[Bernie Rosendahl] Growing up, I just became kind of enamored w It was, like, the center of the planet to me.

[Lanni Lantto] It's beyond the movies.

It's the magic of how we gather together.

[Bernie] When I heard that the Nordic closed I was really upset.

I cant believe they took this thing away.

[Mona Lang] A punch in the gut to the community.

[Bernie] I had to move on with my life, but I got I got a text from my mom and she said, “Book Worlds closing.” [Jim Koski] Nostalgia is a very powerful instrument.

[Bernie] What is it going to tak to make this a movie theater aga [inaudible chatter] I want to get...Beatles “Hard Days Night.” Its still - You have the original Delft Thea You have the original Delft The Oh, yeah, why dont you just tak Oh my God - well, were going to about that later.

[both laugh] [inaudible chatter] But right across the street was But right across the street was - Yup.

It was very rare that you would in a town this- small that you'd two awesome movie theaters, like across the street from each othe again, the 90s was the era of t the multiplex and no one really saw that thing being worth keeping, which is a shame, and it was always my dream, if I ever had a million dollars, Id buy that book store and re-d - Yeah and make it back to the Nordic.

and make it back to the Nordic - Well, youre still working on Yeah.

[laughter] You're driven by what you can't have.

You're driven by a goal.

Youre driven by... something that has been taken away from you.

You want to get it back.

Those types of things are huge, like, motivators.

I was denied that movie theater.

They killed it off before I turned... 17, 18 years old is like, that's the cruelest joke ever.

I was born in Marquette.

I grew up in Skandia, which is a small town that was about 50 miles south of Marquette.

And I went to a tiny elementary school there and then I later went to Gwinn High School, which is just even further south of Skandia.

You know, we lived in a kind of a smaller home, and, I think, as we would, you know, drive into Marquette every day, we'd see the Delft and the Nordics marquees all lit up and it was,like, this point of excitement.

It felt like the center of the w because, at the time, I think my family only had three channels.

So, you come in from this really rural, wooded area, it seemed like the center of the the planet to me, ‘cause it was all lit up and it was, like, this access point to, like, and it was, like, this access po to, like, great entertainment, Most of your time as a kid were spent out playing in the woods, riding our bikes around, maybe watching some cartoons.

So, going to the movies downtown was a really big event.

My parents would bring us on vacations throughout the Midwest We saw a lot of theaters that look like the Delft, but nothing looked like the Nordic.

Heres this really unique piece of architecture that's playing something that you can't go to because it's Rated R and you wouldn't understand and be bored by it anyways.

Its like, I really got to go check this out and figure out, like, what am I missing?

Because heres... it's a movie theater I can't go to!

My friends family became friends with this guy named Tom Beauchamp, and, he...

I begged Tom to bring us to the Nordic ‘cause I'd never been in.

I don't remember the movie being that awesome, but I rememb my first time walking in and jus scoping the whole place out.

I just became kind of enamored with the Nordic.

I had my future planned out of going to movies here when I was older and all this stuff.

The Nordic was closing, but I didn't know when.

Flipping open the Mining Journal, it said “Final Week Nordic,” and I was, like, “No!” Its like, this is the end, and so normally, if “Black Beauty” was playing anywhere, I wouldn't go see it.

But, because it was the end, I was going to make sure that I went and saw the last show at that theater and be the last person to walk out.

The guy who does the one last lap around the track, you know, who is a track star, It's Tom Brady waving goodbye down the tunnel or somet or, you know, it's like, “This is personal to me, so, I want to make sure I do my my part personally to say goodbye in the most proper way.

out.

Bye, Bernie!

So, I went to go see a movie I normally wouldn't go see, buy the ticket and I sit, you know, probably 15 rows back, a little bit to the left and paid attention a little bit to the movie, but spent more time looking at the projection booth behind me and the ceiling and things like and just taking it all in becaus the future's kind of uncertain for this place.

And I I remember buying like a popcorn there, and I still have the popcorn bag somewhere.

And buying the ticket and everything, keeping all those things and, like, stay until the credits and watching everyone walk out and making sure I was the final guy out of there, like, going to be the last person to walk out of it.

My mom, I'll never forget... She's like, “How was it?” Im like, “It was okay, but I was -” I made sure I was the last one out of that building, and and, so, mission accomplished.

The Downtown Development Associ is working to keep the sign up.

The owners of the building, GKC Theaters, want the sign down.

It's gonna take time.

How precious time.

It's gonna take patience and tim In preparation for bankruptcy, Blockbuster struck a deal with most of its creditors to wipe out nearly a billion dol So, I just had to move on with my life.

I went on to play football at Central Michigan and, like, so, my my day-to-day life was pretty encompassed with sports and other things that teenagers are into, so, I didn't really care all that much, but as I got closer to graduating from college, and my sports career was over, I kind of felt, like, I want to start doing some research on the Nordic and figuring out, like, why I loved it so much.

I love knowing about interesting things.

Like, when a movie comes out, I'm the first one who's going to go to their production company and find the press kit.

I really love digging deep into things and understandi how they work, why they work and why they built them.

And so, that's when my fascination with the Nordic started, was going through to the Peter White Public Library, reading all the microfiche, reading what played there, digging deep into the 1930s to see when it opened, because I had a couple photos of it at my house that I collected over time.

And then it just kind of, like, spread from there.

Morgan W Jopling.

Man of opportunity.

You might say Morgan W Jopling w with a silver spoon in his mouth and an iron clad sense of entitlement.

With bona fides fitting for the grandson of Peter White, one of the founding fathers of Marquette.

Jopling develops a lifelong tast for all things turn of the centu Real estate!

Railroads!

Rubber manufacturing!

Rubber manufacturing!

Marvelous!

And, of course, the environmentalism of his time When granddad Peter White dies suddenly on the steps of Detroit City Hall, Jopling inherits an empire of businesses and becomes the new owner of Marquette's famed opera house home to one of three electric motion picture theaters all packed with hungry audiences Sensing dazzling dividends in this emerging industry, Jopling proves himself a fierce competitor.

So, when he learns of a rival pl being built across the street, he quickly offers to finish cons and take it over.

One of many future moves to control the screens of Marque And the first Delft Theater is born!

Jopling now becomes known in New York as one of the early men in the movie business as Delft expands confidently across the Upper Peninsula, growing into a theatrical circui that would stretch all the way to the exotic lands of Wisconsin “Popcorn paid for that,” he would say.

Just one of many profitable stakes he fell into thanks to his considerable family advantages.

So, at the turn of the century, Marquette's downtown was starting to grow up a little bit.

A lot of the bars that had ruled the downtown area in the old days were were slowly going away, being replaced by banks and office blocks and retail stores.

It was actually kind of a very i transitional period in Marquette's history.

I think that there was so much product coming out of Hollywood, and I feel like the Delft being one - one screen at the time couldnt satisfy the needs of people who were looking for an outlet to do things.

