 Forsyth's Roxy Theatre is still alive and well Story and photos By KATE BERTIN For the Gazette When Forsyth's Mike Blakesley was young, he often turned his bedroom into a movie theater, inviting his family join him. Blakesley chose his "hits" from his only source - 16 mm company training movies, loaned to his father's business.
"I like to entertain people, but I don't like to perform," Blakesley said. "It's so neat to see people having a good time, enjoying themselves." This Thanksgiving weekend, the Roxy will be host to the Montana premier of a film, "The Basket," made by a Spokane production company. The family-oriented film is set during World War I and is about suspicion, tolerance and the "new game of basketball." One of Blakesley's former employees works for North by Northwest Entertainment, the company that made the film. So, the production company decided to test market small-town Montana in Forsyth. Living a dreamOwning a theater wasn't a lifelong dream for Blakesley - he just happened to be in the right place at the right time. He and Tom Clifford, who is now his brother-in-law, worked at the theater and teamed up to buy the place when the former owners retired in 1979.When they first started, Blakesley and Clifford had "really grandiose illusions" about the business. Among the first movies they showed, in rapid succession, were Clint Eastwood's popular "Every Which Way But Loose" and "Animal House," both of which packed the 214-seat theater. "We thought, 'Oh boy, we're going to be rich!' " Blakesley said. "But pretty soon reality set in." Reality means that there are both fat and lean spells in the movie business and Blakesley, who bought out Clifford in 1979, hasn't given up his day job at the family auto parts store. He's learned that the best movies generally are released during summer and the Christmas season, which means it's hard to draw people on a consistent basis. "People don't come out automatically," he said. "They have to have a good movie to see." A theater experienceThe Roxy has kept most of its loyal customers from falling out of the movie-going habit by making the most of the theater experience. Many Forsyth residents have been going to the Roxy for as long as it has been standing.Forsyth resident Minerva Faust was married to F.X. Faust, the original owner of the Roxy. Along with his brother-in-law and sister, Faust owned Forsyth's first theater, the Lincoln. He decided to build a new theater to take advantage of the newest innovation in entertainment - talking pictures. The Roxy was designed by Charles Wood, a Spokane, Wash., architect, who designed the building specifically to meet the acoustic requirements for sound pictures. Faust still goes to the theater occasionally, although not as often as she'd like. "Mike has done a very good job of keeping it up and trying go back to the way it was in the beginning - like repairing the outside marquee. I think he's got it pretty well back to the way it was," Faust said. "It's a very well-built building. After all these years, it's still in very good shape." Visual segues
Blakesley has had the exterior painted four times, returning to a more antique blend of warm tans, reds and deep forest green in a Spanish/art deco style. The theater's marquee, added during the first 10 years of operation, still lights up the night streets of Forsyth with a bright neon "ROXY." Posters of current and coming attractions fit neatly in the red-painted square display boards on either side of the marquee. "This is a historic building - it's got a lot of memories in it," he said. While keeping the old movie house look, the projection and sound equipment is new. Blakesley became an audiopile in the 1970s and '80s while working at his father's store, Valley Auto/Carquest. "We get comments all the time about the sound here," Blakesley said. "A lot of people compare it to other places they've been, and say ours is really good. I'm always looking for ways to make it better." Blakesley also replaced the original piece of projection booth glass with a piece of optical glass. He said the visual clarity is "like night and day." Sometimes Blakesley slips into the auditorium during good parts of a movie, stands behind his customers and watches them enjoy the film. "It's really gratifying to see their response," he said. "You feel like you're giving them their money's worth." The flicksThe Roxy celebrated its 60th birthday in 1990, with a classic film festival that included "Gone With The Wind," "Casablanca," "The Wizard of Oz," "The Sound of Music" and "The Ten Commandments."The re-release of "Gone with the Wind" brought people to the theater who had seen the movie at the Roxy when it first came out. Blakesley occasionally brings in films that aren't mainstream, including the Academy Award-winning "Shakespeare in Love" and "Life is Beautiful." "I try not to let my own principles dictate what we show - if it's a hit, if people want to see it, it's not my business to dictate whether they can see it or not," he said.Tickets and concession prices are old-fashioned as well, with adults paying $5.25 and children $3.50. Toddlers and senior citizens get in for $2.50. Chains aren't usSmall-town theaters, once alive in almost every town, are being replaced by chain-owned multi-screen operations. In Montana, Carmike Cinema has bought up the lion's share of the screens.Blakesley and other small theater owners laughingly call the huge multi-screen theaters "Googolplexes," a shorthand joke for "too many screens." (Mathematicians came up with the phrase "googol" to express really high numbers. It means a "1" followed by 100 zeros.)
So, the building is structurally sound. Since Blakesley took over, the Roxy has received nearly $100,000 in repairs and renovations. With its single screen, the Roxy averages 300 to 400 people per week. A blockbuster like "Titanic" was the theater's longest-running show and attracted as many as 1,000 people per week. Even though it's a single-screen theater, the Roxy relies on quality and class, not landing first-run movies to attract customers. The Roxy's screen is 30 feet wide and 15 feet tall. Some multi-screen theaters have screens as small as 18 feet. "We try to make it as good or better than what people can get in a big town," Blakesley said Once the theater is paid for, Blakesley said he could live on what it brings in if he wanted to, but he probably won't."It's really a seven-day job," he said. "You've really got to love it." |
 
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