The Parkland Theater experience

[Dennis Benjamin]

I've been going to the movies since I was a kid (Thanks to my Mom). I've been in the movie business since I was 17 (34 years now). Tonight - I had the most enjoyable movie-going experience of my entire LIFE! I cannot put into words how much I love this movie theatre. The Parkland Theater & Event Center in Sayler Park, Ohio on the west side of Cincinnati is amazing - but you'd never know it unless you went inside it to see a movie!

The owner, Ed Miller, while quite an eccentric guy, is one of the nicest people I've ever met (he calls his projector a camera!). He is a Character with a Capital C and has a Sports Bar inside basically dedicated to his favorite Sports Personality -Himself! That's quite a story aside from the building and the movie theatre. There are also 4 apartments behind and above the theatre.

The building was built in 1881 as a Vaudeville house and is the OLDEST operating movie theatre in the Tri-State area (143 years!) (Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana). He now obviously has a digital projector. He also put in low-profile stadium seating (80 seats, sold out this evening). He has a laser light show before the movie starts, and a full bar and concession stand.

But the kicker was the skybox. He has a two-seat skybox with full massage chairs! No, not the cheap massage chairs you see in a mall. Something I've never experienced before. It has these things that go around your legs and when it's massaging you, it's like a person inside the seat! It's something you'd have to experience to understand what it is I'm talking about. He has a package deal for two for the "V.I.P." experience. I recommend it.

I watched the movie "Cabrini", which is an excellent film. There was full-on applause from the audience at the end, adding to the experience.

But it was the atmosphere that drove it home for me. The guy that owns the building is the one serving you the drinks and the popcorn. He is a larger-than-life personality that would give you the shirt off of his back without hesitation. He is the one that fully restored this building over the last 25 years. He also showed me the plans for future improvements he is making.

This experience restored my faith in the movie business. Ever since COVID-19, I had abandoned all hope of ever wanting to own or operate my own movie theatre. This place gave me my dream back.

I will make the 35-minute trip to the other side of Cincinnati to watch a movie there again soon!

https://parklandtheater.com/

[Ryan Gallagher]

cinema as a “passion project” (in more than one sense of the word. Hidden gem of family programming it seems.

[Mike Blakesley]

That's a cool looking place! I'm curious why he has a nice looking marquee (or as he calls it, "billboard") but doesn't put any letters on it. I could understand not wanting to be bothered with changing it, but it seems out of character for this ambitious guy.

[Frank Cox]

It's odd that he's apparently so interested in cinema but he doesn't bother to learn any of the proper terminology.

"I sing and play a funny looking thing with strings on it." "You mean a guitar?"

[James Biggins]

Too Religion/Political orientated for my taste I'm afraid.

Maybe it's an American thing.

[Mike Blakesley]

The keys to his success:

- Atmosphere
- Not giving a concessions option (you buy a ticket, soda and popcorn comes with it)
- Prices are in line.

So many of these "family oriented" places try to be a bargain for families, but they price themselves too low to be successful. This guy has not fallen into that trap, although he's leaving a lot of money on the table by not showing any R-rated movies. The website says it's due to his Catholic faith, but I'm Catholic and we show plenty of R-rated movies. The church has no prohibition on R-rated movies.

[Allan Young]

Too Religion/Political orientated for my taste I'm afraid.

Maybe it's an American thing.

I know, right? "Save The Unborn! 2018 Raffle" with a rosary bracelet as one of the prizes. Yikes!

[Martin McCaffery]

he's leaving a lot of money on the table by not showing any R-rated movies. .

Jerry Lewis Theatres Redux

The website says it's due to his Catholic faith, but I'm Catholic and we show plenty of R-rated movies. The church has no prohibition on R-rated movies.

Things have just gone to hell since the National Legion of Decency shut down! (not a super hero franchise, for all of you youngins out there)

[Dennis Benjamin]

"That's a cool looking place! I'm curious why he has a nice looking marquee (or as he calls it, "billboard") but doesn't put any letters on it. I could understand not wanting to be bothered with changing it, but it seems out of character for this ambitious guy."

The "L" on top of his marquee is currently being repaired and part of his future remodeling plans involve it. He said once it's repaired, he will go back to using it again. Neon is EXPENSIVE. (I had asked about it)



"Too Religion/Political orientated for my taste I'm afraid.

Maybe it's an American thing. "

I am not a religious person at all. None of his stuff or his attitude about his faith bothered me at all and does not take away from the experience of the theatre. The overall experience transcends ANY of his religious beliefs. He owns the building, so he can run his business how he wants (that's how things work in America). His business model seems to be pretty freaking successful.



"So many of these "family oriented" places try to be a bargain for families, but they price themselves too low to be successful. This guy has not fallen into that trap, although he's leaving a lot of money on the table by not showing any R-rated movies. The website says it's due to his Catholic faith, but I'm Catholic and we show plenty of R-rated movies. The church has no prohibition on R-rated movies."

