Shana’s Attempt to Refurbish a Movie Theater

My eldest daughter, Shana, and her husband, Tim, are trying to get a business started in Jacksonville, FL. They are attempting to raise money to refurbish a local movie theater and turn it into a showcase. I am extremely proud of her efforts and would love to see her succeed. You can not only find details of their endeavors (and how you can contribute) here…

Shana’s Dream

…but you can also watch a TV news piece and see her talking about it.

Shana on TV

She’s got a ways to go to her goal and there are deadlines involved. So this can’t be one of those, “That seems nice; let me think about it for a month.” She needs people to step in and do so now. If it’s any incentive, I can offer this: For every donation of $500, I will send the donor a piece of artwork from one of my stories, autographed by yours truly. So let’s get it going, people. Please help my little girl realize her dream.

PAD

37 comments on “Shana’s Attempt to Refurbish a Movie Theater

  1. If I may make a suggestion, perhaps she could get in touch with the owners of Ottawa’s Mayfair cinema who have done just that, modernizing the tech while giving the place back it’s 30s look and feel and are running it as a combination ‘art house’ and second-run theatre.

    http://mayfairtheatre.ca/

  2. PAD, have Shana and Tim contacted Roger Ebert about their project? It strikes me as exactly the kind of thing he’d love to blog or Twitter about.

  3. Ebert? Ya know, we haven’t tried that. Got an in?

    Thanks to all y’all with suggestions on startup. Tim cut his teeth helping with programming and bartending at the first Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX and has just finished the project that brought us up to Northern Minnesota, building a two screen cinema from the ground up. We met working behind the concession counter at another single screen in Jacksonville! So we’ve got some experience and plans…

    1. Not a personal in, but I’ve a couple of ideas:
      .
      (1) He says that he personally reads every comment posted under his blog entries so you could try asking him there, providing a link to your project.
      .
      (2) If you’ve “liked” his Facebook page, you could try posting there as well.
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      (3) One of your Dad’s Chicago-based fans could run down his address, allowing you to mail him a personal letter. (I suspect that Mr. Ebert has an old-school fondness for personal letters.)

      1. BTW, if you’re interested in the Maxivision thing (which Ebert is a huge proponent of), they apparently offer leasing/rental in addition to outright purchase.

      2. The problem is that none of those contact options seem to relate to what Shana would want to do, namely get attention for her endeavor. They’re all things to write to that relate directly to Ebert’s site. Would she write to the Answer Man? To Feedback? What?
        .
        PAD

  4. Here’s the sad thing: the hope that maybe people who read Ebert’s blog will help get it done because, candidly, people who read my blog aren’t doing it. A handful are, and God bless you, but thousands of people read this blog daily. And of those, about .01% have contributed. If everyone reading this blog ponied up $20, it gets done. But that’s not happening. And many of you have been reading about Shana for decades.
    .
    I’m already dealing with two months of people saying, “I’m waiting for my paycheck” or “It’s on my list” before buying “Camelot Papers” (and that doesn’t even count the people who are STILL looking for it in bookstores or the readers in Europe, Spain, South America, etc., who say they can’t buy it in paperback even though there’s a link right there that says “Paperback”). That’s frustrating enough.
    .
    Shana’s got a concrete deadline here of the 21st of this month. We can’t do the usual litany of excuses. This is a worthy cause. I’m hoping that you guys can make this happen for her.
    .
    PAD

    1. Gotta say, PAD, that’s a really emotionally manipulative post.
      .
      [picks up hammer, smashes piggy bank]
      .
      Effective though … 🙂

      1. Well, I am a professional.
        .
        And thanks.
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        Plus, just FYI to everyone: when I did the appeal on Facebook, the very first person out of the box to donate was Maurice LaMarche, the Brain himself. A few days later, he won an Emmy. Now there’s no promises here, but it’s possible the karmic payback for this support could be pretty powerful.
        .
        PAD

  5. A number of people have asked me and my dad, so I thought I’d clarify how crowdsourcing works.

    You are not charged for your sponsorship immediately. Unless our campaign reaches its goal (and we’re 40% there with a little less than two weeks to go) no one pays anything. It’s kind of like bidding on eBay: if you win the auction you get a note asking you to pay via Paypal. Same deal with this — if we reach our goal you get an invoice when our campaign ends on the 21st of September.

