It's Not The Years, Honey. It's The Mileage.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark / Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom
The Gap Theatre - Wind Gap, PA
A single screen art deco movie theatre in the borough of Wind Gap, PA had its grand re-opening last night with an incredible double feature of two of the greatest action adventure films ever made.

The Morning Call - Allentown, PA  (February 2, 2020)

The Gap Theatre opened its doors in the late 1940's.  The venue has changed hands several times over its nearly eighty year history.  The most recent manager of the theater prior to this year was Bill Reese who operated the facility for ten years as a movie theater and live performance venue.  The theatre struggled to get by, and they closed their doors just a few weeks before awareness of the Covid-19 Pandemic took hold in the United States.  The building has sat vacant and unused since January 2020.

The rebirth of The Gap Theatre is the first good news that I've heard this year.  The property is still owned by Joseph Farruggio, who has owned the building for the past forty years.  It is now being leased to Harry Guerro from Exhumed Films who, along with Mike & Kate Drumbore, have worked to restore this theatre to its former glory, including additional seating and twin Century SA projectors with TR4 sound heads.

Harry, Mike, and Kate have been fixtures at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater for some time.  Harry provided many of the 35mm prints that have been screened at the drive-in, particularly for Tunnel Vision Tuesday and weekend annual events like Zombiefest and Camp Blood.  Mike was one of the Mahoning projectionists, and his wife Kate worked in various roles at the drive-in.  The three of them are operating The Gap in the same spirit as The Mahoning with a dedication to presenting classic films on 35mm in a setting that you would have seen them when they were first released.

There's a small snack stand on the right hand side of the entrance where you can get popcorn, candy, nachos, pretzels, and A-Treat soda.  They also have t-shirts, mugs, koozies, and pins available for sale.

The seating reminds me a lot of what the Hersker / Key Theater in West Hazleton looked like before they gutted the place and turned it into the Cinema & Drafthouse.  The main difference is that The Gap has stairs on the left and right hand side with seating going up the side walls of the theatre in addition to the floor seats.

Look at that glorious neon glowing on top of the marquee!

Opening night at the new Gap Theatre was a double feature of two of my favorite movies of all time.

 

At 7:30, the lights went dark and we were treated to vintage trailers, including Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, E.T., and The Goonies.  After that, we got to see the first feature in the rebirth of The Gap Theatre, the 1981 classic Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

This is a movie that I didn't see all the way through or fully appreciate until I was a teenager, but from that point on, it has been one of my all time favorite adventure films.  I've never seen it on the big screen before, so this was incredible.  The 35mm print that we got to see was in good shape, and there were things that caught my eye that I never noticed before despite the fact that I must have watched this movie at least two dozen times over the past thirty years.  Also, there's something that's particularly satisfying these days about watching Indiana Jones punching nazis.

As cool as the first feature was, seeing Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom on 35mm in a movie theater that feels very much like the ones that I went to in the 80's was a truly special experience.

When I was a kid, my grandfather used to record things off of television on his VCR so that I'd have some things to watch when I visited my grandparents on the weekend.  There were some tapes that he'd record over every week with things like Duck Tales, Double Dare, You Can't Do That On Television, and other cartoons and kids shows that he knew I liked.  There were other tapes that he'd record and then pop the pin out so that I didn't accidentally record over them because he knew that I liked to watch them over and over again.  These were usually movies that he either recorded off of network television, or during an HBO, Cinemax or Disney Channel free preview weekend.  This collection included The Wizard Of Oz, The Neverending Story, Flight Of The Navigator, Return Of The Jedi, Police Academy 4, and the movie that I watched almost every weekend that I was at their house: Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom.

God bless my grandparents because they must have watched this movie with me about a hundred times, with my grandmother sitting on her recliner, my grandfather on the other side of the room sitting on his, and me laying on the floor with my Gorilla Pillow eating cheese and cracker sandwiches with monkey brains and eyeball soup, and hearts being ripped out of chests glowing from the console television.

Like the first film of the night, this was my first time seeing Temple Of Doom on the big screen, and it was amazing.  Even though I've seen this movie an ungodly number of times in my life, this was probably the first time since I was in elementary school that I sat down with no distractions and paid attention to the entire film from start to finish.  No computer, no cell phone, no games, no food, no pets, no conversation... just the 35mm film being projected onto the screen in a dark theater with dozens of other moviegoers who were soaking up the experience the same as I was - the closest any of us will ever get to going back in time to see these movies at a theater when they were first released.  Nights like this are as close to time travel that I've ever found, and I treasure each and every moment of it that I am privileged to experience.