INSIDE THIS ISSUE Business & Professional...................................A8 Classifieds.........................................................A13 Community Calendar ................................A14-15 Youth....................................................................A2 Healthy Times.................................................A6-7 Serving Northeast Fort Wayne & Allen County
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June 8, 2012
Georgetown Theatres undergoes retail renovation By VALERIE CAVIGLIA pr@timespubs.com
In June 1971, hot pants became a fashion icon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were knee-deep in anti-war propaganda, “The Ed Sullivan Show” said goodbye after 23 years on the air and Georgetown Theatres sold its first-ever movie ticket. The theater’s location at 6414 E. State Blvd. was prime real estate, visible to all who drove by, which worked favorably for Keith Cunningham and his buddies, then teenagers who lived near Georgetown Square. “We saw many a movie there,” Cunningham said. He recalled a date night at the theater with one girl in particular. “… My date just may have been a little out of my league. (My friend) and I both were doing our best to try to impress the girls, and as such, we drove my convertible and parked it prominently right out front under the theater sign for all to see as they passed on East State Boulevard.” Back then, it was the only place on that side of Fort Wayne to catch a movie for miles, which is partly why Arthur Spirou said he opened the venue at Georgetown
Square. “It was a needed facility in that part of the city,” he said. “It was very busy. The seating capacity was 351 on one side and 250 on the other and those could very well have been completely filled every Saturday night.” Through the years, MallersSpirou Management Corp. owned not only Georgetown Theatres, but five others: Coventry theater on Coventry Lane, Holiday 1 & 2 and Holiday 6 at Coliseum Boulevard and Clinton Street, Clyde Theater on Bluffton Road, and the Rialto on South Calhoun Street. Georgetown Theatres would be turned over to new management four times in the years that followed, beginning in 1993 when Regal Cinemas bought out Spirou’s entire theater circuit. “We were in the amusement business. We had bowling centers and restaurants and we were just retiring,” Spirou said. “The opportunity came to sell to a company that could do a good job with the property, so that’s what we did.” Regal Cinema eventually closed the movie theater in the early 2000s. It later reopened as Fort Wayne Dollar Movies, but by
Farmers market changing layout
Photo by Valerie Caviglia
The guts of Georgetown Theatres now fill dumpster bins outside the former Georgetown Square movie theater. 2009, Troy, Ohio-based Teicher center, but it became apparent Theatres couldn’t justify keeping that theaters are a thing of the the second-run movie theater past and that the multiplex is the open any longer. most profitable type of theater There was much speculation location,” said Georgetown about what would occupy the Square manager Steve Jehl. former theater, which sat vacant So Georgetown Members LLC, since the end of January 2009. which owns the shopping center, “We were hoping to continue to focused instead on attracting a have a theater there because of retail store, which would require the amount of people that it See THEATRE, page A13 would attract to the shopping
Georgetown Farmers Market will open for the season Thursday, June 14, with many new vendors, a large variety of produce and products, and a slightly changed market layout. In years past, most of the farmers market was setup in front of the former Georgetown Theatre, but with Dollar General moving in midsummer, organizers had to find an alternate place to locate the farmers market this year. It will now be situated in the center of the shopping center, from Jeff’s Coney, to Tampa Wellness Oasis, all the way down to See MARKET page A11
Budget Tight? Are you pregnant? Breastfeeding? Have a child under 5? WIC might be able to help. Courtesy photo
A computer-generated image of George Morrison’s sister city monument, titled “Flights of Friendship: Weaving Cultures.” The display will be dedicated at Fort Wayne International Airport Oct. 28. Courtesy image
Hacienda Village artist to design sister city monument Local sculptor and artist George Morrison has been selected as the designer of a new monument honoring the city’s four sister cities. The creation will be
displayed at Fort Wayne International Airport for travelers to see. Morrison, who lives in Hacienda Village, is a former architect and in retirement has taken to ceramics and other forms of art.
Morrison learned about a call-out for a public art design contest sponsored by the Fort Wayne Sister Cities International’s Arts and Monument Committee in celebration of the 35th
Call to see if you qualify.
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The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program provides free checks for nutritious foods, breastfeeding support and nutrition education for all kinds of qualifying families - single parents, married, working, not working and foster.