Editorial: Say good-bye to Gallagher Theatre, for now
Gallagher Theatre, adios. The home of midnight movies, foreign film marathons and great popcorn is soon going to be disassembled into an attractive pile of red brick. Who better to say good-bye than Bill Fannin, general manager of Gallagher. This man loves the place. He started as an usher in 1971, two months after the doors were opened. Twenty-eight years later, he's saying good-bye.
"I'm honestly sorry to see it go," he says. "Very few schools nationally have theaters showing seven nights a week."
We've been lucky, no doubt.
But even Fannin has to admit, "I understand the change."
And it's not just because of the upcoming Memorial Student Union renovations. Increased access to cable and video on campus has provided competition, "making it [Gallagher] increasingly hard to run."
As always, Hollywood is busy killing the little guy.
Gallagher, though, is a little guy that should not be dying, if fiscal survival is the criterion. Fannin notes that Gallagher has lost money in only one circumstance: The first semester it opened.
"It has more than paid for itself," he says.
But progress is another complicated factor in the equation where the death of Gallagher is only an intermediate product. Gallagher Theatre, modest and offbeat as it is, is not a priority in the progress list.
The loss of Gallagher may hit one sector of the campus population particularly: The residence hall-bound. How many hall residents skip out some school night for a midnight movie? How many walk five minutes to Gallagher to see that free movie showing? Many hall residents do not have cars and depend on Gallagher as there on-campus center of offbeat, ever-reliable entertainment.
At issue is ambiance. At issue are memories, and the spirit of a vibrant place that thrived even in the carcass of a student union, which, admittedly, is sorely in need of a massive overhaul. Or wrecking ball.
So the key now, in this time of rebuilding, is to rebuild the spirit of the place. As projected now, a mere 33 months after the construction of the New Union begins, a brand spanking new 350-seat theater will open.
In Mr. Fannin's own words: "I have high hopes that Gallagher will be reborn."
How will this happen? Hopefully the new theater, opening around 2002 if everything runs on time, will not become another corporate multiplex. Hopefully, there will be midnight movies, crazy marathons and all the other things that make theaters more than places to see a movie.
So, put your Monty Python costumes away for a few years, tuck the Goonies memorabilia in the attic, and sit on your hands for a while. And freshmen, who may actually see the new Gallagher, go there. The rest of us will just have to remember Gallagher as she was and say thanks for all the great movies.
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