The Athena Cinema is known now as an art-house theater, but in its 100 years, it has undergone immense changes.
Probably unknown to most Athena Cinema moviegoers, just behind the screen they are watching is an old burlesque and vaudeville stage.
“It’s important to think about the way it’s been adapted through the years and the ways it has been resilient through the years,” said Alexandra Kamody, operations director of The Athena Cinema. “The industry changes so much. It literally went from live performance on stage to silent films to talkies to color to surviving through the introduction of TVs into living rooms to fire and flood to the digital conversion. … There’s something really to be said for that.”
The Athena Cinema is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a year of monthly screenings of “iconic films through the decades.”
The theater is known for more niche films, such as independent films, international films, documentaries and local filmmakers’ work.
“You kind of know now if you want a blockbuster, you go to The Athena Grand. If you want something a little different, you come to The Athena Cinema,” said Lorraine Wochna, a subject librarian of film, theater, English and African American studies at Alden Library.
Wochna said multiplexes like The Athena Grand, 1008 E. State St., and Movies 10, 14333 US-33, Nelsonville, rarely, if ever, have those types of films.
“It opens us up to more cultures,” Wochna said. “What’s good about the university and the Athena is that we do have all these different people here, so you do want to raise awareness (by showing foreign films) that there are all sorts of different people, places and things.”
Wochna said she goes to the Athena at least once a week, if not more, and is preparing an exhibit on the theater’s history for Alden.
“I think The Athena reflects a lot of what makes Athens and OU a special place for people,” she said. “It’s accessible for everyone, no matter your major, career or station in life … It’s kind of the heart of the community because theater and films are a reflection of what’s going on in the bigger picture of that individual community, the world and culture.”
However, The Athena Cinema wasn’t always the art-house theater people know it as today. Premiering as The Majestic on June 3, 1915, the theater, which was renamed in 1935, was the main theater in Athens for a majority of the century, Kamody said. She recalled growing up in Athens and seeing “a line around the block” for the latest Disney movie.
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It was the addition of The Athena Grand and Movies 10 that led to the change in programming. Bill Duerson purchased and renovated the theater after a fire in 1988 and sold it to OU in 2001 after, in part, struggling with the competition, Kamody said.
OU began allocating funds in FY 14 (July 2013-June 2014) because university officials thought it was valuable to its Division of Film program. The theater receives $85,662 annually from the university while also making revenue from ticket sales, said DeAnna Russell, director of finance for the College of Fine Arts.
Russell said FY 14 ended with a positive balance of $18,133.72 after OU’s funding was factored into the budget. As of before spring break, she added that the theater has a positive balance of $37,484.
Though Kamody said it can be hard to get film distributors to understand the situation of art-house theaters, Wochna is confident in the Athena’s future due to its passionate clientele.
“There are groupies,” she said. “They will come to anything happening at The Athena. They don’t care. They know if they want something interesting, they can go up there and find it.”
As evidence of this passion, past and current patrons are filling out “memory cards” for the theater’s 100th anniversary, Some are short messages, such as “seeing Chuck Berry perform in the 1970s” or “tripping to The Rocky Horror Picture Show” but Kamody has others that have been typed on a full page of paper.
Taylor Clark, a senior studying English, has been a projectionist at The Athena for three years. She said the walkable location coupled with a more intimate movie-going experience makes The Athena special.
“It’s definitely more personal,” she said. “It’s smaller. You know the staff, and they actually talk to you. And all the popcorn is fresh.”
@buzzlightmeryl