    Thanks SO much to the folks who have thrown in so far! It’s really exciting to see the numbers climb, and every little bit is truly helping. I think I’m going to head over to Crazy 8 and buy my copy of “Camelot Papers.”

  6. I couldn’t toss in much, but I just made my pledge. Fingers crossed — it sounds like a terrific idea!
    .
    And while I totally understand PAD’s lament above, I think contacting Ebert is also a great plan — even if this blog’s participants can get it done (which I hope and think is true), I think it’s STILL something Ebert would appreciate.

      1. I will toss in something but at this point it will be pretty unspectacular. I think it’s a great project and Shana is obviously a terrific young lady. I wish something like this was in my town.
        .
        This is SO up Ebert’s alley and there are a bunch of ways the deal could be sweetened even further. Not to be morbid but reading Ebert’s blog clues you in to the reality that we will not have him with us forever and maybe now would be a great time for people to honor him while he has a chance to appreciate it. A beautiful theater that hosts the Roger Ebert Film Festival every year? The Siskel and Ebert VIP Balcony? The Roger Ebert Bottomless Box of Popcorn, with Real Butter?
        .
        He has a gazillion readers, many of whom might be willing to show support for something that allows them to express their appreciation.

  7. I’ve just pledged some money: I doubt that I’ll ever get the chance to claim my tickets (since I live in the UK), but I hope the project goes well.

    As for “The Camelot Papers” I promise that I’ll buy a copy as soon as it’s available in epub format.

      1. As I understand it, the Nook can support epub files but it also has its own native format. I’m familiar with Calibre, and I’ve used it to convert some books from other formats (e.g. pdb files from my old Palm) but I’ve had mixed success. In particular, when I converted “Winterfair Gifts” (Bujold short story) it almost killed my Sony Reader: the device wouldn’t even respond to the power button for several minutes. So, if I’ve got books in another format then I’ll try Calibre, but for new ebook purchases I’d like to get them in epub format right from the start. Basically, I think it makes sense for the publisher to do that conversion rather than making their customers duplicate the work several times.

        If it’s not coming in epub format anytime soon then I’ll consider the paperback. However, once I filled up my 6th bookcase I had to start getting more picky about new paper purchases, whereas I’m more likely to buy an ebook on a whim. I don’t know how many other people are in the same position. If it’s just me then it would be silly to expect a custom service, but if there are several potential buyers in the same boat then the benefits should outweigh the costs. Anyway, thanks for the advice.

  8. If I donate, would I be allowed to kick out any jackhole talking or using a phone during a movie? I’d pay to be able to do that.

    1. Yes, but you’d have to donate 50K for that privilege. That would give you a majority share and the valuable, “Get out of my theater, dûmbášš” card.
      .
      PAD

      1. Bummer. I was short $49,500.00 but I did manage to come up with enough scratch to hit the $500.00 mark. Being a Jax native I can’t wait to check out the theatre (I’m not french but I am semi pretentious!) and huge thanks to you for making my adolescence (and continuing to make my adulthood) much less šhìŧŧÿ. Here’s to great movies and great comics!

  9. @Mark

    Thanks so much! And if someone is talking or texting, go ahead and tell us — you don’t have to do the dirty work. Unless you really like that kind of thing.

    And thanks to all of my dad’s readers who have thrown in — whether it was $3 or $500. We’ve got a few days left for the campaign, so please help spread the word far and wide! We’ve got 912 “likes” on Facebook. I wonder if that will translate to anything….

  10. So I contacted Ebert’s website a couple of days ago. Haven’t gotten a response; not so much as an acknowledgment. So if anyone reading this has any juice with Ebert, now’s the time.
    .
    PAD

  11. Has anyone left a shout out about this on Ebert’s Facebook page? (I’m inclined to post one, but I wanted to make sure no one else had done it already.)

    1. I don’t think anyone has. I know I haven’t. I wrote directly to his website and got no reply, so if you want to take a run at Facebook, be my guest.
      .
      PAD

      1. Roger Ebert’s in the middle of the Toronto film festival right now. He’s probably barely online right now just to post tweets about his articles.

        And no I haven’t sent anything I’d like to but I’m currently out of a job

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