I was, and still am, an avid Peanuts fan. I loved Charles Schulz’s characters, and I would spend a lot of time dreaming that I could have a base of friends like that, or at least lived in an area where I could have a base of friends like that. Of course, there were some obstacles that made living that kind of lifestyle a pipe dream. The first was that my parents lived way out in the country. There was no walking anywhere, not to friends’ houses nor to playgrounds, the nearest of which was about two miles away. There was also no movie theater, and although I had a lot of fond dreams about going to the movies with my friends, or having my friends call me and say there was a good film showing if I wanted to come with them, it was not to be. The nearest theater was at least thirty miles away.
Years later and miles away from my childhood home, I’m in a town similar in size to my hometown, except this one actually has a theater. It’s within walking distance too, even though I could now drive there if I wanted. Still, there is a movie theater not two blocks from me, and this makes me immensely happy. I should say, however, I haven’t been in there all that often, for reasons I will get into.
The theater used to be an opera house. It was built in 1914 and in use until the late 1920s, so it must have seen its share of traveling actors, not to mention vaudeville acts. Then, of course, vaudeville went out and movies came in, so the opera house became the theater. It’s survived the years pretty well, too. Okay, so the modern-day theater seats are more comfortable. These are more like the seats you’ll find in a decent auditorium. And I’ll be honest, the acoustics aren’t that great either. When a movie plays, it takes a few minutes for your ears to adjust so the dialogue doesn’t sound like a movie that exclusively features the adults on the Peanuts animated specials. Those sounds were made with a trombone, interestingly enough, and while the trombone is a nice enough instrument, you don’t necessarily want to hear it for two hours, even though it sounds a lot more intelligent than, say, Adam Sandler.
The theater has been kept up extremely well for being close to a century old. The ceiling is dazzlingly white, the aforementioned seats aren’t torn or stained, and everywhere you look you get the feeling that this is what people must have done for decades beforehand. Perhaps this is where some people found out about Pearl Harbor, or fell in love with Sophia Loren or Elizabeth Taylor. Since the Cresco Theater is a second-run theater, the price is right too—three dollars to get in. That’s right, three dollars. If you were to give any cashier at a megaplex three dollars, the odds are she’d think it was a tip.
The Cresco Theater hasn’t given up its roots entirely, though. The Cresco Community Theater uses it regularly for plays, which is nice, and there’s even an orchestra pit in the front. Amateur actors have rarely had such a nice stage on which to perform.
There’s really only one flaw the Cresco Theater has, the one that stops me from going there very often—the lack of showtimes. Yes, when you look at the movie poster or the marquee, there is no time that shows when the movie is actually playing. Now, you can find out when the movie is playing by checking out the weekly ad the Cresco Theater puts in the weekly newspaper. You can also go online, Google “Cresco Theater,” and be taken to the homepage of the movie theater in Cresco, Pennsylvania. This is when you get the first inkling that the universe is laughing at you. Finally, though, you can find the movie theater in Cresco, Iowa, and locate the showtime and what movie is playing. The problem with this approach is that when you’re walking by the Cresco Theater and you see that a movie is playing and feel the sudden desire to see it, you’re left wondering when exactly the movie starts. Until I discovered the local newspaper, I was almost certain that there were no showtimes—the staff just came and replaced the previous movie posters with more current ones, that’s all. And changed the marquee. I am, of course, joking. There were times when I would drive past the movie theater and see the marquee lit up, with people actually entering the building and everything. Of course none of those times were when I could actually go to the movie, but it encouraged me to keep looking.
Of course, even when you do know the time the movie starts, being a second run theater still means that the movie selection can be hit or miss. Let’s face it, I’m not going to watch “Grown-Ups” or “Miss March,” regardless of how cheap you make the tickets. There’s also the small matter that sometimes the theater doesn’t get the movie they advertised they were going to get. I was surprised a few months ago when I gave the cashier my money for a ticket to see “Harry Potter,” sat down in the movie theater, and a few minutes later was watching “Secretariat.” (Yes, I bought a ticket to the latest Harry Potter movie. Shut up.)
For all that, though, the Cresco Theater is a pleasant way to spend a Friday evening. For me, another bonus is that quite often you will see high school students there, having fun, being high school students, and enjoying the latest movie. As it turns out, there are some things you can experience vicariously through others.
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