Thank goodness some billions are spent on art. In a time
when the tradition of communal filmgoing seems on the way out, there are few
spots where a diverse menu of films for discriminating customers exists.
Fortunately, thanks to classics professor and philanthropist David Woodley
Packard, one northern California gem has been preserved and restored, set aside
as a venue that features family-friendly, Golden Age classic cinema.
The Stanford Theatre opened in 1925 in Palo Alto and
persisted for decades. In 1987, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation
purchased the venue, renovated it to the tune of $8,000,000, and dedicated it
as a revival house screening films produced primarily between the years 1920 to
1965.
During our recent California trip, we came upon this sweet
place in the course of touring potential colleges with our son; our timing was
off (the theater is open Fridays through Sundays) but the exterior looked
beautiful. Inside, Packard replicated the ceiling mural in the auditorium, the
ticket booth, the snack bar – and, in 1995, installed a vintage Mighty
Wurlitzer theater organ in the pit, allowing some of the few film accompanists
in the county a chance to work the keys again. As well, an annex to the movie
lobby contains a gallery sporting theater posters and memorabilia.
Tickets price are kept extremely reasonable -- $7 for
adults, $5 for seniors and kids under 18. Most importantly, the Foundation
operates a film restoration laboratory in conjunction with UCLA, and has saved
a great number of films from oblivion, to the tune of about $10,000 each. (The
Foundation also works with George Eastman House and the Library of Congress.)
The film programs are lovingly curated, and range from
examinations of film noir through tributes to Astaire, Sturges, Grant, Hitchcock,
horror, and even Kurosawa. A Palo Alto history site estimates that 25 percent
of the classic-film attendance in this county goes through the turnstiles at at
the Stanford.
Ray Oldenburg and Robert Putnam have discussed the concept
of “the third place” extensively – that place outside of home and work where
people can gather and interact. Given our largely secular culture, the movie
house is one of those great third places – a window into dreams and different
vistas, unfamiliar and exciting perspectives that demand our attention – and long
discussions afterward over pie and coffee. Places such as the Stanford are
shining, not-yet-obsolete exemplars of this social need.
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