I will say that the "R" rating thing does not make any sense to me. He has a FULL bar with hard liquor in the theatre. You can take your drink into the movie. That is pretty inconsistent.


Overall, the experience at the theatre far outweighed any criticism that you could give this man. He is a super nice guy whose personality is unique.

[Randy Stankey]

Sure, people have the right to run a business in whatever manner they see fit. I'm an absolute believer in that. However, when a business is run in a way that people see as "too strict," it cuts off a certain sector of the customer base that might have been served, otherwise.

These days, the term "family" often means that something is oriented to evangelical Christian views. There's nothing wrong with that but there are many people who would shy away from a business that promotes itself as family oriented because they don't like the feeling that somebody is pushing an attitude that they don't care for. Even people who wouldn't stay away from a "family theater" might still feel uncomfortable in such an atmosphere.

If the business owner just doesn't want business from customers outside his personal views, again, that's his right and I support it. I believe that, when somebody does that it's like leaving money on the table instead of putting it in his pocket.

I think that there can be some middle ground. Sure, if you don't want to play R-Movies, you don't have to but there are a lot of good movies that could be shown and it would be a shame not to show, at least, a few of them. Why not show R-Movies only on Friday and Saturday nights after 9:00 PM? That would allow the theater to serve more customers, make more money and still be able to say that they are a "Family Theater."

For cryin' out loud! Even Mormons allow restaurants to serve alcohol, provided it's kept in a segregated area where people under 21 aren't permitted to go. (Which, even though I grew up in a bar, is a rule that I fully support!)

[Leo Enticknap]

This is a heartening story to read. Some of the service visits I most look forward to are to the small, family owned or nonprofit theaters, often in more rural and remote locations, because the communities they are in value them so highly, and if they weren't there, the only entertainment option left within 50 miles would be drinking in a bar. Having me come out represents a major expenditure for them, and so I always try to plan ahead to cover any maintenance that may be needed, train the site staff to handle more minor things to avoid the need for an emergency call later on, etc. For example, I once kept hold of a lamp for a few months that a site asked me to take away and dispose of when they decided that they wanted a brighter one. It was only eight months old and with 200 hours on it, and was still perfectly good. I gave it to a non-profit theater in rural Arizona the next time I was there, so that they had a good emergency spare on site, which they otherwise would have struggled to afford.

As for the religion and politics angle, we aren't supposed to go there. All I would write is that as a Christian myself, I agree with many others that the important thing isn't whether or not a movie depicts things that our faith tells us not to do, but whether it promotes or celebrates them. That is why, for example, I have no problem with Reservoir Dogs (R-rated), because the people who do bad stuff end up being held accountable for it, but feel much more queasy about The Wages of Fear (PG-rated), because it can reasonably be understood to promote atheism. However, it might make more business sense to implement a "no R-rated movies in my theater" policy quietly rather than shouting about it from the rooftops. That way, you stay true to your beliefs while at the same time not driving away customers who might be alienated at what they perceive as censorship, and would otherwise have come to see some of the films you actually do play.

[Randy Stankey]

The movie, "Blazing Saddles," is often seen as objectionable by people who don't understand the fact that Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor are/were all very vocal anti-racists.

The whole movie, from the opening titles to the ending credit roll, was meant to be a cautionary tale AGAINST racism, done in Mel Brooks' over-the-top comedic style. The movie is basically a lampoon of racist stereotypes, meant to shock the viewer into understanding just how bad racism really is, all the while making them laugh their asses off.

I hear too many people, these days who say that "Blazing Saddles" is racist simply because they say the N-word.

In reality, the movie is telling people why they SHOULDN'T be prejudiced.

There are too many people, these days, who want to be spoon-fed and don't want to think.

The whole point of the movie, "Blazing Saddles," is to make people think.

[Harold Hallikainen]

Wages of Fea, that is the first movie my wife and I saw when we met. We saw it again on an anniversary a few years ago.

[Randy Stankey]

One of the first movies my girlfriend watched together was "Eiger Sanction." She'd never seen it, before.

I was like... "What? Your dad made this movie and you've never even seen PART of it?"

[Mike Blakesley]

I could see not showing certain R-rated movies because of over-the-top sex or violence. I mean, if you don't want to show "50 Shades of Grey," don't show it. But there are plenty of great films that are rated R. The "best picture of the year" this year was rated R, is a high quality film, and was a blockbuster, but there are actual theaters that refuse to show it simply because it's rated R? Makes no sense.

"Blazing Saddles" is great. I can't imagine anyone seeing that and NOT realizing that the movie was showing how stupid racism is. But, I have to admit, the first time I saw it, I was laughing at the jokes and not really thinking about the racism angle.

There's a scene in the original "The Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three" where one of the bad guys tells a smart-alecky black character to "Shut your mouth, n------ ...and keep it shut." That scene really served to cement that bad guy as the worst of the villain characters; it really made him into a despicable person. If he'd have said something like "Shut your mouth, asshole" it would have been far less effective and wouldn't have been true to the evilness of the character. Removing the word from "Blazing Saddles" would ruin those scenes too, but for different reasons.