So, that's why the Nordic was built, and that's when I learned all about Michael Hare.

My dear Mr. Wright, your work has, of course, long been known to me.

I have arrived at a crisis in my education.

Having spent two years at Yale College, I felt the need of broadening my viewpoint and told the school I was going to France, where I met a close friend of yours.

He told me of your theor and method of teaching architect And really, for the first time, I began to open my eyes.

Some time after I came home to finish my degree at Yale I immediately got into a fight with my professor, but I will not give u what I believe to be the truth.

I hope, Mr. Wright, that you can solve the problem for me, and, if you have read this far, I thank you.

Michael Meredith Hare.

My dear Hare, I need not enlarge upon the cont in which I hold what Yale, in the name of the Beau Arts does to the young man in archite I should be proud to have alongside us a young man who will not give up what he believes to be right for any personal advantage.

Just wire us and we will make a place for you.

Sincerely, Frank Lloyd Wright.

Despite his dramatic pleas, Hare ultimately finks out on Wrights personal invitation, instead staying safely within the social expectations of his Long Island life, and finishing his degree at Colu It starts promisingly when Hare to design the new Nordic Theater a commission to reinvent the red building once owned by legend Pe and turn it into the latest mode movie palace in north country.

The young “star-chitect ” quickly gets to work, using his first real contract to generate press in the glossies while smartly avoiding revealing the truth, that he was chosen less for his credentials and more bec Delft President Morgan W. Joplin was also his new father-in-law.

Feeling the pressure to perform and overseeing every detail from the curtains to the ashtrays, Hare pushes for a world of tomorrow and features the future, through new projection and audio technologies, and state of the art lighting sy inspired by Streamline Moderne International style that he tasted in Paris.

Heres final flourish was the de for the centerpiece, 15,000 watt neon marquee.

And so, after very minimal delays and cost overruns that are never the fault of the architect, the Nordic Theater opened on Easter Sunday 1936, with a standing-room only premie Barbara Stanwyck in “Red Salute.

The debut was splashed across multiple pages of the Mining Jou in breathless praise that was in no way influenced by Delft adver Don't miss the next steps in his as he returns to New York, destined to be hailed as the Nouveau Designer with th Most places in the U.P., and this goes from the smallest towns to the bigger places like Marquette and Escanaba did have a theater.

Sometimes it was a very small theater, but normally it only had one theater.

The Nordic was a product of its time.

It was so Art Deco that it seemed like it was a museum, even when it was, like, 30 years old.

Most movie theaters, they have all that ornamentation and decoration on the ceilings and things.

But the Nordic was very streamlined, because I think anyone can develop something pretty, but its hard to develop something that's functional and pretty at the same time.

It's not a self-serving thing in terms of, “I'm going to design something that's cool and you're going to enjoy it.” It's like, “I'm going to design something that's going to get you to enjoy this movie more than you normally would.” Officials of Delft promise Marquette the most modernistic motion picture house in the Middle West, and after opening yesterday, this socialite reporter declares ”Indeed!” “Novelty alone has no lasting value,” according to Mr. Hare, the designer, who shared, quote, “I wanted to arouse the public and draw them in, from the street to the lobby, changing the mood as they go.

Then, to concentrate their atten on the screen as the show goes o so there could be no subconsciou away from the center of interest End quote.

Hare carefully planned the maintenance and costs, focusing only on solutions that directly solve these challenges without relying on past styles, because, as he pointed out many times in our lively convers the forms he chooses must have an underlying relation to the needs of man that is greater or equal to the Back then, you know, the technology wasnt as good, so, they had to make things better for sound and acoustics.

He was able to project sound from the front of the screen off a glass wall that was tilted upwards and shoot it to the top of the projection to you know, stop any reverberation of sound is, like, genius thinking.

You see a lot of the old, you know, Roman architecture where things are curved a little but there's nothing thats shape that curves that steep and then tucks that fast back to the projection booth.

Like, who thinks of this stuff?

And, not only that, who thinks about putting a light system that curves around like that, that does different things based on the moods of the movie that are happening.

Like, if you're gonna go see a horror film, the lights are bright red at the top.

If it's a nice “Sound of Music,” they have a lush green.

Its the whole presentation that he had on top of the architecture, which was super important, and I think that's really lost on a lot of new theaters that get built.

And I was just so impressed that we had this architect with really unique ideas who was coming to town, who was going to build this wonderful theater and I just felt a tremendous sense of pride for my hometown and very happy that it happened because, you know, it kind of pieced the puzzle together for me as a... as a adult, wondering why I liked it so much.

Its like, well, you have an amazing architect, amazing artist, if you will, who built this thing and put it right in our downtown I don't think any of my friends were interested in this stuff.

Like, “Oh, it's just a movie theater.

It's any other place.” I shared it with my parents and they're like, “Oh, that's re It makes it, you know, that kind of puts some things togethe and they're busy parents.

They're just like, “Thats great you have a hobby that isn't, like, getting you into trouble.” This information feels really sort of out of a different story.

So, how do we get this across?

The only way to get it across would be to tell the fact By 1942, Delft is thriving.

They're expanding.

Joplin's gone back to New York.

He's got all these other busines he's trying to run and involved Hares struggling to start his career.

There's a World War going on, an one cold February morning he invites his father-in-law to join him on the sailboat to go out on this civil patrol looking for, you know, enemy boats off the coast of Long Island, and we don't know what happened, but according to the, you know, newspaper, Joplin slips and falls off the icy deck.

Hare, when he's interrogated by the police over the next three days, tells the story of how he tried to save him, tried to get help.

Because of that, it seems like Hare and Jane, his wife, there's something that happens t because of this death of her fat but it's in the past.

We'll never know.

Why don't we just say that?

Don't miss the latest Delft Thea When a theater supply man uses his rays of efficiency to transform losses into profits.

After the shocking death of Delft President Morgan W. Joplin the board quickly recruits a killer executive to push paper properly and help drive the chain's growt If Jopling had been Delfts whee John B. Schuyler was now its gre and this Wisconsin pencil pusher immediately starts sharpening.

[evil laughter] We've recently pivoted to a modern, integrated network of theaters, drive-ins, and affiliates across the U.P.

This is all to diversify profits and mitigate losses, of course, giving us the maximum control from projectors to programing calendars to the popcorn.

That's the kind of efficiency th will never let you get away with They have the control locked up like Fort Michilimackinac.

I like you, Fred Florence, and I like your brother Paul Flo Florence too.

and after I moved, Delft headquarters to Milwaukee, I may even sell you some select theaters to help you stake your own claim in the business.

But first, I need to run the company from 1942 to 1967.

Italian Yooper brothers make their move.

New locals to now run Delft Theaters Marquette.

Stay tuned for what dangers lurk ahead.

My name is Lanni Lantto and my grandfather was Paul Florence, who was a co-owner and manager of the Delft and Nordic Theaters in Marquette from about the 1967 to about 1994.

