The human side of the Hollywood
It is perhaps the biggest story to come out of Dormont in quite some time – the sale of the Hollywood Theater from Kelly-Reilly-Nell-Barna Associates to the nonprofit the Theatre Historical Society of America. Almost immediately after the announcement of the pending sale was made in January, the social media firestorm began. And the efforts made by the nonprofit Friends of the Hollywood Theater to stop the sale materialized offline as well – there was a public meeting and a petition that garnered more than 7,000 signatures (Dormont’s population is 9,000).
Our own digital media editor, Justin Channell, was an outspoken critic of the sale online, signed the petition, and attended that public town hall meeting. I knew he would be the perfect person to tell the human side of the Hollywood’s story – I didn’t want a news article, I wanted a magazine feature on this very big deal (literally and figuratively) in our backyard. And on page 10, Channell does just that. He spoke to myriad sources about how this will affect the people of Dormont, the folks who make up the board of the Friends of the Hollywood Theater, its employees and its patrons.
It was a tricky piece to navigate, because there was so much drama – no pun intended – surrounding the sale. There’s really no other way to say it. Channell had to weed out the minute details that were better served to be part of an ever-evolving news piece in order to craft the feature. While we are sad to see the disarray and upheaval going on, we are happy to be able to tell you that the Friends of the Hollywood Theater, some of whom are pictured on the cover, are going to march on. Their physical space may be gone, for now, but their mission to preserve and celebrate the neighborhood theater experience will continue – albeit in a different physical location, and under a different name, both TBD.
As you will see, education plays a strong part in this issue. On page 20, staff writer Jacob Calvin Meyer looks at how school libraries have evolved over the years as technology and the needs of students have changed. Spoiler alert: you don’t have to be silent if you are in a library these days. On page 24, staff writer Harry Funk talks about the South Hills’ lone charter school, the Young Scholars of Western PA Charter School. The school takes multiculturalism seriously, and aims to be a place where students whose native language is something other than English can thrive. It also, according to its mission, “seeks to develop students who are conversant in at least two major world languages (in addition to English).”
Speaking of Harry … on page 28, you will read what is my favorite Harry’s Adventures to date. It involves the Grateful Dead, Dormont and some permanent ink.
See you in the spring,