Opposition To Hollywood Theater Sale Growing

DORMONT, PA - Opposition is growing to the impending sale of the Hollywood Theater to a theater preservation group that wants to make the building its headquarters but still show movies there.

An online petition started Sunday by Dean Robbins of Dormont asks the Theatre Historical Society and Kelly-Rielly-Nell-Barna Associates to cancel the sale. The petition asks that the facility remain in the hands of the organization that has been operating it, the Friends of the Hollywood Theater, as the group works toward purchasing the building itself.

The petition already has amassed nearly 2,500 electronic signatures.

Opponents of the sale are concerned that the society’s plans to turn the Hollywood into a second-run movie house would eliminate the Friends’ more diverse cinematic bookings and ultimately could doom the theater.

“With the stated goal of showing second-run films at the theater and programming being handled by someone out-of-state, the purchase would change the theater's integration into the fabric of the local community,” the petition states. “Without the one-of-a-kind films FOHT routinely screens, or the availability of the space for citizens to hold birthday parties, weddings, or fundraisers for other nonprofits, Dormont (and Pittsburgh as a whole) would lose a cherished community space.”

A Patch call to Richard Fosbrink, the Theatre Historical Society’s executive director, was not immediately returnedTuesday.

Society board president Joe Masher previously said that under his organization’s management, the Hollywood will show films with broad regional appeal at admission prices significantly lower than those charged by corporate theaters.

Robbins believes the plan will kill the theater.

“People come to the Hollywood Theater not for a month-old Transformers movie but for the unique and eclectic programming that is only available at the Hollywood,” he said. “Not only does the Hollywood provide a unique lineup of films but it is influenced and fueled by the people who visit.”

Photo via Markowitz Communications.