Movies - The Good Old Days

I have a new love. It is an art deco building. A cinema to be exact, the Orpheum Hayden in our neighbourhood.

The first time we set foot in it, we were suitably awed and felt like we were transported into the golden age. I particularly love the lights.

This feeling was heightened recently when I took the inlaws to the Wednesday movie luncheon to watch "Cheri" (how fabulous is Michelle Pfeiffer and the ability to age gracefully like that?). It was not just a movie, no indeed, I was disabused of that when we entered the foyer to the cinema. There was a silver-haired gent in a suit and bow tie playing the grand piano. Lovely tunes of yonder years wafted while we went in to take our seats.

Once again, I gaped at the beautiful light fixtures and the red velvet drapes that were mechanically lifted in scallops. There was a host (yes this was not just a regular movie-going experience as I've mentioned before) who went on stage and bantered with the mostly silver-haired, Caucasian crowd. 5 pairs of movie passes were given out in a movie-themed quiz, after he welcomed various OAP groups who were there as an outing of sorts. Then he introduced the organist, as he rose up from the stage in a deus ex machina. How dramatic! And then he played some swing tunes before being lowered again into the stage and the movie proper followed.

Lunch was a sandwich basket served inside the movie hall itself. We helped ourselves to coffee and tea at the foyer where the pianist was playing again. Helen, my MIL knew all the words to the songs, I was told this was how going to the movies was in the good old days.

I am pleased that some nostalgy has been preserved in this lovely building. There is such pleasure in the past, even when one has not lived in it.