I had a really fantastic childho growing up in the theaters.

My mother, Lynn Florence, Paul's daughter, was also a manager at the theaters.

My mom and my grandfather would go in around 6:30 to get everything set up for the 7 oclock showing, and then they'd be there until about 10.

And, so, many nights I was just there, hanging out in the office, and my most fantastic memories are growing up in the Delft box office, actually, and collecting tickets with my mother.

She taught me how to count the money back.

So, when somebody would hand a 20, you actually had to count the cash back and that's how I learned, you know, basically, counting.

My grandfather was an Italian, so...and an Italian Yooper.

So, he had this personality which was a mix of fantastic humor and then this stern...oh my gosh like, you know, this sternness to him.

A lot of people didn't think he knew their name, because he would say, “Hey, you, come here.

This is what you need to do, see?” And, you know, he always reminded me of Edward G. Robinson or Jimmy Cagn when he would do that.

I learned so much administrative entertainment from him.

I mean, about customer service and pleasing the customer and “the customer's always right and then he'd say, “Well, they're not, but you have to make them think they are.” I was born and raised in Detroit.

Went to school, went to Wayne St got my degrees and became a filmmaker for the medical school down ther but I also did documentaries on the side.

And, after ten years, I figured I got to get the hell- I love Detroit.

I love cities, but the driving.

And that's when I realized, “I want to live where the trees are.” Moved up here without a job.

Came in to Marquette, went to the Delft Theater, and P was there in the office in the b “Oh,” he says, “you never really ran a theater.” I said, “No,” but I had owned my own business, so... Well, I figured, “If I can shoot you can show em.” He said, uh, “Ed, uh...” “We were looking for a replacement manager for the Airport Drive-In Theater.” I came in while the previous man as most driving managers, were pilfering, you know?

When you got the box office out there and the managers in the projection room, money disappears real quick, you know.

You know, when I came here to go to college, wed just sit on the curb downto We called it “The Ann Arbor of t because there was so much going with the bars and the kids and you know, Peanut Night and playi and the two movie theaters.

I mean, we were in the most exci in Michigan, in my opinion.

I think, when Animal House played and I took a picture of the crow that was in line almost two blocks, you know, those events I thought were worthy of photogr There was a resurgence of 3D movies, Paul called one night.

The Nordic was the only 3D theat The guy had hung the lens upside down, so everything was reversed.

Half the audience had their glasses on upside down so they could see the 3D.

I mean, it was a “Far Side” cartoon.

Seeing my grandfather run it... his attention to detail.

And he would hand-cut all of the ads that he would submit then to “The Mining Journal” for the showtimes.

Every time youd flip open the paper, youd see this like, youd said, a collage, and youd be, like, “Thats really interesting.” A little bit low quality, but it made you kind of just stare at it.

Im like, “What in-?

Okay.” Im like, “What in-?

Okay.” It stood out!

Right, yeah, and he wouldnt use photos from the film, at all.

He would always use- It was like he took the poster and cut a portion of the poster out, and slapped it on to a piece of paper.

The glue would be there, and the scissors and he would cut and he would move them around and I just remember watching it.

It was like- it was like he was an artist, in a sense, but he would never s but it was just fascinating to watch.

I don't make movies; I show ‘em.

You're making the movie.

I was an usher in 1963 in Marshfield.

I always tell people, “Yes, I used to clean the urinals... ...now I own ‘em!” I worked there ‘til I went in the Army with the Vietnam War in 1969.

I was there for two years.

I flew back to central Wisconsin... ...within two days I was back working at the theate as the assistant manager and then I became the manager.

I was, like, 24 years old and I had just bought the theate You know, it took me a whole year to get the financing put together ‘cause I didnt have no money!

For years, all I was doing was adding screens, building screens, doing this, doing that.

Up in the morning about 8 oclock... in the office at 9... home at midnight.

Seven days a week.

He was a hustler.

I remember when... when he came up to meet me at the Butler.

Pulled up to the theater and and he was driving his Cadillac.

He always had a Cadillac, you kn - Sometimes I told ‘em I was coming...

Sometimes I didn't.

I had a great team.

I never tried to reinvent the wheel; I just tried to make it go faster.

I paid attention to what other people were doing.

I see the numbers.

I said, “Somebodys flim flamin somebody.” It's a great business.

I was a workaholic and it was my whole life.

The last thing I wanted to see w because of an equipment problem, go dark-or lack of a projectioni go dark in Marquette.

Were in competition, but we're miles away.

That only turns future audiences off They go and get here and there's and, “I'm not going to go there.

“I'll wait ‘til it comes out on video.” To be honest with you... AMC and, uh... ...Carmike... did things...ruthless... treated their people like crap.

That wasn't the way it was done in Wisconsin and the U.P.

Just wasn't the way things were done.

Somebody got sick?

You took care of ‘em.

Probably the classic was we had another drive-in west of Ishpeming that showed porn.

It was called the Evergreen and we called it the “Evergross.” We hope youll make this a weekly visit.

Bring the family.

Bring your friends.

There are always wonderful new pictures to see.

He had problems with his projector, lighting and he had the same ones we did and I knew what it was.

And I had one of my kids that was 16 at the time “We're going in!” They were show the movie on the screen but the screen didnt face the highway.

So, I said, “Now you just turn around.

Don't look Yeah, right.

And I run in with the part.

And “Thank you.

Thank you,” because, hey, he's a business trying to survive.

He's taking a market that's not hurting us.

That's a Yooper.

Thats what you do.

Even when we were beating each other's brains out, we were friends!

By the early 1980s, actually, downtown Marquette was in decline.

Two big shopping malls, the Marquette Mall and the Westwood Mall, had opened on the west side of Marquette and there... a lot of the merchants who had populated downtown, a lot of the chain stores, a lot of the locally owned stores had moved out there.

You know, I have to admit, downtown was not a very cool place.

Movie theaters, though, however, did stay open, if only because I remember going to see “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” at the Del while this was all happening.

It got really quiet.

I mean, you know, it was no longer like the heyday and there was a definitive change between how it was when I worked here in the early 80s, you know, mid-80s, you know, to the 90s it definitively changed.

And that's when GKC was looking at the area and coming in.

When they built their tin box on the highway up there it was a 10-plex.

Everything was moving towards the multiplex and you had to become a multiple or you were going to die as a theater business.

To the independents, it was like an invasion happening.

Ah!

Didnt see you there.

Im Dewey Cheatum from Big Hollywood Studios, and welcome to, “How to Maximize Your New Multiplex.” You know, you dont have to be a rocket scientist from “Star Wars” to see that things in our industry are rapidly changing.

10 years ago, my partners and I were releasing just 150 dependable motion picture films each year.

With the advent of new efficiencies, like a lack of original ideas, were producing over 500 films a year.

Where are we going to show all these movies?

Why, in your new multiplex, of course!

These nameless, faceless tin boxes can run endless movies, competing with each other all at the same time.

