Jon Tusak with the famous 1930s Page Organ. I just kind of latched onto the place,” Tusak said. He’s been playing a movie overture a few nights a week for the past 21 years. With a signature black ponytail, even the back of his head is an iconic fixture at the Avalon Theatre. He even went to accordion school with "Weird Al" Yankovic, and has since transitioned to a larger keyboard. He was an accordion player in jazz bands for years. Jon Tusak is the resident organist at the Avalon Theatre, but he didn’t start off on the organ. When I went home for the holidays, I got to talk to the guy who spends so much time in the theater that Nicolas Cage would be jealous. “I’ve had some of the best days of my life on Catalina Island,” he said. Nicolas Cage called the Avalon Theatre his “favorite theater,” in a 2015 interview for the Catalina Film Festival. Celebrities in the 1930s and '40s flocked to Catalina for film premieres and to escape Los Angeles. The theater premiered with "The Iron Mask," a part-talkie. He built the theater and upstairs ballroom in 1929 for $2 million. He had a vision: to turn the livestock farmlands into a glamorous tourist destination. William Wrigley Jr., of chewing gum fame, bought the Catalina Island Company in 1919. The Catalina Casino events bulletin, which usually shows the next movie, is empty. “The kids of Avalon, they're the ones that are going to be hurt the most by this," she said. The theater seats over 1,000 people, but only 36 people show up on an average night - it’s a financial sinkhole.īut this economic logic feels cold to Melinda. And industry giants, like Disney, take over half of ticket revenue. Ticket sales for movies have been declining since the 1950s. The CEO, Randy Herrel, sent her an email, saying, “It’s out of our hands.” She sent the petition to the theater’s owner and operator, the Island Company. It has almost 20,000 signatures, which is more than four times the population of Catalina. Soon after, she made a petition on that went viral. The note warranted many angry reactions from community members. In frank language, it announced, "We will discontinue showing movies at the Avalon Theatre." The original Facebook post from the Island Company. This past November, Melinda saw a controversial post on the Catalina Discussion Page, a Facebook group for local drama. “Sacred really, that's really the word," said Melinda Benson, who also grew up on Catalina. It was a normal night, and also a sacred experience. The film started, and Danny DeVito appeared. Named after the town of Avalon, the theater felt like our theater. Ariella Markowitz and her dad, David Markowitz, at Ariella's high school graduation in the theater. I even graduated high school inside the Avalon Theatre. Seeing a movie meant getting a taste of culture outside our island, being transported to a different place. Catalina is surrounded by water, isolated from Los Angeles by an hour-long boat ride. On a regular night, going to the movies was one of the only things to do. Most people visit Catalina Island as tourists - but over 4,000 people live there year round.įor islanders, the theater is a lifeline. We feel so much more isolated now.” Avalon High School's graduation in the theater is a popular community event. “It honestly seems like a big fuck you to the community,” she said. We were on our way to see "Jumanji: The Next Level." “It's the only reason why we're going to see 'Jumanji: The Next Level,' ” she admitted. We’ve been friends since elementary school, but were visiting for the holidays. It was two nights before the theater stopped showing movies for good. On a chilly December evening, I went on a ride over to the Avalon Theatre island-style, in the back seat of a golf cart.
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