Newspaper clipping, Living section, Las Vegas Review-Journal, August 12, 1992

v Living ? Wednesday, August 12, 1992 a Las Vegas Review-Journal Page 1C By Carol Cling Review-Journal before contracting with UA. The theater boasted Boulder City's first air conditioning system ? which has, of course, been modernized. New seats ? more than 500 of them ? await in the theater's auditorium, although the Boulder City fire marshal has set the theater's maximum capacity at 299. "We have to be careful of that," Kent con-fessed. "We do a head count on weekends to make sure we don't go over." Curtains line the painted walls ? where, once upon a time, murals decorated the the-ater. "I don't have pictures of the murals," Scaringi said. "I wish I did." But the original art deco light fixtures re-main, casting a geometric glow against the theater's curtained walls and high, arched ceiling. Outside on the theater's neon-lined mar-quee, original iron letters herald the featured movie. At the theater's entrance, frosted glass doors ? etched with the initials "BCT" ? welcome patrons. Meanwhile, back at the snack bar, the pop-corn machine ? a vintage Creators model ? roars to life in preparation for the evening's first show. Please see PAST/2C Top of the week "Buffalo Jump" ? An independent-minded woman (Wendy Crewson) leaves her big-city job to run her father's cattle ranch and winds up striking sparks with a headstrong hired hand (Paul Gross). (Academy ? Thursday.) "Captain Horatio Hornblower" ? Gregory Peck takes the title role in director Raoul Walsh's hand-some 1951 sea epic about novelist C.S. Forest-er's British hero, who's equally adept at battling Napoleon's naval forces or romancing Virginia Mayo. (Warner ? today.) "Highway to Hell" ? A teen-ager (Chad Lowe) fights to save his bride-to-be (Kristy Swanson) from the fires of hell after she's been abducted by a demon cop (Patrick Bergin) in this reworking of the Orpheus legend. (HBO ? Wednesday.) "Wayne's World" ? "Saturday Night Lives" public-access cable faves Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) and co-host Garth (Dana Carvey), go commercial with the help of scheming TV promot-er Rob Lowe. (Paramount ? today.) "Wild Orchid 2: Two Shades of Blue" ? It's 1958, and the 17-year-old daughter (Nina Sie-maszko) of a dope-addled jazz musician (Tom Skerritt) learns the tricks of the trade from a motherly madam (Wendy Hughes) in this in-name- only sequel from soft-core king Zalman King. (Columbia/TriStar ? Aug. 12.) MOVIES Las Vegas moviegoers of 1911 watched "the flickers" in outdoor comfort at the Airdome Theatre. the present site of the Las Vegas Club) to open the Isis. It was one of the first of several open-air theaters in downtown Las Vegas during its early years as a movie haven. On weekends, the Isis showcased jumpy two-reelers, "magic lantern" slides and follow-the- bouncing-ball sing-alongs ? all for 15 cents. In 1909, James Squires took over the Opera House on the second floor of a build-ing at First and Fremont ? a former dancing school and sometime courthouse ? and renamed it the Majestic, enabling him to show movies during the colder winter months. Two more enterprising theaters opened soon after. The year 1911 "was a big year for mov-ies in Las Vegas," said Frank Wright of the Nevada State Museum and Historical Soci-ety. "Three theaters ? at least ? opened." One of them was another airdome, at Fremont and Second streets ? a vacant lot surrounded by a high fence, sporting rows Please see MOVIES/2C Boulder Theatre clings to past 'Wayne's World' is ready for big and cheap video debut By Carol Cling Review-Journal It's schwing time. For those of you who've been hanging out in the wrong basement: "Wayne's World" makes its video debut today. Completing a journey that started on the small screen, "Saturday Night Live's" resident metal-heads (Mike Myers and Dana Carvey) made the jump to the big screen last spring ? and proceed-ed to mow down many a rival movie with their party-hearty antics. Wayne and Garth may claim, "We're not worthy," but millions of movie-goers disagreed. With the movie a certified blockbuster, Para-mount Home Video figured "Wayne's World" fans would want the video version for their very own. That accounts for its $25 