If one screen of “Die Hard” is great, make it five screens!

Yippie-ki-yay, multiplexers!

The future is now.

Join the Multiplex Revolution and start shopping for that time share.

and become one of 10,000 new and forgettable screens weve helped flood into the marketplace in just one generation.

See you at the movies and may this course be with you.

The Delft was a single-plex.

It...it...I think my mom said the screen was, at one time, 40 foot by 20 feet.

What is a 1,200 seat theater going to do when you got ten screens in a college town?

They had to make it a twin.

They realized, “We have another screen, that gives us another little foot in the door to get another movie.” And rather than having, you know, two prints go up to the GKC, you get one down here.

Well, GKC fought that like hell ‘cause the college kids could ride the bus for free to the Delft and how in the hell - unless I know somebody with a car, the busses didn't go up to GKC.

Up here, when the new “10”... that's when you could say, “The fan was hit,” you know?

Something had to be done.

The times were changing.

Paul - somedays we would go out to lunch and we would talk and, and, you know, he said, “I just-I dont like...” Well, at that time he had two screens.

Hes all, “God, there's so much competition with Family Video and stuff.” I go, “It's technology, Paul.” “Technology changes all the time.” All I really know is that the decision was made, when the pressure came on to have to become a multiplex, to go from that small, independent theater to a larger theater... all know is that a decision was made to sell the theaters.

And thats when Paul Rodgers came along and gave them an offe they couldn't refuse.

Oh, I said, “Well, maybe I can redevelop whats up here and we'll get a third of the pictures and, if I do it right, well get the bigger third of the pictures and we did.

The Nordic looked tired and was tired.

I remember you would walk in and there was this mirror that was cracked and I always wondered, like, “How long was this thing cracked Like, why isnt it being replaced?

And that's always kind of, like, a sign of things are not going great.

I didn't know at the time that I was going to close the No I didn't have any idea... ‘til I got involved and got my architect involved, did some research on the building and the building codes and all that and that's when I decided that the Nordic could be sold and that would make the easier... the more success for the Delft.

We were on a mission to save what we could.

It wasn't like this was going to be, “The glory years are coming back!” What can we save for movies downtown?

I was standing looking at the Nordic and thinking, “What the hell am I going to do with this thing?” And this guy comes up to me, he “Do you know who owns this building?” “Yeah, I do.” “Why?

Is there a problem?” He said, “Do you think you want to sell it?” I said, “Well, it's not for sale, but everything's for sale.” “Well, I want to put in a bookstore downtown... heres what I'll give you.” “Why dont you let me think about it?” I says, “I won't keep you waiting.

I understand you need to get this done, but you don't do anything for the next six hours and I'll let you know.

I didnt want to say to the guy, “I'll take it!” I wanted at least to have a six hour window before I grabbed the money.

Basically, the Nordic problem, for me, was resolved.

Book World started in 1976.

Kind of expanded maybe one store a year.

And I can't tell you what number Marquette was, by any means, but I would say maybe it was num 12 or 14 - in that area.

You know, Marquette being a college town, that usually helps the book business.

I wanted to be in that one block that is, you know, the main part of Washington Street.

So, we decided there, you know, we looked around for a building and eventually commenced to remo and then open for business.

commenced to remodel it and then open for business.

When we heard that a bookstore was going to buy it, I was like, “Oh, no, what... like, what's it going to... what's going to happen?” And then I'll never forget one day, driving into Marquette with my parents, one day, driving into Marquette with my parents, ‘cause I still and seeing the marquee completely gone and the face just flat.

When Book World went in, first thing that the owner did was take the marquee down, right So, just seeing that marquee gone, I think, was kind of a... a punch in the gut, so to speak, to the community.

Part of the reason why I bought the Delft was I figured I could make a classy theater.

All my construction guys did fairs and built barns and stuff like that.

I brought ‘em all up here.

They were big guys, you know, and their motto was “24 to Bed.” And that meant 24 cans of beer before they went to bed.

But they were up at six in the morning pounding away.

We weren't up here for a picnic.

We were going to build these theaters.

We did that whole project, I bet you... maybe two months.

Carmike Theaters at that time was in my hometown of Marshfield, running my theater.

Well, they were terrible operators.

I was afraid I was going to lose that theater, And, so, I went to Carmike: “How would you boys like to have a five screen theater in Marquet for the same rent you're paying in Marshfield?” So, that's how Carmike ended up here Probably didn't even know Marquette existed.

My friend called me in 1998 and asked me if I wanted to be an assistant manager, help ‘em out.

So, I said, “Yeah,” and then kind of been in ever since.

As Assistant, you do everything.

Projection...you had to learn that.

Youd get your movies in every Monday and you make the times for the weekend.

So, you know, theres a way you you want to do times, ‘cause you don't want too many people coming at the same time, so, theres a way about it.

Orders and inventory - its a lot to it.

A lot of times Id just watched when we were closed, and that was one of the best things.

Its a perk.

The new lobby was on Main Street, so, it was still pretty nice and just, over the years, it, you know, Carmike didnt put any money int and it got worse.

Roof started leaking.

Leaking in theaters.

Tile falling out, hitting people sometimes.

Just stuff like that and they just... they didn't fix it.

It just got worse and worse and After a couple years, I'm sorry to say they ran this theater completely into the ground.

Then, in 2000... they went bankrupt.

Carmike Theaters filed for bankruptcy.

So, in walks me.

I come up here.

My friends at GKC found out I was up here and they said, “Paul, what are you going to do?” I said, “Well, what do you think I'm going to do?

I own the movie theater.

Its closed.

I'm going to fix it up and open it Arent you guys happy to see me again?” And they said, “No!

Why don't you sell it to us?” I says, “Well, why don't I?” And I got a premium price and I was gone.

And then, of course, Carmike bought GKC.

And so, even though they got rid of the Delft in bankruptcy, they came back owning it because they bought GKC.

I remember the marquee - that th were going to take it down.

It was GKC.

And people in Marquette, you know, were protesting against it.

There were people outside of the marquee.

Hey!

Hey!

Save the Marquee!

You know, I was on the group to save the marquee.

It was going to come down on the Delft, that beautiful, 1940s marquee, and we had, like, a picket line out in front.

The owners of the building GKC Theaters, want the sign down and hired Associated Constructor of Negaunee Township for the job Fortunately, I called in a little bit of a little bit of political capital.

I knew the contractor that they had contracted with to take the marquee down.

So, I called him and I'll never forget the conversation was, “So, you want me to not accept this contract for this project?” And I said, “Uh, yeah.” We heard and respect the the concensus voice of the the community prideful community of the downtown and decided it was not in our best interest.

We worked some different avenues to try to, to get someone to buy it or to get the company that owned it to make some improvements.

They painted it and, you know, put new light bulbs in it.

Actually, my manager at the time, Jason... me and him changed all the bulbs and we got, like, a bad thunderstorm.

So, one whole side of it - next day, come in, all the bulbs are smashed.

