so smart though, and we thought we were fooling everyone! This is so funny now to me! We thought we knew it all.
Anyway, The Palace Theater is a venue for many things here in Lorain. Most weekends they also show second run movies, for $3.00 admission. When I was downtown this week, I saw on the marquee that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was playing and I was anxious to see it. I was transported back into time walking into that theater. Remember the old box offices where you'd get your ticket? The small concession stand? The fancy lobby? The huge screen, the long aisles and hundreds of seats? No dancing popcorn boxes on the screen reminding us to throw our trash in the proper receptacles. No previews of coming attractions, just the main event. We even had a film break!
One thing I don't remember is a behaved audience when the film broke. Maybe because it was mostly kids, but when the film broke, it really was pretty quiet for a good couple of minutes. We all just kind of sat there in the dark patiently. After two or three minutes, they did turn the lights back on while they finished repairs. All in all, it might have taken 10 minutes, then it was back to the movie.
I thought I was going to write my review of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I don't quite know how I feel about the movie. Parts of it I liked, parts I didn't care for. I love Tim Burton movies, but I just don't feel this one had the usual "twist" that his movies have. Johnny Depp I thought did a very good job, but he was no Gene Wilder. The movie held pretty true to the original. What I did like better was the Oompa Loompas! The effects of the Oompa Loompas were much better than the original in my opinion. Plus, the Oompa music was a lot better than the original Oompa Loompa song. Yeah, I liked that part. All in all, I guess I'm glad we only spent $3.00 a ticket. If this is something you'd want to see, I'd say hit Blockbuster and get the original.
Just one more side story here. There were quite a few people at the movie. I would easily say 300 people were there. In the row directly behind us was a family of Mom, Dad, three kids, and an Uncle. The adults of this group I want to say were in their 20s. When the lights came on during the film break, Uncle asked Dad if he could borrow his cell phone. He said something like as long as there was a break, he should check in with one of his girlfriends. He couldn't decide though if he should check in on Suzie, Sally, Jane, Amy or June. HA! This guy was as dumb as we were smoking in the theater! If he had so many girlfriends, what the heck was he doing on a Saturday night at a kids' movie with his brother and his family? It made me laugh.
Anyway, it was a good night that brought back a lot of warm fuzzy memories. I can still smell the popcorn.
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