Andreas Fuchs stands inside the Vassar Theatre near a mural depicting the scene in 1937 when the theater opened, showing its first movie, “Stella Dallas.” The theater closed in March of 2014 following the death of owner Timothy O’Brien, but Fuchs bought the theater in December of 2014 and reopened the movie house on Saturday, Jan. 24. (Photo courtesy of Robert McKay)
By Tom Gilchrist
Staff Writer
VASSAR — The Vassar Theatre — closed for 10 months following the death of owner Timothy O’Brien — started showing movies again this weekend and giving a portion of this weekend’s proceeds back to the community.
The movie “The Boxtrolls” shows at 1:30 p.m., one of four movies shown to raise money for three organizations, according to Andreas Fuchs, who bought the theater in December. Admission is $2 for that movie and two others: “How to Train Your Dragon 2″ and “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.” Admission is $5 for “Gone Girl.”
The theater along M-15 in downtown Vassar opened in 1937 and starts showing first-run movies again Friday, but the movies that have been showing this weekend give the theater’s 12 employees a chance to learn their roles.
Fuchs calls this weekend’s events a “pre-opening” prior to Friday.
“This weekend gives us a way to train everyone,” Fuchs said. “There will be hiccups, obviously, because we’ll have all new people and we’ll have a new point-of-sale technology, so it works all the way around and we get to practice.”
Showtimes are as follows today (Sunday, Jan. 25): “How to Train Your Dragon 2″ at 4 p.m.; “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” at 6:30 p.m.; and “Gone Girl” at 9 p.m.
“Gone Girl” also shows at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Fuchs said he will donate part of the proceeds from this weekend’s movies to Vassar’s Bullard Sanford Memorial Library, the Vassar Downtown Development Authority and the Reach Mission Trips organization.
Reach Mission Trips offers Christian mission trips for junior-high and high-school youths serving families in need by doing significant home-repair projects for them. Youths will visit Vassar to do repair work for Vassar-area residents on two week-long trips scheduled this July.
“I think the idea of bringing in young people and training them at a trade while helping local people with their homes — such as senior citizens who have come on hard times — is such a great thing to do that I really wanted to support this,” Fuchs said.
Fuchs said he wants the theater to help the area’s young people, too — as a source of employment.
“We actually have two people who are starting their first job, and I think that’s important to do, to help someone to get going,” Fuchs said. “I made a specific point of having two who are working their first job. They’ve done things in school, obviously, but it is their first job.”
Another first takes place Feb. 1, when the theater — using its digital projection equipment — broadcasts the Super Bowl live on the big screen, in an event sponsored by Cork Pine Saloon & Eatery across the street from the movie house. Admission is free.
The Vassar Theatre, a 371-seat art deco movie house restored and upgraded by the late O’Brien, will continue showing first-run movies on Friday.
“We’re not revealing what the movie is yet,” Fuchs said. “People will have to look on our Vassar Theatre Facebook page because we’re doing a little game.”
In 2013, a Kickstarter campaign on the Internet saw supporters donate $72,737 to convert the theater to a facility with the digital equipment. According to an announcement on the Kickstarter website, the Vassar Theatre “has survived numerous floods, extended closures, vandalism, economic hardships and the ravages of time.”