I knew that the theaters were sort of in disrepair and it was breaking my heart a little bit to see it like that And my grandfather was still alive at this point, and I always kind of wanted to capture the history from his perspective.

And at that same time, I had got a... Bernie Rosenthal had contacted m just out of the blue, and said, “You know, I know that youre th granddaughter of Paul Florence and I just love - like slightly obsessed with - “ his words, you know - “the theaters and I would love t And I said, “How about beyond that, how about we contact the current manager of the theat and we ask if we can go in and just get a tour of the struc because I know Bernie was just aching to see what was left, if there was any history there and I wanted that same thing.

So, it was sort of this divine partnership that he had contacted me at the right time and we were able to actually go into the Delft and tour it.

I knew we were in trouble one day in the summer time.

Me and my boss were working, and you know, in the summer you have four sets: you know, the 1:00, 4 oclock, 7:00, 9 oclock and not one person showed up the whole day.

And thats when I looked at my boss and said.

“We're going to lose our jobs.” When it feels like everything you know is crumbling at your feet, ignore your cares and creeping dread and have a tasty treat.

A hundred years of showin films goin up in smoke, but stuff your face with snacks galore, the theater biz is broke.

‘Cause everything, every, everything, every, everything falls apart, everything, every, everything, every, everything falls apart.

‘Cause everything, every, everything, every, everything falls apart, everything, every, everything, every, everything falls apart.

The thing was, like, I always wished I had, like, a ton of money to just buy the building from Book World and restore it.

and say, like, “Ill buy you out Go build somewhere else.” “Go, go, go to the mall.” “I'll take this building over an and do it justice again and bring it back to downtown.” I could walk through the doors of that bookstore and, you know, know that “Okay, this is where the concess would have been and this is where the box office would have been and back here is where, you know, this would have been Row F, you know, so to speak.

They had dropped the ceiling, so, like, there's no real remnants of the theater there at all, but you... one thing I did notice is, like, how narrow the building felt when you walked in.

It was like, “Really?

This was a theater?

‘cause it feels like the walls are so close together.

How was this a place that people saw movies i As you see, like, Amazon.com came out, people are buying books online a I felt like if Book World wasn't going to do and make the shift to any sort of online sales, then there was going to be an end at some point for that.

You know, in the late 2000s, re Amazon started to take a strangl on the book market, but Book World adapted and we made a lot of changes to and to expand our product line, really kind of prepare for what we're - well, prepare and react to what we were dealing with Amazon.

What happened is we had...probab a third of our stores were in sh Really, your national mall ancho your Sears, your J.C. Penneys, start to go out of business.

This mall traffic coming into sh we lost that almost overnight.

It was so quickly.

It was the the great retail apoc And, people who had just moved the community, Id point it out and say, “That used to be movie And theyre like, “What was?” I was, like, “That building.” Theyre like, “Really?” I'm like, “Yeah, it was a single movie theater,” and Id say, “Someday, there's going to be a movie thea I know it.” And I would just kind of joke an was, like, everyone forgot over but I didn't.

So, I was working in downtown De and I remember, like, getting up one morning and getting in the shower and getting ready to go make my comm and I got a text from my mom and she said, “Book World's clos I said, “You're serious?” And she's, like, “Yeah, it's clo Another midwest business is givi the retail fight against both Amazon and lagging consumer shopping ha Over 150 people will be laid off when Book World begins shutting all locations later this week.

They say the closings are especi as Book World staffers really lo making this news even more painf We certainly considered everythi possible to save the business.

We've been around for over 40 ye We never envisioned going out li With the decision, now comes a l at 45 stores across Wisconsin, M Missouri and Minnesota.

So, at that time we decided to close the business It was unfortunate, really, it was probably the wors making the announcements that we're closing to, you know, some of our staff.

I immediately started kind of getting into action with and trying to figure out, “Okay, so, what is it going to t make this a movie theater again?

Like, what are we going to have to make it happen?

Like, who do we call?

Who do we talk to?

Do I talk to people who own movi theaters already?

Do I try to find financing through the state?

How much is this building?

All these things that would kind of go through your head when you're trying to, like, eagerly grasp at getting somethi Your brain starts go crazy and you're like, “I really need to, like, make th I do remember getting these frantic messages from Bernie.

“You know, it's going up for sal You know, we have an opportunity And I just remember thinking, Go I'm already so overwhelmed.

I run to nonprofits in Marquette and so I'm already overwhelmed with everything that I've got go I don't know if I can invest in like what it takes to buy that building, Yeah, I just went through the pr of starting to call people.

I called the people who owned Bo I called Mona Lange.

I said, “We got to figure out a to, like, make this work and bring the Nordic back.

How are we going to make that ha He was very determined and he was, you know, he basical tunnel vision with this Nordic T At some point, I was, like, you got to put on your big boy p try to make it happen for the co You got to step up and do someth ‘cause, I think, a lot of us, especially, you know, guys who get to be 25, 30.

Were working these 9-to-5 jobs.

We have just my wife and I just so, we were just in the middle of, like, parenting and we dont have a lot of bandwidth I just felt like this is somethi I've wanted my entire life... is to reopen this theater and restore it or do something with it and I got to make time to do it.

I got to make it happen somehow.

What is it going to take?

And I think it would hurt me mor if I just sat there or just thought about making wor but not do anything about it.

I met Bernie Rosendahl after I taught full time.

I was an English professor at NM Id never heard of the Nordic be but through Bernie's fascination love affair with that particular then it became myopic on the Nor It's all about the Nordic.

We're going to make this thing h Bernie is an old soul and he has this love and passion for these old theaters and how they bring a community t And I think that we both mourn that loss for the community and we mourned the fact that we the new generation coming up at and we weren't going to be able to have a stake or a part of tha We want to keep a part of history alive and how do we do that?

Bernie was exemplary in making connections and really sort of strategizing.

and, like, big strategic vision.

I started calling people who own movie theaters all throughout the country, a lot ofarthouse cinemas, a lot I specifically went to people who owned single screen theaters if you call on a person who owns a multiplex, they'll just tell you, “No, it's not going to work,” because they may not understand the dynamics of a single screen I think this is something that needs to be saved and I don't want someone else to and do something different with According to the Nordic Theater Advisory Board, plans have been in motion since to purchase the building and reopen the cinema.

We're aiming for a very close reproduction of the Nordic from We'll be making enhancements to and parts of the auditorium, but the marquee will be exactly We just feel like the place has still the original good cinema b and we're excited to see it sort of resurrected to once...to what it once was.

The group says they want the bui to have an inviting atmosphere.

What I envision for this space is actually a kind of atmosphere that would encourage coming earl grabbing a beer, staying after t and having a conversation about what you just saw.

I had contacted Dax Richer, who was an architect in town.

