Mar 7, 2018 By Justin Channell 14 min read

Amy Lynn Best and Mike Watt have a deep connection to the Hollywood Theater in Dormont.

The couple first met at the theater while working as members of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” shadowcast in the early ’90s, and it was where they premiered a feature-length film they co-produced 20 years later.

“The Hollywood was there for us,” Watt says.

But now, Best and Watt, who live in Eighty Four, say they won’t visit the venue again after a change of ownership and management that has raised concerns among local film enthusiasts and Dormont residents.

The nonprofit Theatre Historical Society of America announced plans in January to purchase the Hollywood. The idea, the society’s director, Richard Fosbrink, says, was to continue operating the Hollywood as a working theater and make room for the society’s headquarters.

But the Society’s plans would also include a change from the Friends’ eclectic programming to include mainstream movies weeks after their initial release – a strategy that resulted in the theater closing twice in the past – and longtime customers began to fear for the future of the Hollywood.

The announcement also came as a surprise to the Friends of the Hollywood Theater, a nonprofit that had been renting the theater since 2010 with intentions to buy it. Fosbrink had made the same proposition nearly a year before, and the Friends turned it down. Friends president Susan Mazur says he assured the group that he would respect their decision then.

“Richard said to us in that meeting, ‘I know I need you… I don’t want this to be acrimonious. We’re going to need public support to do this. I don’t want to get in any acrimonious fight with you guys and I’m sorry, we will not pursue it,'” Mazur recalls. “In hindsight, we were foolish to take him at his word.”

Fosbrink declined to answer questions for this story, citing a busy schedule in preparation for the Hollywood’s reopening. He did offer this statement via email: “Theatre Historical Society of America is thrilled to reopen the Hollywood this week. We look forward to getting to work on what everyone wants: restoring and operating a terrific historic theatre for the community.”

The Society reopened the Hollywood on Friday, Feb. 23, under the management of Randy Collins, a veteran of another Pittsburgh single-screen theater. By Sunday morning, Collins had quit.

A “Friend”-ly lesson in recent history

The Hollywood Theater first opened in 1926 as a silent film theater and went through several different renovations, remodeling and ownership throughout the decades. In 2006, Hollywood Partners LLC, a division of the real estate firm Kelly-Riley-Nells Barna & Associates, purchased the theater.

In the next year, The Bradley Center, an advocacy group that provides services to children with mental, emotional and behavioral disabilities, entered a 10-year lease for the building. The center’s intention was to run the theater and provide job training for children within their program. Grants helped fund needed renovations.

However, the Bradley Center’s time managing the theater ended in 2008. In 2010, a group formed with the intention of subletting from The Bradley Center and reopening the theater as a nonprofit. In 2011, the Friends of the Hollywood Theater filed paperwork to become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

It wasn’t long before Watt and Best saw a sense of community develop at the Hollywood that reminded them of their “Rocky Horror” days.

“I remember seeing a big change in how it was run,” Best recalls.

Acrimony rising

If acrimony was what Fosbrink was trying to avoid, he did not succeed.

Within hours of the Society’s announcement being reported by local media, the Friends explained their side of the situation in a Facebook post and a firestorm of social media response from supporters soon flooded both of the organizations’ pages. The Society then issued their own Facebook post, assuring that “it has always been our intention to continue doing the things that are successful” and urged the Friends to work together with them to “continue doing their projects” because “there is far more involved to unite us than divide us.” A meeting with the Friends would never happen, as the Friends remained distrustful of the Society.

The Society also stated they were interested in “making a good theater experience a great theatre experience” – a claim that offended several who already found the Friends’ experience to be “great.” (In full disclosure, I was one of the commenters on that post. I expressed that the statement was “essentially slapping everyone who has supported and loved this theater in the face.”)

Concern about programming among supporters of the theater stemmed from the Friends’ revelation that during Fosbrink’s tenure on the Friends board, Society board president Joe Masher also weighed in on programming choices at the Hollywood and insisted that booking mainstream titles as they were leaving major theaters – known as “second-run” movies in the industry – would be more profitable than the Friends’ programming.

The Friends’ mission was to provide the community with innovative and diverse programming – which included the popular “Breakfast and a Movie” series featuring classics alongside a catered brunch, new independent films and classic and niche titles. The wide-range of genres offered appealing selections for fans of classic films and people seeking the latest independent releases that weren’t available at multiplexes.

