While The Last Waltz may have been playing July 9, the show and the Elora Gorge Cinema will go on.
The screening marked a farewell open house for John Chalmers and Deirdre Whittaker, who have been with the cinema for the past three decades.
Friends, cinema members, former employees and neighbours were invited to a courtyard party on July 9 to say goodbye to the current owners and greet new owners Payton Curtis and Julianna Cox.
Handing over the reins
“John bought it in 1991, but was manager before then,” Whittaker said.
“We are at a stage, age-wise, where we thought it was time to go. Payton and Julianna approached us a year ago. I found out they were in the movie business as film animators, so I asked them to join us for coffee … and we met for a three-hour coffee.”
Whittaker said, “It evolved as something very casual and quite unexpected. It’s been quite amazing. They are perfect candidates for the job.”
In the July/August Gorge Cinema film guide Chalmers wrote, “There’s no business like show business (as singer Ethel Merman used to belt out) but Deidra and I have made the difficult decision to take our bows and leave the cinema.
“Owning The Gorge for all these years has been an enormous pleasure (think of all the fabulous films we have seen during that time) and also a welcome commitment to our friends and neighbours to bring creative cinema to our village. To our audience who have expressed their love of the cinema and our programming, thank you. We have taken great pride in being there for you.
“Fortunately, new residents to Elora, Julianna Cox and Payton Curtis, animators who have worked on numerous big-time features from Chicken Run to Coraline to The Fantastic Mr. Fox, have recently arrived from Portland, Oregon and have decided to make The Gorge their latest project.”
New owners
Curtis explained, “I grew up in Belwood, so I’ve been coming here since I was a kid. We moved back from Oregon where we’d been working for a film company for almost a decade.”
Curtis added he and Cox are friends with Chalmers and Whittaker.
“We were chatting and John mentioned … if you are between contracts … and you want to sit in the projection booth and run a film one or two days a week. One thing led to another, and after about six months we started talking a little more seriously.”
Curtis said at that point, Chalmers mentioned he and Whittaker were ready to step out if Curtis and Cox were ready to step in.
“We said ‘Definitely, it sounds like a good idea’” Curtis said.
“We’re switching tracks and this will be our main focus and animation will take a back seat.”
He stressed the theatre is not shutting down and nothing is changing.
Curtis added, “John will still be around on Mondays and working on programming films with me. Deirdre may have a bit more free time.”
If there are changes, Curtis says it will amount to a splash of paint and new carpet in the new year.
“We love the Gorge Cinema just as it is.”
Cox added, “We felt so lucky with the opportunity to take on a business as well cared for as John and Deirdra have done.
“They have done a fabulous job and we don’t want to disrupt the general feel. We want to preserve and maintain it for decades and decades and decades.”
Curtis said one of the main things he would like to do for the moment is quash the rumours that “two nasty Americans came in and are going to close the doors.”
“I’m from Belwood and love the joint. Nothing is changing,” he said.