‘Cause I knew him from my childh I wanted him to, like, help be the person who was going to r and, like, redesign the auditorium and things like t So, we were able to get into Boo not long after we heard it was f A lot of people said, “Yeah, wel the ceilings still up there and the projectio is still there, but you don't re Are they just telling you these do they just assume that it's st But Dax was able to get up near where the screen used to be, pull a few tiles out and see the inside of the theate the top of the auditorium.

And I'll never forget that scene you could see the whole theater The theater had been closed for 20-something years, so, when you pull open that, you what you're going to run into.

And I think that just speaks as Michael Hare as an architect that he could build something that hardly needed any maintenan since the 1930s.

And you pull the tiles open after 20 years of neglect and it's still there in one piec it was...phenomenal to see.

So, if... if you don't mind, can you just introduce yourself briefly and...and tell everyone I am an associate professor of K here at Lower Northeastern Upper Western Michigan College.

And my specialty is wrapping up biographical subjects for documentary films.

Hare returned to New York and relative obscurity, but kept hacking, managing to co together more commissions.

A handful of pithy interior design assignments for friends and a contract to design an American embassy abroad.

And, yes, later he held a junior position at Corbett and McMurry, future designers of Radio City Music Hall and other icons.

But... his career was always flintier i than the fire as it creates in the real world.

Very few of his buildings are actually built, but Hares motivation to keep go seemed to be truly ego-driven, and surprisingly not financial.

Hare ran through his own fortune then his wife, Jane's, and, finally, he abandoned his a career entirely, instead beginning a singular pur of his own theory of everything, a project he chased for the rest as he struggled to combine scien religion, art and the cosmos into a perfect case for the idea of a multiverse.

But I'm guessing you saw that co And so, while at a picnic in England with colleagues from the Epiphany Philosopher's sampled the lunch and suddenly y “This soup is cold!” before dropping dead in the bowl And that is a verified fact which I could not have made up.

To the best of this actor-academ the recreation of the Nordic and Hall Theater in Madison, Wiscons are his only two works left standing in the world.

And so, there we leave him, buried in Cambridge, 1968, somewhat estranged from the worl that launched his aspirations, but in hot pursuit of ideas unti his final bowl of soup.

So, I hope that was helpful.

I think anyone who gets kind of so involved and so obsessed with you do need, like, a good partne who's going to tell you, like, I would do this instead because they can see it from a m a clearer way as opposed to.

like, someone who is so far into it.

She's my wife and she's...she's and that's great.

And she wasn't telling me to sto She was amazing in the whole pro like, super supportive, knew that it was what I was all about you know, knew that it came with being married to someone like me who's, like, very passionate and you know, not crazy emotional, but very passionate about, you know, making things work and making things happen.

Paul Glantz is a guy whos very busy, very successful, owns a lot of multiplexes and in different states and owns beautiful multiplexes here in Mi And he made time for me to have lunch with him one day.

and he brought his guy in who ha the acoustics for all of his aud and the projection booths and things like that, and handle basically, the theater- construc And we just had a nice, pleasant and talked about things and I said, “Who do you go for s “Who do you go to for projection “Who do you go to for this?” “Like, what do you make of this Nordic Theater layout?” In that process, he connected me with Dean Downin of Displaymix and said, “Dean's the guy who builds all of our ma If this ever happens, we're going to have to call Dean I met with Peggy Frazier, who was a part of, like, the Lak Superior Theater.

They did... they do, like, live shows.

And she was really interested in making it a, like, a live the set up to move her out of that boathouse that she's at on the s and into, like, a good, you know, nice, viable venue.

There would be some challenges in the building but what a wonderful location right downtown and that's, of course, been one of our goals to, in add to bringing live theater to the is to keep our downtown alive and economically viable.

The issue is is that when we started inspecti just the general shape of the bu it didn't really work really well for live theate because it was so long and narro it didn't have wings like you wo And she also was one that felt l the cost of the building was way If it's not going to work financ because you've paid too much for you're...you're not... it's not going to be a good outc And after consulting with a lot of single screen theater peo down here in Lower Michigan, they're like, “ Yeah, this is...you're not goi this is not going to work.” If you're going to sell tickets at this price, concessions at this price and hope to get memberships, this theater needs to be a lot c for you to make it work and until they drop the price, you're kind of out of luck.

A lot of people, like, “who's th with all this passion?” And, like, he comes out of nowhe calls me and tells me about this so, for a while I felt like, “What am I doing?” Like, I'm coming off as, like, y coming off kind of crazy to peop Oh, I remember getting frantic emails from Bern If there's anything I've learned over the 25 years of operating Lake Superior Theat it is that if a director is real has their heart set on a show, let them take it and run with it And...and with Bernie, there was somebody that had his in the Nordic.

Mark was, basically, the contact for anybody that wanted to look one of the buildings we were sel So, he was probably initially in with Bernie and then, eventually, I got to t several times.

But yeah, I dealt with Bernie qu I knew he had a challenge ahead for sure, which not a easy chall but I felt like, eventually, lik something's got to give.

Hes so and so into this and he has so much passion.

Something's got to click.

I was somewhat skeptical, but we were trying to sell it, so, we would listen to anybody.

We stayed quiet and wed get cal the guys at Book World once in a saying, “Hey, like, what's the s with your project?” and things like that.

But you didn't want to get on the phone and get into an argument with them and say, “Hey, you know, it needs to be... this and drop it to that,” ‘cause theyll - theyll just hang up the phone o and you just want to be cordial and keep the conversation going.

You don't want to give up.

At the same time, you got to be straight with them So...

In all fairness, they were overwhelmed with a lot of issues going on at the same time.

It was not as if they could just this one building.

I have this desire to make it wo like, but I'm missing the key co I mean, weve got all the photos in the world of the exterior of but I've got nothing of the inte ‘Cause I would search “Nordic th or “Marquettetheater blueprints over and over again, just trying to find anything.

But I'll never forget... it was like 4 a.m. and I couldn't sleep.

I just said to myself, “I got to looking for these blueprints.” And I go downstairs, I pull up my laptop and I start “Michael Meredith Hare Nordic Th blueprints.” Im serious.

I never found any of that stuff before, but something popped up from a book called “Architectural Forum,” 1936, November...something.

And I don't know if they had just listed it or wh but I found it and had little tiny thumbnails and I about lost my mind.

And I said, “That's it!

That's the book.” And I found it on Amazon and I bought it for, like, $40 and it showed up.

And I remember my wife and I were about to go to a movie, of and it showed up in the mail and “This is it!

We got it!” I think this, like, I got photos of the auditorium.

But when we opened up the book, there it was.

There was the blueprints, there was the facade of the building There was a photo of the ticket booth.

All these missing pieces, never to get my hands on, that no one How often do you get up at 4 a. and have the answer given to you So, I don't know if it was Micha speaking to me from the cosmos or wherever he i but now I knew at that point tha this could be a reality.

We could hand this to someone an “This is what we want.” This is how it can be built.

We were about a year into trying to make it a theater again and, like, I could kind of exhausted all of my contacts and things like that and we're just kind of stuck between a rock and trying to get financing to make it happen.

