Wake up, little Susie

Apparently I took about five months off from column writing in 2003. I probably was far too involved in the Cubs season to let my thoughts turn to anything else. And I've found, so far, that I can't find anyone to pay me to write what I think about the Cubs every day. Anyhow, I came back with this piece about the old movie theater building across the street from our office on the day of its final shows.

CLINTON — It is a sad day when something old and treasured, despite its flaws, must finally be put out of service.

That was the case Sunday, the last day of business for Clinton’s old downtown movie theaters. The good news, of course, is the only reason the old four-screen complex was shut down was to make way for the brand new eight-screen complex on the city’s rapidly-growing west end.

It reminds me of when I had to finally give up on my first car. It was hard to let go, but by the time I got inside my newer vehicle, I realized what I’d been missing (among other things, working cruise control, a battery that stayed charged and a cassette player that did more than just flip sides of the tape before playing a single second).

I assume it will be that way for those that held particular nostalgic feelings for the old Capri III/Cinema I. The new Clinton 8 Theatre brings to Clinton a sense of modern amenities. Movies today are produced to be shown in theaters like the ones we’ll have effective Friday night, not relegated to some decades-old throwback.

Being the nostalgic type, I hoped to write a column about the days gone by at the downtown theaters. The two strikes against me are that I am not a Clinton native and I was born about 14 years after the Cinema I opened. So I had to turn to the Clinton Herald archives.

Our clippings file contains a piece from Nov. 11, 1965, previewing the grand opening of the Cinema I. There were other movie theaters in the area — in town, even — but this was an event fit for a ribbon cutting by Mayor Harold Domsalla and appearances by Chamber of Commerce officials and politicians like State Sen. David Shaff and State Rep. Charles Varney.

The Herald article details the design intricacies of the Cinema I, explaining “the necessary touches that transform the workaday world of drab reality into the magic world of motion picture make-believe.”

The Herald has no easily accessible stories about the grand opening of the Capri III, but there is a fine story about Carl Harms, a 22-year-old grave digger from Sterling, Ill., who was arrested by Clinton police eight minutes after his armed robbery of the Rialto, the Cinema I’s ancestor.

Harms, arrested Aug. 21, 1952, was taken to the Anamosa prison where he reportedly escaped (or at least hid from guards) on Oct. 1 of the same year, the same day Republican women from Clinton were touring the prison.

But back to that opening night in 1965 — what an event it must have been. Surely there are plenty of those still in town that recall the panache with which the Cinema I opened its doors. The first show was “Marriage on the Rocks,” starring no less than Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Deborah Kerr. Tickets were $1 for adults, 85 cents for juniors and 35 cents for children (playing elsewhere around town were “World Without Sun,” “The Long Ships” — an adventure of the Viking age — “Ride the Wild Surf” and “The Quick Gun”).

There won’t be any flair Friday night at the Clinton 8. Local project manager and theater supervisor Roger Hansen just hopes nothing goes wrong. But I think it’s a good time for the community to celebrate.

This new theater, as economic types put it, should help slow a lot of retail bleeding in the entertainment market. Heck, ticket prices are only going up a quarter, and you’ll be able to see the movie without craning your neck around someone and have a cupholder for your soda to boot.

The theater isn’t really competing with anything we already have, it’s just a tremendous addition to a growing community. It says something about Clinton, the type of community it is, that Cinema Entertainment Corp. made it such a priority to build here rather than let us languish with the status quo.

And, selfishly, I hope that maybe some reporter, 40 years or more down the road, will look at my stories on the Clinton 8 opening and think fondly about the Clinton of today.