Byline: Bob Fischbach
Jul. 20--Remember the Indian Hills?
It's been five years since Methodist Health System took a wrecking ball to the hatbox-shaped movie theater, built for the Cinerama projection system, and put a parking lot on the site at 8601 West Dodge Road.
Now Omaha documentary filmmaker Jim Fields revisits the subject in 'Preserve Me a Seat,' which focuses on the uphill fight to save the Indian Hills and other theaters built before multiplexes became the norm.
'Preserve Me a Seat' premieres Wednesday at the Grand Theatre in Grand Island, Neb. The single-screen, 400-seat movie house was restored after closing in 2004.
On July 27, Fields' movie gets its Omaha premiere at the Dundee Theater, the city's remaining single-screen theater. It also will be screened July 28 in Lincoln at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center.
The 800-seat Indian Hills opened in December 1962. Its screen stretched 35 feet high and 105 feet long in a 146-degree curve that seemed to wrap itself around its audience. Three separate cameras were used to film movies in Cinerama, and three carefully synchronized projectors threw the image onto the screen.
Later, a single, wide-lens camera was used to film some movies advertised as Cinerama, such as 'Grand Prix' and '2001: A Space Odyssey.'
Technical problems and expense led to the demise of true Cinerama by 1965. But the curved screen provided a great way to see a movie long after that. State-of-the-art acoustics, sound and whisper-quiet cooling and heating also enhanced seeing a movie at the Indian Hills.
When Fields saw '2001: A Space Odyssey' there as a kid, he was hooked.
'Looking up at that screen, it felt like I really was in space,' Fields said. 'I became a film fanatic, but I never had the money to go to film school.'
Fields teaches English at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs. He taught night courses at Metropolitan Community College to earn the $7,000 needed to make 'Preserve Me a Seat.'
By 2001, when the Indian Hills issue arose, Fields decided to try filmmaking.
A lawsuit over control of the movie prevented its premiere in 2003, but Fields said the long court battle had a silver lining. He made a second documentary, '416,' about the Nebraska constitutional amendment barring gay marriage and civil unions.
He also took a second look at his Indian Hills film, realizing that, as with '416,' the local issue had a national context. New footage was shot, the film was re-edited from 85 minutes to 103, and the stories of theaters in Salt Lake City; Boston; St. Joseph, Mo.; and Chicago enlarged its scope.
What did he learn in the process?
'Landmark groups have no power. People may be surprised to discover that.'
Fields said he now thinks the Indian Hills' fate was sealed when it closed in 2000 after the leaseholder, Carmike Cinemas, declared bankruptcy.
'If someone had made an effort to save it then, they might have had a chance.'
Methodist bought the property and announced in June 2001 that it would demolish the theater, which led to the formation of the Indian Hills Theater Preservation Society. The two-month effort to save it drew support from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and from Hollywood stars Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh and Patricia Neal. Film critic Leonard Maltin shot a public service announcement.
Omaha's Landmarks Heritage Preservation Commission voted for historic-landmark designation, but Methodist took the theater down a couple of weeks later, before the matter could wend its way through the Planning Board and City Council. Methodist needed parking for nearby expansion, and Fields said he recognizes a landowner's right to use its property as it sees fit.
But many saw value in preserving the unique 1960s architecture. Others had fond memories of childhood, romantic evenings and great movies at the Indian Hills.
Fields' film acknowledges the economic reality that old movie palaces and single-screen theaters struggle to survive. But though the other theaters in 'Preserve Me a Seat' are older and more ornate than the Indian Hills was, the movie laments the loss of pieces of our architectural and cultural history that are fast disappearing.
Copyright (c) 2006, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.
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