I think we had a couple people who were on board but it's, like, they keep tellin “You got to buy the building,” and then youd hear back from mo theater owners and they're like, “Don't buy tha until it goes down to this.” So, I had some really good...

I had some really good advice, which, honestly, I mean, steered me in the right They weren't... they were looking out for me and making sure I wasn't going to do something that was going to put me in a... terrible financial hole.

I think the thing would just bre was the cost of stuff.

Once you start poking around and asking how much a 4K digital projector is and how much a marquee is going to be, those types of things start getting, like...making you feel Even though, like... you'll talk to some people and they'll give you, like, “Wel hey, we'll give you a grant for but that doesn't get you anywher especially today.

The idea of it was really great but, the same time, like, the reality of it was becoming, like, narrower and narrower and it was just really, like... it was a tough pill to swallow but you just keep thinking, well I got to keep forging on.

I got to keep going until this is no longer something that's feasible for me to work on anymore, It's like or the dream is done You do feel very alone when you're trying to take on an endeavor and I do know that that was... it was - if he won't admit it, I know it was a struggle emotionally for him.

We were just at this place where we just had to wait it out and see if they were going to drop the price.

What happened, and I'll never forget it, I got a call from the MDDA, and they told us, “Did you buy B And I said, “No.” And they said, “Well, it just go There was kind of, like, a wave of sadness, I think, about “It's over.” And then, too, it's, like, also, maybe it's someone who wants to you know, restore it or maybe make it a movie theater again and just didn't consult me on it.

So, I was hopeful, but also very upset, but also maybe relieved in a way that said, “Okay, well, it's time to move on to your nex So, I waited a little bit and I called Mark DuPont and I said, “Hey, I heard your building sold.” And then that's when I found out it was Anne Whi You want to go first?

No, you go.

So, I actually grew up here.

My parents relocated here when I was about 2, and my dad was following his hockey coach around.

Played for the Iron Rangers.

I graduated and I could not find the city limit fast enough.

I was a nuclear engineer...worke all over the country, all over t and when I finally started coming back here for visits, When Id come downtown, Id walk by this building and Id look at it and Id be, like, “Is this a new building?” “Wasnt there a theater here?” And I asked my mom and she's, like, “Yeah, that used to be the Nordic.” I grew up in Denver and we actually met working a little project.

We were both married, but not to each other.

And, so, nothing really ever came of that.

We met back up on a job again in just south of Buffalo, New Yo and that's kind of where things between the two of us.

Anne called me up one day and said, “Hey, I'm having a...

I'm having a bad day.

“Do you think we have enough money to retire?” And I said, “Well, yeah, I think so.” “Uh, why?” She said, “Let's go open a distillery in M And I said, “Wow, that sounds like a lot of work.” “Oh yeah, yeah.

That's going to be a lot of work I said, “That doesn't sound like That sounds like a career change So, I got... Anne Whites number and I held on to it a little bit but I Google her first to see, l what she was, like, up to And I noticed that she had done Zephyr Wine Bar in Marquette.

I said, “Okay, shes got, like, about restoring buildings, which That's a good thing.” 2.I don't know what she's doing.

So, I finally got her and her pa Scott, on the phone.

I said, “He I'm Bernie Rosendahl.

Im the person who was, like, trying to restore it, that Book World back into the Nordic again.

Like, look, I'll do anything for you.” I said, “This is what I got.

I got more photos of the Nordic than I know what to do with.

I've got the original blueprints I have, like, everything.” I said, “If you need someone to help you make this work, let me know.” I think we were a little concerned at first that... ‘cause we didn't want to come to town, buy the building out from under this nonprofit and become the evil people in Marquette, right?

So, that was probably one of our biggest conc and it was genuine ‘cause we're I guess we're just that way.

And, like, they were pretty quiet through the conversation.

I think they were just trying to to make sure I wasn't some, you know, just random person ranting about something.

They were more, like, “Okay, well, we'll get back to y And then they were quiet for about a mont and then I heard it was going to be a distillery.

Plans are moving forward for a n in downtown Marquette.

Over the next year, the plan is to convert the space into a tasting room and distille It's important to us that we not just be a tourist place.

We want to really create a space where locals can come and enjoy, hang out.

I thought to myself, I'm like, “ this kind of makes sense, because they could use- if they were going to do this distillery here, they would use the distiller- the auditorium as a place where they put all their distilling equipment and then the front would be, like, the tasting room So I'm, like, “Okay, well, they clearly got, like, there's something that could work with that,” because they definitely have the ‘cause the building is so tall.

And then she was still pretty qu and I said, “Hey, congratulations on the distillery.

And, so, again, like, reaching o if you need anything, let me kno And she's ,like, shes, “Thanks,” whatever, and then I think it was, like, a week later, Shes like, “Do you still got th blueprints for the theater?” I said, “Of course.” So, I sent everything over to he I think in Dropbox - and said, “Do what you gotta do.” And then I think a couple of weeks went b and then she had submitted something to m which is an initial sketch and it was in the shape of the N the front of the building with the curved movie poster cases... the basic layout of the Nordic and Im, like, she's going to go for it.

Yeah, we're doing the marquee.

I went and told my wife.

I don't know if I believe her or not, but I'm going to just kind of follow this thing ‘cause what do I have to lose at this point?

Like, I think she's going to mak something work here that not only satisfies her dream of a distillery and owning a business in her home town, but, like, restoring something that a lot of people loved, as w He was so gracious and so helpful and so into it and he has been very, very important to... he designed the whole marquee.

That was all him.

I remembered that Italian lunch.

I kept Dean's name kind of in my Rolodex, and I was if Paul Glantz trusts this guy, then I should probably trust him I went around and looked at, you know, marquees that he had restored, things that he had built, taking photo signals back to an taking photos, sending those back to Anne.

You know, you don't get a a redo on this marquee.

You got to get it... weve got to get it right the first time.

We started looking at old photos Dean started educating us on , like, newer materials to built i because if you wanted to put it together in stainless steel and neon, it wasn't going to last very lon The neon bulbs are going to burn the stainless steel is going to and you're going to end up with a $200,000 marquee that is in disrepair in 15, 20 y So, the best bet was going with new materials, doing LED rope lighting to mimic the original marquee.

It was a year long process of getting this marquee right.

It was going up to the building and seeing the old brackets where the marquee used to hang and thankfully no one removed those.

So, we could measure those brackets perfectly So, we can measure those bracket and give those details back to D so he could construct it exactly how it was.

I even used, like, some of my Photoshop/ Adobe Illustrator design skills to grab the font that was off the marquee, the Nordic that curves around the side, bring it in and trace it correctly in Illustrator and create a vector file that I could then hand to Dean and he could get the font perfec Back and forth, looking at details, looking at color swatches.

We went to Sherman Williams.

We about 30 different shades of blu that matched the original marquee, and we put them out in sunlight We put them out when the sun was going down to get an idea what they look li and it came together perfectly.