suggested retail price, destined to be deeply discounted at a store near you. It also accounts for the relative lack of competi-tion among the week's other videos. "Center of the Web" (due today from A.I.P.) stars Tony Curtis, Robert Davi, Charlene Tilton, Bo Hopkins and Ted Prior in a mistaken-identity thriller that finds an innocent man masquerad-ing as a mob assassin. And while it's not exactly Jean Cocteau, "Highway to Hell" does provide a devilishly amusing update of the Orpheus legend as a teen-age couple ? eloping to Las Vegas ? confront a diabolical cop who's literally from hell. Chad Lowe (of TV's "Life Goes On," brother of "Wayne's World" co-star Rob Lowe), Kristy Swanson (alias "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and Patrick Bergin (Julia Roberts' nasty husband in "Sleeping With the Enemy") lead the cast. Leading the week's list of never-made-it-to-theaters features: "Wild Orchid 2: Two Shades of Blue," the latest exercise in soft-focus sex from Zalman King, who wrote and produced "9V4 Weeks" before assuming director's duties with the first "Wild Orchid." Neither of that movie's stars, Mickey Rourke or Carre Otis, appears in this in-name-only sequel, a high-school romance set in 1958. Nina Siemaszko, Tom Skerritt, Rob-ert Davi and Australia's Wendy Hughes lead the cast. Another unseen-and-unknown possibility is "Buffalo Jump," a contemporary Western ro-mance with Wendy Crewson and Paul Gross. If you'd prefer a taste of the already seen and very much known, then it's time for Warner Home Video's vintage '50s swashbucklers. Gregory Peck takes command as C.S. Forest-er's "Captain Horatio Hornblower," while former circus acrobat Burt Lancaster demonstrates his derring-do in the South Seas buccaneer romp "His Majesty O'Keefe." And the greatest swash-buckler of them all, Errol Flynn, leaps into ac-tion (albeit in somewhat subdued form) as Robert Louis Stevenson's Scottish hero "The Master of Ballantrae." A wealth of promising children's titles also adds interest to this video week. The animation team of Rankin and Bass, makers of "The Hob-bit," return with adaptations of Hans Christian Andersen's "Daydreamer," the Arthurian adven-ture "The Flight of Dragons" and the time-travel fantasy "Willie McBean & His Magic Machine." (All are due Friday on Solar Home Video.) "Home Alone's" Catherine O'Hara, meanwhile, recounts the legend of Ireland's "Finn McCoul" in the latest release in the delightful "We All Have Tales" series (Rabbit Ears, Thursday). Downtown's Fremont Theatre celebrated the arrival of 1956's "Trapeze" in style, with special displays ? and employees dressed in circus attire. Las Vegas has been many things to many people, from "the entertainment capital of the world" to "the gateway to Boulder Dam." But it's always been a mecca for movie-goers. From the town's earliest days, Las Veg-ans have flocked to a variety of movie the-aters? storefronts, movie palaces and multiplexes alike. Today, multiscreen walk-ins have sup-planted the downtown movie houses of yore. And the days (or, more accurately, nights) of Las Vegas' lone remaining drive-in are numbered, because of recently announced plans to build a 20-screen multiplex on the site. Once upon a time in Las Vegas, howev-er, the theaters themselves provided as much of a show as the movies they projected in the dark. During Las Vegas' earliest years, each new theater's arrival triggered front-page headlines. (Of course, it helped that one of Las Vegas' first theater moguls, James W. Squires, happened to be the son of Las Ve-gas Age editor Charles P. Squires.) The earliest Las Vegas theater opened ? and closed ? in 1908. The Squires bought out the equipment and moved the projec-tor, benches and screen to a vacant lot on the corner of First and Fremont streets (on These days, most Southern Nevada movie-goers make themselves at home in mod-ern multiplexes. But there's still one theater that offers 9 glimpse of the glory days when the screen was silver. The Boulder Theatre may show current movies, but its atmosphere ? and even much of its equipment ? harkens back to the 1930s. "It's like going back in time," said Kenneth Kent, who with partner Paul Parmley oper-ates the Boulder. "The whole town's that way." Indeed, Boulder City residents expressed de-light when Kent and Parmley, who own other local businesses, took over the theater last year from the United Artists chain. "We got people coming up to us on the street saying, 'Thank God you're taking it over,'" Kent recalled. "They couldn't stand the thought of people closing down the theater. ... We do feel an obligation to the town that's more than just money." Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Boulder Theatre was built in 1930 to provide entertainment for Hoover Dam con-struction workers. "It ran 24 hours a day then," said Bob Scaringi, who has owned the theater building since 1974 and operated the theater himself VIDEO PREVIEW Garth (Dana Carvey) and Wayne (Mike Myers). Las Vegas Movie Magic The city used to be home to theaters elegant and bold Movies From 2C Bishop worked the box office at the premiere of "Pete Kelly's Blues." A costumed frog roamed Glitter Gulch with a sandwich board emblazoned "Today the pond! Tomorrow the world! 'Frogs' ? now showing: Fremont Theatre." Under Katz's direction, the Palace was remodeled in the ear-ly '60s and renamed the Guild. Las Vegas' first art house, the Guild boasted painted murals and an espresso bar instead of a snack counter. (Katz remembered one customer who bought popcorn at the Fremont, then headed to the Guild to see the movie.) But even the classy Guild was not above a little old-fashioned promotion, as when Greek danc-ers performed outside in conjunc-tion with "Zorba the Greek." As Las Vegas' population moved outward, more theaters followed: the Fox Charleston on East Charleston near Eastern Avenue, and the Red Rock on West Charleston near Decatur Avenue. The Red Rock began with a sin-gle screen in 1966, "under the assumption that if you take the theater to the people, it would do business," said former Red Rock operator Horst Schmidt, who also helped the Cragin family operate the El Portal. Initially, however, the Red Rock was a flop. "With the El A movie theater is a very special social institution... Horst Schmidt Former operator, Red Rock Theaters Portal, people were used to being around the center of activity," Schmidt said, "so I decided to cre-ate my own attraction." The Red Rock became Las Ve-gas' first multiplex in 1971 with the addition of three more screens. It had six screens in 1972, and 11 by the following year. "I saw a great future in it ? and I kept on expanding until I ran out of land," Schmidt said. "I wanted to create a certain ambi-ance so people would go there for an evening's entertainment." Schmidt's bankers initially questioned his reasoning, asking him " 'What does a clock and a gazebo have to do with movies?'" he recalled. "And I said, What does the mausoleum concept have to do with a bank? You are in show business in your own way and so am I." Gradually, the spread of neigh-borhood theaters ? and the diffi-culties of finding parking down-town ? doomed the downtown movie houses, said Atkin. In the late '60s and early '70s, Las Vegas moviegoers could choose from among several the-aters that are no more: the Fre-mont, El Portal and Fox, the Cin-erama on Paradise Road, the Bonanza Movie Palace in the Ho-tel Bonanza (on the site of what became the MGM Grand and Bal-ly's), the Cinema 1-2-3 on Fre-mont Street. (Not to mention the vanished Skyway, Nevada and Sunset drive-ins, which followed the Motor-Vu and the Desert into oblivion.) While some of the theaters may be gone, reminders of them ? and their era ? linger. The El Portal's marquee, for example, still rises high above Fremont Street, touting a gift shop located in what was once the theater's lobby. The old Vegas ? now a printing company ? still carries traces of its streamline architec-ture. And the Huntridge ? which survived the '80s as an on-again, off-again, movie house ? re-opened earlier this year, restored to its former glory, by operator Rick Lenz, who has booked a va-riety of concerts, plays ? and, yes, even movies ? in recent months. "A movie theater is a very spe-cial social institution," said Schmidt, who maintained "there will always be a certain place for them. ... It's like luxury liners plying the oceans. They may come back. As the world turns, people have a way of rediscover-ing things that worked before."