Roadside Wire
Restoring the simple fun
- Published on Monday, 09 April 2012 17:43
We’d like to think of this as a positive trend. With the end of “irrational exhuberance,” a return to simpler and more authentic amusements would make a lot of sense right now. Good luck to the Midway!
Return To Its Heyday
Renovations To Take Midway State Park Back To The 1950s
By Hilary Scott
Efforts are under way to restore Midway State Park to its sparkle as a 1950s-era amusement park.
When the 2012 park season opens in May, Midway State Park will roll out the first of its restoration projects — a refurbished Chautauqua Choo-Choo.
“(The train) is one of our most popular rides, from babies to grandparents,” said Kate Gross, Midway State Park manager. “It’s one of the timeless parts of our park.”
Midway State Park, located at 4859 New York 430 in Bemus Point, has been a place of recreation on Chautauqua Lake since 1889, when it opened as a trolley park. It is the 16th oldest continually operating amusement park in the country.
Historic movie houses face a new threat
- Published on Friday, 24 February 2012 12:18
Digital distribution represents the biggest threat to the traditional movie house since television.
Digital film switch daunts historic movie houses
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The license plate on movie projectionist Arnie Herdendorf’s Buick is 35MM MAN, a nod to his work in the booth at the 1925 Palace Theatre, with its velvet-draped stage and chandeliered mezzanine.
When he drove recently to a multiplex to watch as its film projectors were swapped out for new digital ones, the sight of old 35 mm workhorses “stacked up like wounded soldiers” had him wondering how long his title — or job — would be around.
The questions are even bigger for historic movie houses themselves.
With the future of motion pictures headed quickly toward an all-digital format played only on pricey new equipment, will the theaters be around? Or will they be done in by the digital revolution that will soon render inadequate the projectors that have flickered and ticked with a little-changed technology for more than 120 years?
Hollywood to theaters: Upgrade or die
- Published on Thursday, 26 January 2012 12:57
As if small, independent and historic theaters have enough to worry about. Soon they won’t even have any films to show.
Hollywood’s move to digital will end an era
By Therese Poletti, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The fallout from the demise of celluloid film may end up as sad as a three-hankie movie.
The movie business is now going through perhaps one of its biggest technological transitions since “The Jazz Singer” of 1927 ushered in the era of talkies. That rapid shift was portrayed in the current Oscar-nominated Weinstein & Co. movie, “The Artist,” a film about one actor’s inability to transition to the new era and its devastating effect on his life.
As Hollywood makes the leap to all digital film and projection equipment, a different cast of characters is being thrown off the backlot. Investors saw the venerable Eastman Kodak, one of the last makers of 35mm film, go bankrupt. Of course, Kodak had a slew of bigger issues, but also endangered by this shift are movie theaters that can’t afford the expensive digital equipment, especially smaller, repertory houses, film processing labs and even some of the movies themselves
Good news combined with good information
- Published on Monday, 13 June 2011 13:01
Not only does this story from the West Virginia Gazette give us some good roadside preservation news, it actually presents it with some useful historical information about Vitrolite and its past uses. Congratulations to the Quarrier Diner and its owners for taking the preservation high road with all its bumps and turns. We’re all the better for it. (Tip of the cup to Brian Butko.)
Vitrolite guy tackles Quarrier Diner
By Jim Balow CHARLESTON, W.Va.
The Vitrolite man is back in town.
You can find Tim Dunn, who restored the architectural glass at the State Theater and the Pullin, Fowler and Flanagan building in 2005, working on his latest project — patching and polishing the maroon façade of the Quarrier Diner.
Dunn is working with historical architect Dave Marshall, who owners Anna and David Pollitt hired to oversee the restoration of the diner, which stood empty for nearly 10 years. After some typical delays, the work is moving along and the Pollitts hope to be open for business this fall.
San Francisco puts the dog down
- Published on Monday, 13 June 2011 03:19
Former Doggie Diner set for demolition
Posted by Tom Prete
The former site of a Doggie Diner restaurant on Sloat Boulevard is set to be demolished in favor of an outdoor sales area for the adjacent Sloat Garden Center.
According to a notice posted on the building, which most recently housed the Carousel Diner restaurant, the San Francisco Planning Department will approve the demolition unless it receives a request for a hearing by July 8.