I can't explain my feeling when I saw that thing in a warehouse for the first tim and thinking, “Man, it's... ...it's-it happened.

It worked.

In a time where so much stuff is knocked down very rarely do you see things rebuilt.

Marquette's a city thats seen a lot of change and I think that's where this project is so special because not to that detail, not to that scope, has anything ever been done and restored that much Okay, guys, we're going to light this sucker up.

10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

I felt my heart kind of do a little pitter-patter when I saw that facade up there, I won't lie.

Well, nostalgia is a very powerful instrument and whether you grew up with these theater marquees or whether you had your parents or your grandparents tell you ab obviously they hold a special place in your heart.

The most fascinating thing about it was that not long after it was installed on Washington Street, I remember a comment online where someone s “It's good that they found the o and were able to restore it.” I think the focus on the Nordic came because it doesn't exist.

If the Delft is still around, I feel like... it didn't have that focus that I...

I...I loved it, I absolutely love it and I think I would have the pas for trying to save that if it wa dire straits, but Tom came in and took care of that.

Its pretty much just... one of those things you fall into in life.

It stemmed from... liking property - old properties - and wanting to redo a property and make it lively again.

It was right next door to Donckers, which I had which I had rebuilt 10 years earlier.

so it just seemed like the right thing to do.

Things happened and it just developed into a cool old restaurant with a movie on the wall.

I do enjoy good movies.

It was great to light that up again.

The town loves that and I love it myself, too, you know, and I can sort of put what I want on the marquee and its sort of fun to do that, but...

It's like your own personal Twitter.

It can be, it can be, but I....

I guess you could say that.

How can you beat what got built?

So, I thank every day that I met and I connected with her and Sco because I feel like without them, none of this would even be a possibility at a Our labels, our branding... all of that came from him.

Bernie was the only other person that really, truly came to me and said, “I felt something here, too.

I have a love for this place.

There's a magic here.” It's beyond the movies.

It's beyond what it's there for.

It's a magic of this history, of this place.

It's a magic of how we gather together, you know, as a city in Marquette.

There's an intrinsic value to those types of buildings and landmarks to a community and to the downtown.

It doesn't feel real sometimes.

It was gone for so long that when you see it back up, you feel like it's someone's holding a holding a photo of it in front of you and then they can take it away at any time.

And only when you're there looking at it from that close do you realize that that's- this is a reality and that it... it happened.

This will be the last question.

Do you still dream about saving the Nordic, Bernie?

Uhhhh... Be honest!

and I visited the fabulous Fresh Coast Film Festival.

And anyone who's been to Marquet you go downtown and you see that fabulous marquee for the Delft.

And, so, I was immediately curio I started Googling and Bernie Rosendahl's project came up to save the Nordic.

And I thought it would make a great article, so I told Jordan.

You suggested to me, “Maybe this is a more visual sto maybe this could be a short film And that would have been a lot easier if we had done either one of those things.

Principal Photography: Day One.

[Jordan] We had a small budget and we had a a big task, which was to try to tell a story that, while is about one guys quest to save a building, its also about 100+ years of cinema history - - Boom!

- Oh, my gosh...!

and were trying to get that across without making everybody fall asleep.

[Joe] Jordan was the first to say, “Why don't we use the language of cinema to tell a story about cinema?” [JORDAN] Why don't we use a movie newsreel?

Or an old VHS training tape?

This was our very first time making a feature documentary and we pulled in some amazing people to help us.

Kathleen Glynn, an extraordinary Diana Milock, another executive Our partners... my wife, your girlfriend.

And then we were able to pull together a creative team here out of Traverse City to act in our recreations, to help us with responses to early cuts, to help us with some visual effects and editing.

Of course, this movie would not nearly have the emotional impact without the beautiful score from Andrew Dost.

[Andrew] Bernies story really resonated with me because from the first minute Bernie is on screen, you know that this is, essentially, a losing battle, and that its that it's going to break your heart, but you've got to try anyway, ‘cause if you don't, then that is the ultimate heartbreak and the ultimate failure is if you just are like... giving up.

It immediately felt like an enormous stroke of luck that Andrew had connected with the story and really understood what we were trying to do creatively, as well, To work with Joe and Jordan was a great experience because they had a story to tell that wasn't even necessarily the but it was their own, in many wa And so, to get to work as a part of this team to tell stories was a lot of fun.

I... remember when I first sat down, trying to compose...

I think it was the first thing that I wrote for Bernie... we're seeing shots of his hometown in Skandia and I thought, like, Theres a hope and a wonder here.

It reminded me a lot of growing and about that potential energy “I'm going to see the world.

It's going to expand.” And, so, as I was watching that and just kind of playing with th [Plays “Bernies Theme” on piano And then we gradually hear him going to the movies and seeing, like, the much larger world that opens up, and you realize kind of immediately that this story is not just about a movie theater, it's about “the movies,” and it's about joy and its about connection and it's about the world opening before the eyes of a of a young boy.

[Continues playing “Bernies The I love storytelling, especially to partner with people who have their own story to tell and support that vision, I really love being able to be a part of that team.

[Joe] We worked on it for about eight months and we took a Work-In-Progress Sneak Peek that the Fresh Coast Film Festiv was kind enough to show in October of 2023, and we came home to Traverse City and then we we cut for a couple months and then we launched our tour.

The “Indie Film Road Tour for Good” started right here at the Alluvion Performing Arts Center.

[Christal Frost Anderson] Filmm Joe Beyer and Jordan Anderson!

[Jordan] Im sure youve seen all these stories across the cou All these other art house theaters, these single screen - these great movie palaces are closing, and so what we want to do in the small way that we can try to give back a little bit.

So, 100% of the proceeds from each stop is going to go to the venue.

[Joe] We've been hitting the road for a long time now, taking the film to libraries, bars, multiplexes, historic art house theaters, arts and culture centers...

It's been a thrill to watch the story connect with people all around the state that I don't even think we expec when we started.

[Jordan] There's a universality to to the quest that Bernie went on and to the desire that that people seem to have about saving places that mean something important to them.

Everybody is so inspired by watching a guy who leaves it all on the field.

[Joe] Bernie's quest was to bring people together.

He wanted to restore this art house movie theater, to recreate that sense of commun and gathering, and we wanted to recreate that on our tour.

And I think the fact that people really connect with it is somehow because we really crave connecting with each other.

[Andrew] When we experience something together, it's just better, I think.

That's why we go out to see stuf and not just watch it on our pho [Joe] We could not have done it without the amazing support of some really special organizations and places.

The Honorable Distillery, which is the site, of course, of the old Nordic Theater, across the street, the Delft Bistro, the TusenTaak Foundation, which gave us an artist residency when we were first working on the project, Interlochen Public Radio, that helped us on our tour, and Travel Marquette.

We just wanted to say thanks.

[Jordan] All right, here we go.

1... 2... 3!