County Commissioner George Hartwick III, Mayor-Elect Eric Papenfuse, and GreenWorks’ John Tierney at the Midtown Cinema.
Late Friday afternoon, as the city darkened in a warm fog, half-a-dozen or so employees of the Midtown Cinema set up for the evening. The cinema, closed for the completion of about $250,000 in renovations, was hosting a grand re-opening.
Someone hauled a massive glass jar of lemon water across the room. Eric Papenfuse, the mayor-elect, arrived in a dark suit, wearing a bookshelf tie. “Well, well,” he said cheerfully. “It looks great!” The walls, sporting a new coat of gray, were lettered here and there with lines from the classics (I’ll have what she’s having; Mama always said).
“ ‘This is a new day for the Midtown Cinema,’ said Tierney,” said a media handout. John Tierney, the president of GreenWorks Development and owner of the cinema, was not immediately at hand, but George Hartwick III, the Dauphin County commissioner, had arrived, in trim jeans, a sports coat, and a sweater vest. “Yeahhh!” he said to someone in a far corner of the lobby, whom he proceeded to high-five, and then hug.
Adam Porter, who along with Stuart Landon has been managing the cinema since earlier this year, went to and fro, snapping his fingers.
In one corner, near the wall-to-wall window facing Reily Street, sat one of the theater’s old 35mm projectors, which had been replaced with new digital equipment. It had a hulking teal body, refrigerator-shaped, and a warning: “DANGER. HAZARDOUS LIGHT. EYE DAMAGE WILL RESULT FROM DIRECT VIEWING OF THE BULB WHEN OPERATING.” Below, next to the words “Automation Model,” was a sticker with a service number.
Behind the counter was a chalkboard menu with a mix of classic and modern fare. One of the featured smoothies is “The King,” with peanut butter, banana, and bacon. There is also popcorn, available in small ($3), medium ($3.75), large ($4), and posh ($5).
“Posh comes with flavors, and it’s in a bigger bag, so you can shake it,” said Sammi Melville, a cinema employee. Among the flavors are Memphis BBQ, pirate’s gold (“like a spicy mustard”), and French toast (“messy, but it’s really good”). “We were kind of going for, like, what are synonyms for ‘classy’?” she said. “Posh” had beaten out “fancy pants,” which was rejected “because it was a little too silly.”
A semicircle formed around a podium near the popper, and John Tierney took center stage.
“This is a new day for the Midtown Cinema,” said Tierney. “These investments in new technology will provide our customers an entertainment experience that is second-to-none in the theater business.”
He called up Hartwick. “Thank you, John,” Hartwick said. “Good to see ya.” He praised the cinema’s presentation of “real documentaries,” which can “portray a perspective often not seen in the larger types of theaters.”
“This theater has a truly competent staff,” he went on. He pointed at Porter and Landon, “two of the most creative guys in Midtown Harrisburg.” Then he opened up a folder and read a proclamation.
“Whereas the only movie theater within city limits, the Midtown Cinema, is often recognized as a regional center for art and culture, and represents the renaissance of the city of Harrisburg,” he read, “therefore, we join with the 268,000 residents of this county in cutting the ribbon on the newly renovated Midtown Cinema and wishing the owners and staff enduring success in the years to come.” The day, November 22, 2013, was proclaimed Midtown Cinema Day in Dauphin County.
Hartwick passed the podium to Tierney, who passed it to Papenfuse. “I have no proclamation,” Papenfuse said, to laughter. “I have no authority to do anything at the moment, but.” He acknowledged the cinema’s role in inspiring him to open his own business downtown.
“The Midtown Cinema was the pioneer,” he said. “It was the attempt to jump-start and have a ripple effect in the arts community here in Midtown. The bookstore came right on the heels of the Midtown Cinema. And in fact we chose our name, Midtown Scholar, in part to affirm what it was the Midtown Cinema was trying to do.” He pledged that his administration would have an “arts, culture and tourism transition team” that will “focus on what we can do to drive Harrisburg’s revitalization through an emphasis on arts and culture.”
It was time to cut the ribbon. Tierney and Hartwick unwound it, and Papenfuse wielded the scissors. “Neat,” Papenfuse said later, in line for a drink. “Those were some serious scissors,” he added.
In the projection room, Porter showed off the new equipment: a hulking box, just like the old one, but black, and affixed with a touch screen. External hard drives, each containing a single movie, will now arrive by UPS; the movies are uploaded to the projector’s drive, which can hold maybe half-a-dozen. A digital key, sent by email, is also required to unlock each film. Porter held up a zip drive.
“That was one concern, whether there’d be a problem with the keys,” he said. He looked around and then found a wooden table, which he rapped with his knuckles. “Knock on wood.” Otherwise, though, Porter only saw advantages. “There are no worries in terms of things getting snagged or caught,” he said. “Do you see any moving parts?”
Next door, in Theater 3, the screen looped through trailers. A spot with Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes was playing: Dickens’ “Great Expectations.” In the lobby, the support number on the old projector was dialed. The line was out of service.
