Sunday, October 10, 2010

Halloween is Coming (Part 3)

The spirits are restless at The Rialto. Can you blame them? For years they have haunted a glamorous relic, forgotten in an age of multiplexes, YouTube and 60 inch HDTVs. It's not just the ghosts of moviegoers past -- the children of the Depression whose nickles bought hope. It's not just the spectres of all those film icons -- Chaplin and Keaton, Pickford and Fairbanks, Brooks and Garbo and Deitrich and Wells, Valentino and Swanson and Bogart and Bacall -- the players who flickered and faded, whose magic infused a layer of pixie dust into the pile of those plush velvet seats. It's the phantom energy of so many dreams wished for within those elegant walls. Dreams of lives as pretty as the ones onscreen. Dreams of futures paved with stars, of heroic adventures on stormy seas, of love affairs so grand they could outlast war and famine. Those dreams still hover there, in that dusty old church of the everyman. They were dreams boosted by soaring musical scores and fueled by buttered popcorn. They were dreams shared in the dark with other dreamers.

Those spirits are restless. Can't you feel their presence when you walk past? Come back, they say. Come back and bring us back to life.

10 comments:

Jean Spitzer said...

I love the mood you've captured in the photo. Last thing I saw there was The Triplets of Belleville.

Judy Williams said...

I'm with Jean - the mood is fab. I wish the car in the background was a Model T!!! I don't know if you slightly desaturated the color, or if it was just the misty atmosphere but it certainly adds that ghostly feel that you described in your post. Your stories weave such fabulous ideas and imaginative thoughts!!

I can hear an old rinky tink piano playing ragtime for a silent matinee.

Virginia said...

Oh I love this shot. I feel like a kid again, finding a seat in the dark with my popcorn and Coke. Would you like for me to sing the entire soundtrack of The King and I or perhaps South Pacific???

Mister Earl said...

Looks like a Depression-Era shot.
It looks like a ...

TOWN WITHOUT PITY

Anonymous said...

So lovely in every way. Introspective photo and gorgeous prose.

Betty in London

Barbara said...

A beautiful image of a fine old haunt.

Rebecca said...

I would like to know if you would be interested in having an local author appear on your blog? Please contact me at rebecca(dot)camarena(@)yahoo(dot)com.

Petrea Burchard said...

"They were dreams shared in the dark with other dreamers." The primordial feeling of sharing a story with your tribe.

I love what you did with the picture.

Dixie Jane said...

Thanks for running the Rialto by us again so we can weep for its demise and hope that it can be brought to life again. Your post was most inspiring and you really are a painter of words.

Laurie Allee said...

THank you so much, everyone! You know how passionate I am about The Rialto -- about not losing it the way so many architectural treasures of greater Los Angeles have been lost. (Oh, Ambassador Hotel, I can't believe they tore you down...)

Rebecca, welcome! Email me. My link is on the right hand side of this blog.

Until tomorrow, everyone.