February 10-16, 2005

cityspace

The Last Picture Show

Photo By: Michael T. Regan
Photo By: Michael T. Regan
Photo By: Michael T. Regan
Photo By: Michael T. Regan

The end credits are rolling for the famed Boyd Theatre.

by Mike Newall

It was the spring of 1946 and 14-year-old Walter Gunter of West Philadelphia wanted to see a movie, so he took the Market Street trolley to Center City. Walter was a movie buff, but he avoided the theater in his own neighborhood, since the other kids on 42nd Street would beat him up and take his ticket money.

"Let's face it, I was a pretty ugly kid, and I think they just enjoyed beating me up," remembers Gunter, now a retired library technician and a film and architecture buff.

That spring day, Walter took a few dollars he earned from chores and watched his first movie at the Boyd Theatre. It was No Leave, No Love, a musical comedy starring Van Johnson and Pat Kirkwood featuring the hit song "Love on a Greyhound Bus." While Walter found the movie pretty unremarkable, the theater floored him. It was the beginning of a love affair that would last through decades and scores of films.

"Philadelphia had a number of grand old movie houses at that time," he remembers, "but the Boyd fascinated me the most. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. The art deco design, the mirrors, the chandeliers, the grand lobby, the whole sweep of the auditorium. It was sort of a fantasy within itself."

Those memories help explain why Gunter served as a consultant to Friends of the Boyd, the nonprofit organization that helped save the theater from destruction.

On a cold evening last week, the organization's president, Howard Haas, led tours for anyone interested in taking a gander before the start of renovations that will restore the dilapidated Boyd and turn it into a Clear Channel entertainment venue. A few hundred people arrived. Walter was not among them. He is getting old, money is tight and it's hard to get into Center City. While he may have seen his last film at the Boyd, he's thrilled by its restoration.

"Walking into the Boyd," he says, "was like walking into a movie set."

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