The Friends’ attracted well-known directors to the theater. Penelope Spheeris, director of “Wayne’s World” and “The Little Rascals,” came out to take questions after a screening of her 1981 punk-rock documentary “The Decline of Western Civilization.” Last year, a screening of “Victor Crowley” – the latest entry in the “Hatchet” horror film series – with director Adam Green in attendance quickly sold out and brought in audience members from surrounding states to Dormont.

Pittsburgh native Steven Chbosky included his experiences seeing “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the Hollywood in his novel “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” In 2011, Chbosky directed a feature-film adaptation of the novel starring Emma Watson of the “Harry Potter” fame. The “Rocky Horror” scenes were filmed at the Hollywood. Chbosky serves as an honorary Friends board member and a video introduction from the red-carpet premiere of his recent film “Wonder” played before the Hollywood Theater’s screenings.

Pittsburgh’s horror film community also took notice and embraced the Hollywood as their home. Premieres were held for independent horror films from local filmmakers, including Fred Vogel (“The Final Interview”) and Justin Seaman (“The Barn”). Watt recalls a two-day underground film festival at the theater as, “unique unto itself – not even just for Pittsburgh.”

Local filmmaker Zane Hershberger also filmed scenes for the recently released horror anthology film “10/31” at the Hollywood and spoke highly of the Friends.

“They were so kind and accommodating regarding us shooting there, which a lot of other places would not be,” Hershberger says.

Pittsburgh’s most famous horror film export – George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” – was twice shown at benefit events at the Hollywood. In 2013, a sold-out screening of the 1968 film was held with members of the cast and crew in attendance and proceeds went toward restoring the chapel at Evans City Cemetery, the location of the film’s iconic opening scene. After the death of Pittsburgh television personality and “Night” actor Bill “Chilly Billy” Cardille, another benefit screening was held with proceeds donated to the Muscular Dystrophy Association in Cardille’s memory.

While second-run movies were outside of the Friends’ typical programming, a trial run of Masher’s suggestion was attempted in 2016. The Friends deemed it unsuccessful and second-run movies were dropped.

At the end of January 2017, Fosbrink left the Friends board. Mazur didn’t say whether his departure was connected with the booking choices, but she did say there was “a huge rift in the board that culminated in people leaving” and that board meetings had become “untenable.”

Regardless, the phrase “second-run” raised concerns among long-time patrons of the Hollywood Theater, who saw the theater close in 1998 and 2008 while showing those films. Since that time, the length of time between theatrical release and home video availability for movies has become shorter and the recent introduction of the movie ticket subscription service MoviePass – which allows for customers to see one movie at a day at most first-run movie theaters for $9.99 – has strained business models for second-run theaters.

Watt, who worked at the Hollywood right out of high school in the ’90s, says that the screenings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” were more profitable than the second-run titles at that time. Watt says he believes that the Society is not paying attention to data regarding second-run theaters.

“And if (Fosbrink is) doing it for the love of the Hollywood – which I really would love to believe – doesn’t he realize it’s going to close again?” Best adds.

A call to action

After the public outcry regarding the sale of the Hollywood, the Friends board held an emergency meeting that was open to the public. More than 100 supporters attended the meeting.

Operations manager Joe Morrison led the meeting and the sense of community was strong in the room despite an overall somber mood. When attendees raised their hands for questions, almost every person was addressed by their first name without introduction. It wasn’t necessary. They knew each other from countless screenings.

“(Morrison) knows them all. He’s there all the time. He’s knows what people want. He knows what people will come to see,” Best says.

Morrison noted that both Society and the building owners would have to agree to nullify the agreement in order to stop the sale. Postcards addressed to both parties were distributed among the crowd and an online petition was discussed.

But one thing that was missing from the meeting was the presence of any Society members. After many speakers noted their absence, a man stood up and identified himself as Bob Dini of Berkshire Hathaway – the real estate company representing the Society in the sale.

Dini explained that Fosbrink was unable to attend and he offered to represent the Society. He ensured that while he had “zero input in what happens,” he would relay their concerns to the Society. He then read the same prepared statement posted on Society’s Facebook page a day earlier.

