Whatever Happened to Our Downtown Movie Shows?

While driving into downtown New Haven last week, after reading in the New Haven Independent about the death of the New Haven Documentary Film Festival, thanks to the closing of our city’s last downtown movie theater, I heard this song come on an oldies radio station — “Downtown” by Petula Clark.

And I could have almost cried when she sang this: “Don’t hang around and let your problems surround you, there are movie shows downtown!”

Nope, not in my town. Criterion Cinemas, a big multi-screener, went dark last October. Gorman Bechard, who has been executive director of that documentary film festival for 10 years, said losing the Criterion made it impossible to continue. He needs downtown venues to show all those films he’s been bringing to town (and filmmakers, including Michael Moore).

As the New Haven Independent pointed out, New Haven is the kind of place with enough people interested in movies to sustain a small business or a non-profit. You should see all the high-priced apartments and condos buildings going up downtown!

“How many colleges do we have in New Haven?” Bechard asked, because we’ve got more than Yale. “And we don’t have a movie theater?”

He joked: “It might just be that God said, ‘You get pizza and no movies.’”

We deserve both! I wrote this in the Independent’s readers’ comments: “Who is going to help us get a movie theater in New Haven? Come on, Yale! All we’ve got is a porno place, the Fairmount, in the Annex neighborhood. We should all be embarrassed, as city residents. I certainly am.”

“Heather C.” commented that she can remember when Yale had film societies at its law school and medical school that were open to the public. (Oh yeah—I saw dozens, maybe hundreds of films at those venues in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.) Heather also misses the wonderful neighborhood movie theaters that used to be sprinkled throughout New Haven: the Lincoln, the York Square, Cine 4, the Whalley, the Lawrence.

But others who commented noted the persistent fear of crime in downtown New Haven (which I have long maintained is overblown) and the parking problem. Yeah, parking; that’s a big reason why the Criterion folded. Most of its patrons resorted to using a spooky multi-level concrete parking garage nearby. (I bumped my head there! Ouch!) On-street parking? No way. You would circle the blocks way past the starting time of the movie you wanted to see.

I didn’t arrive in New Haven until 1977, so I missed out on the Lawrence and many of the other neighborhood theaters of New Haven — The Airdome! The Poli Palace! The Bijou! The Grand Theater! The Pequot! The Happy Hour Theater! The Hyperion! The Dreamland! The names alone are enticing. But I did spend many happy days and nights in the Lincoln, virtually in my back yard on Trumbull Street. Bogart! Hitchcock! Peter Lorre! Its closing in 1982 was one of the saddest days of my life.

Ah, but yes, we still have the Fairmount. I took a drive out there this week — not to watch porn but to see if it’s still in business.

There’s plenty of free parking! No problem! That’s because it’s not downtown. But man, does it look beat-up. Plastic sheeting and wooden boarding are holding together the exterior. I visited mid-morning, so it hadn’t opened for the day’s customers. But I was concerned that it, too, had shut down, as you couldn’t even see inside to “the lobby.” Of course you can’t expect to see current films listed on the marquee. What’s the point?

Later in the day I called the Fairmount and was astonished when a guy answered the phone. He provided the hours of operation and I thanked him and hung up.

Sure, the Fairmount does provide a function; lonely men can go there and get their jollies. But what about the rest of us?