Brogan: You Can Go Home Again!

It seemed eerily right that my first visit to the Concord Theatre since it closed in September of 1994, would be almost 50 years to the day that I started working there. That first film had been "Caprice" starring my friend, Doris Day and Richard Harris. She'd warned me against seeing it in a letter written some weeks earlier, but I was there on opening night and left with a new job. I remained there, doing various functions including assisting Theresa Cantin, the theater's owner, with film bookings, until the last picture show - "Andre", based on a true story about a young Maine girl and the seal - Andre - who returned yearly.

On Friday, June 30th, thanks to Steve Duprey and his assistant, Christie, I joined WMUR's Kristen Carosa and her cameraman, in a trip back in time. I really didn't know what to expect, fearing the worst after more than two decades of the theater sitting very quietly and unobtrusively on South Main Street.

When I first walked in I felt the tears welling. After all, I'd walked through that door and down that long lobby thousands of times during the 27 years I was associated with the Concord Theatre. However, I quickly noted the still standing remnants from those days when thousands had purchased tickets. The original ticket booth, where we stored the letters to go on the long gone marquee, is intact as are many of the art deco lights and fixtures. The huge sliding door that we would open nightly to reveal the concession stand appeared intact and the seats, dating back to the original October 18, 1933 opening, are in better condition that many seats in more modern theaters.

The "silver screen" that Theresa purchased for a small fortune in 1954, when cinemascope movies became the new wave, replacing the theater's original 1933 screen, doesn't seem to glitter like it did when the images of everyone from Clark Gable to Elizabeth Taylor to Brooke Shields and Jack Nicholson brought audiences unforgettable films but it still felt like "The Concord"!

When the theater opened in 1933, Theresa was 19 years of age and when it closed she was weeks away from her 81st birthday. She was there every night and was proud of the fact that she cared about her audiences - whether they liked a film, what they wanted to see, if the presentation - sound and picture quality - were up to a standard. She listened telling me once that the theater opened during the darkest days of the Great Recession and it was important that she help audiences forget the pain and anguish that surrounded their lives on a daily basis. Everyone was treated equally - whether you were a surgeon at Concord Hospital or worked in the local Five and Dime - she cared and wanted you to have a good experience at the movies.

She regularly sent me to screenings of upcoming films so that we could jointly determine the best films to bid for and even when I was in Basic Training in the Navy at Greats Lakes, Illinois, I called her collect, twice a week, to talk about upcoming films.

The upcoming plans that Steve Duprey and the Capitol Center for the Arts have announced for the Concord, bode well for all of us living in Concord. It not only saves a nice piece of our history but it will provide all of us with a new venue for the increasingly diverse arts and entertainment scene in Concord. I've spent the better half of the last quarter century trying to keep the memory of the Concord Theatre alive. It was a community gathering place and you'd never know who you might meet or chat with. Jackie Onassis showed up one night in the 1970's and I'll never forget then Governor Meldrim Thomson arriving one evening with his wife Gale to see the musical version of "Tom Sawyer" starring Johnny Whittaker and Jodie Foster.

I'd heard so many remarks about the Governor - pro and con - and felt a bit intimidated as I handed him his popcorn. However, when he came out after the film, he excitedly told Theresa, how much they'd loved the film and that "Hollywood should make more movies like that......"

By the time I departed the theater on Friday I can only describe my feelings as comparable to those I felt, as a youngster, on Christmas Eve as I went to bed anticipating what I'd find under the tree the next morning. Something truly wonderful is about to unfold and I am hoping that everyone in Concord, whether you have a special memory of the Concord Theatre or not, will want to be a part of this wonderful new chapter.