At the front of the theatre the golden curtain still hung above the stage. A small opening in the curtain revealed that the screen had been taken down and was now lying on the floor. I imagine it was taken down to remove the speakers that were behind it. That's probably what happened to a lot of the drapery on the walls as well. Nothing else was behind the curtain except a brick wall and a wooden frame.
Down the stairs behind the screen I had a quick look at the original boiler in the basement. There are a few small rooms down there that were perhaps dressing rooms at one time. They're all empty now, but if I'm not mistaken it seems like they must have done some theatre productions here way back when.
Just off of the stage a small room revealed a few more interesting clues from the Towne's past. A few theatre employees had scribbled their names on the wall from over the years. There weren't all that many, but they did span from the 1970s to the late 1990s, which was pretty cool to see. It's always interesting to think about the people in places like this, especially considering that this theatre would've been packed on opening nights every weekend. Now it's just a dark and quiet room collecting dust. From here it was on to the projection rooms.
3 comments :
i took the screen down and pulled the speakers out about 4yrs ago... the building has not really been touched since then.
Thanks for the update. I assumed the speaker removal was the reason the screen was down. The realtor who let me in to the building also confirmed that the space hasn't been rented or used for any event since closing.
The Towne was such a big part of my growing up here. I saw The Outsiders three times by myself, it was the first film I could go to without a parent. Thanks for sharing your images.
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