The return of the Grandin Theatre. It has been in a bad place for some years now, but with the clearing out of old managment and the pending installation of the new, my guess is the dream will be realized and it will again be a happy place.
This is Roanoke's crown jewel movie house, the 1932 neighborhood theater that we rescued a few years when it seemed to be closed for good because of a lack of money. It was renovated and re-invented as a first-run house with a difference. It shows popular movies for the revenue and some of the indys and foreign films that don't often make it in markets this small. It has been mildly successful, but troubled since its re-opening. The difficulties led to a wildly unpopular firing in 2010 and the boycotting of the theater by a lot of good people who wanted to support it.
Last night I saw some of those energized people in the lobby and heard rumblings of "they're coming back" from people who know. I'm happy the board finally got a backbone, but I'd be a lot happier if it would apologize to Jason Garnett for the way it treated him and offer to hire him as GM, which he would do better than anyone else alive. The theater would be successful with Jason in charge. It might be successful without him.
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