The Last Picture Show in New Haven

An elderly woman paid the cashier for her ticket at the New Haven Criterion Cinemas last night — the last time she would ever be able to do so — and told the cashier: “I’m so sad. I could go home and cry.”

Me too. What a depressing night for New Haven, now left without a movie theater for the first time in more than 100 years. (Except for a porno place in the Annex neighborhood).

Through the past several decades I have been to a half-dozen closing nights at movie theaters in New Haven or towns nearby. But this latest one was particularly depressing. Why? The others were intimate neighborhood fixtures where the longtime customers came out to thank the owners, and where the owners thanked their customers for their support. Where were the Criterion’s owners Thursday night? It would have been a nice gesture for them to offer free popcorn or even a free movie admission. Nope, didn’t happen. There wasn’t even a sign anywhere indicating this was the final night.

I asked one of the guys who seemed to be in charge if they had seen owners Ben Moss or his dad Charley Moss, who soaked up the praise on the Criterion’s opening night 19 years ago (I was there, covering that happy event for the New Haven Register). I was told that one of them had been there earlier that day, and that he was “upset.” He couldn’t stick around? We were all upset too!

I’ll admit that in recent years, after Covid subsided and the Criterion re-opened, I hadn’t been a regular customer. But I did check the movie line-ups occasionally and if there was something I wanted to see, I’d go downtown and check it out. There were so few other patrons at this big nine-screen venue that I realized the theater was in trouble and could not survive.

My wife and I were at the Criterion twice during this final week. On Sunday night we had a joyous experience — with just five other viewers — at the revival of the Talking Heads concert movie from 1984, “Stop Making Sense.” It sure beat sitting at home and streaming.

Before we went in to see that film, we encountered a wistful woman who was looking around the big lobby. “I used to go to the little screening room and see the (Academy Award nominated) shorts,” she told us. This reminded me of the night I enjoyed watching the documentary “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29” in that little room. It fit only a few dozen people, making for an intimate viewing experience. I recall that most of the people sitting around me were members of the Yale football team.

The word must have gotten out around campus that the Criterion was closing because when we saw “A Haunting in Venice” last night, there were about 35-40 people, most college-aged, sitting around us. These days that’s a gigantic turn-out, at the Criterion and at many other movie theaters. It was great hearing folks laughing and gasping as the movie unfolded.

The Criterion management seemed to be pretending the venue wasn’t closing. The lobby was loaded with “coming soon” posters for “Wonka,” “Aquaman” and other films that will be released soon. And before our movie began, we sat through “coming attractions” that included previews for “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “The Color Purple.” Where are we supposed to go to see them?

Midway through “Venice,” I got thirsty and went to the lobby to get a Coke. There were several employees behind the counter but they told me they had shut down. It was 8:30 p.m.! Do you think they might have offered an old, loyal customer a free can of soda on the final night? (I saw a case of them in full view). Fuhgeddaboudit! These were cold people.

I thought back to the warm and friendly Bob Spodick and Leonard Sampson, who ran the Lincoln Theater and York Square Cinemas when I moved to New Haven in 1977. And I thought about Arnold Gorlick, who with his trusty white Samoyed, Simcha at his side, sold us tickets at the York Square. Gone, gone, gone. These were old friends.

When I was in the Criterion lobby last night I saw a couple of kids with their parents. And I wondered: where will these kids go now to see a movie outside of their homes? They probably won’t be able to do it, or only rarely. They’ll be in their den or living room, watching a small screen.

I asked my daughters, now adults living in Los Angeles, to recall their experiences at the Criterion. My elder daughter Natalie, who has a job in the film business, said she saw her first Wes Anderson movie, “Life Aquatic” at the Criterion (I was with her). She and I also saw the first Korean film Nat had ever seen, Bong Joon-ho’s “The Host.” She added, “Don’t know if you remember that one, Dad — awesome monster movie.” Oh yes, I remember. We also went as a family in Decembers to see “A Christmas Story,” the cult favorite. And we were there on some Sunday mornings when the Criterion offered mimosas with old-time classics such as “The Wizard of Oz” and the best of Hitchcock.

Nat said she also had “my first date there,” when she saw the Coen Brothers’ “No Country for Old Men.”

Where are the New Haven teenagers of today going to go to have those experiences?

And what about my wife and me? Because we also lost Cine 4 two years ago, we’ll likely have to traipse up to Madison, a half hour drive, to see the latest films. (There is a multiplex in North Haven but it’s mostly kiddie fare and you have to reserve your seat.)

What will be done with the large Criterion space? The owners have talked vaguely about “something new and exciting,” but they also say that showing movies is no longer “viable.” Couldn’t they save at least one of those nine rooms for us?

As the movie ended and the credits rolled, we walked silently through the lobby. A young man spotted me and asked if he could get my comments on the Criterion’s closing for a student documentary. Hell yes!

You bet I had plenty to say. I told him it was a terribly sad night for New Haven, that I was embarrassed as a New Haven resident to live in a city that would not have a movie theater, excepting that porno spot. I told him that Yale officials and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker should be working on getting some alternative to the Criterion. I told him about being at the Criterion for that fabulous opening night. I told him about the other theater closures I had witnessed. I told him about the Lincoln and the York Square and the Forest Theater in West Haven (also long gone) and the Cheshire Cinema, that was operated by Bob Spodick’s son, Peter.

The student asked me about streaming movies at home. I told him that it can’t compare to seeing a film with a live audience.

As I walked out of the theater I was remembering what that elderly lady had said to the cashier: “This is life now, right?”