A community member then asked Dini about why Fosbrink would enter a sales agreement for the building after giving the Friends board his word to the contrary and when the Friends board was discussing their own purchase of the building.

Dini then raised a valid point: If the Friends intended to buy the building, why was there never a sales agreement?

“We had always planned (to buy the building),” Mazur explains.

However, she says discussions of an actual purchase became more complicated when the owners claimed an appraisal came back at $600,000. An independent appraisal paid for by the Friends in early 2016 came back at $250,000. Mazur says there was no response to requests for an asking price or a copy of the appraisal and that lack of communication hampered any plans from moving forward.

“You can’t start a capital campaign with, ‘Well, we’re not sure how much they want for it,'” Mazur says.

In an interview with The Almanac, Brian Kelly of Hollywood Partners said they did offer an asking price: “They had the opportunity but didn’t follow through with it. We gave them a great price and that’s all we can do,” Kelly said.

According to media reports, the Society’s purchase price for the building was $375,000.

No Hollywood ending for the Friends

By February, it became clear there would not be a Hollywood ending for the Friends. “The Goonies” weren’t going to find One-Eyed Willy’s treasure, the residents of Pottersville weren’t going to come to George Bailey’s rescue and Ernest wasn’t going to save the camp.

The pleas of the supporters of the Friends fell on deaf ears. Despite an online petition receiving more than 7,000 signatures – about 2,000 shy of the entire population of Dormont – neither the Society nor the owners relented on the sale. The Friends packed up their assets and locked the doors for the last time.

A digital projector the Friends purchased and installed in 2014 was one of the items removed. According to a post on the Friends page from Feb. 12, correspondence from the projector company arrived addressed to Fosbrink in early February. Further inquiry found that he had contacted the company “under the pretense of being the new owner, in order to obtain the serial and server numbers for distribution purposes.” The Friends stated that this was an example of a continued pattern of behavior that showed why they could not work with the Society.

However, a recently installed dual 35mm projection system did remain in the building. The Friends paid projectionist Todd Ament – who is also the owner of the Riverside Drive-In in Vandergrift – for the materials required to refurbish the projectors, but he donated his time for labor. This film projection system results in less wear and damage on film prints and are required for renting from most private collections. Ament confirmed that he agreed to leave the projectors with the Society under the condition that he remains as the 35mm projectionist.

Mazur says that the final weekend of operation for the Friends – which included a Breakfast and a Movie event aptly featuring “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and a film festival showcasing horror filmmaker John Carpenter – brought in about $12,000.

A new beginning for both sides

Despite losing their home for the past seven years, the Friends of the Hollywood Theater will continue – though under a new name and at a different location.

“We are going to take some time. We need to find a permanent home,” Mazur says. “But until then, we’re going to do kind of pop-up events.”

A Friends event featuring the found-footage collective “Everything is Terrible” that was initially scheduled for Feb. 28 at the Hollywood was moved to Carnegie Stage.

The Society reopened the theater on Feb. 23 with a two-week engagement of “Black Panther,” which was the No. 1 movie at the box office the previous week and still on screens at the five movie theaters within a 10-mile radius of the Hollywood.

The day before the opening, the Society filed a lawsuit in Allegheny County court against the Friends. Among the claims are that the Friends “essentially sought to destroy the reputations” of the Society and “continues to pass itself off as being associated with the Hollywood Theater and create confusion in the marketplace.”

Randy Collins, former manager of The Oaks Theatre in Oakmont, was hired as the theater manager. Collins, who moved back to the area from San Francisco, was not aware of the circumstances surrounding the sale of the building and the struggle between the Friends and the Society.

Speaking to Collins at the theater on Feb. 22, he said he hoped to bring a similar business strategy to the Hollywood as his time Oaks, which would include primarily booking second-run movies.

Collins admitted that changes in the viability of second-run bookings would have an effect on the business, but “everything will have an effect on the business” and was optimistic in his plans for the theater, especially the prospect of booking archival 35mm prints to show on the restored projectors.

The optimism seemed to be very short lived.

Early in the morning of Feb. 25, Collins sent an email that briefly stated, “FYI, I quit the Hollywood.” He would not comment further, but did reveal he has hired legal representation.

Regardless of what the future of the Hollywood will be, it seems certain the Society is facing an uphill battle to earn confidence from the theater’s supporters and the Pittsburgh film community.