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“Not much new these days!” writes Bob Reiser, who reflects your class secretary’s sentiment regarding a meager class news inbox. Thankfully, Bob provided an interesting review of his current interest. He states: “Margaret and I are at our Maine home in Boothbay Harbor for the summer. Over the years I have been on the boards of many nonprofits, both in Maine and Atlanta. One of the most interesting is the local movie theater. I have been on several theater boards, but the economics of the movie industry are unique. We have a one-screen theater, which should not exist in a town as small as Boothbay Harbor (population less than 3,000). In fact, it was going out of business in 2017 when a couple stepped up and offered to buy it, turning it into a nonprofit. Following our recent donation, I was recruited for the board. 

“The theater’s economic challenge is that only one-half of the annual expenses is covered by ticket and concession sales. We must raise the other half through donations. With the founding couples’ leadership, we have been able to raise the money to keep the theater growing. While the theater has access to all the new movies, the secret is to appeal to the community with free shows [and] food events and determining audience preferences. The other challenge a theater has is that it has no control over its revenues. Movie distributors determine how long the show must be in the theater, and they set how much of the revenue they will take. In the past, it was 40% for first-run shows. Now they take 60%.”    

             Paul Dickson has a new book, out October 1 from Bloomsbury. G.I. Jive: A Dictionary of Words at War: The Vernacular of Victory (1931–1946) is described by Paul as a “discursive dictionary, which means plenty of anecdotal material.”

Respectfully submitted,

DR. JON K. MAGENDANZ | jon@magendanz.com