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02.05.02 :: The El Paso
Community Foundation
announces its plans to get the ambitious renovation project rolling. It
pledges as much as $15 million of the $22-$26 million needed.
Council votes unanimously to consider backing the renovation plan.
It stipulates, though, the Foundation must provide a proposal
identifying uses, renovation costs and sources of funding.
12.27.01 :: The KTSM-TV
website has located  a
Plaza Theatre link on "The
Magestic" website. (Flash required)
Click
here, then the "Movie Palaces" link. from there, click on
its movie palaces picture link, 3rd row down, 3rd from the left, to view
information about the Plaza. We only hope the rosy
verbiage regarding its status as a work in progress is true.
08.02.01 :: We took an amazing trip back in time. Everyone, except for
my daughter, had a story to tell about his or her experiences at the
Plaza Theatre. Now she does, too.
As a treat for the visitors, a bit of restoration was already done to the proscenium (column) on the left side of the stage. An astounded Martinez told those who attended the press conference that when they began to clean it, they found actual gold leaf.
They did a superb job and it simply glowed down upon those of us looking
up from amongst the tattered red velvet and worn leather seats, while
standing on threadbare, red carpets. Most of the original fabric swags were still hanging in place.
We looked overhead to see the stars twinkling, something I remembered quite clearly from my visits to this theatre, and the balcony seemed to stretch back into the darkness forever.
All the women in attendance girlishly longed to revisit the restroom, but were unable to do so. The words "unbelievable" and "fantastic" were whispered among them when speaking of this feminine space.
On the sides of the theatre were the preserved cypress trees and shrubs, still trying to work their now faded magic
spell. Their task, so long ago, was to help the audience believe they were viewing another world while sitting in a starlit
garden with twinkling stars overhead and shy clouds moving back and
forth across its sky. It was in this garden themed cinema that my father, my husband, and
I sat, watching a revival showing of "Gone with the Wind" in the late '70s.
I remember thinking at that time how tired the place seemed, but yet how
dignified she still was. That is our Plaza
memory together.
Let us hope my daughter will be able to have one, too. A chance at
having a memory where she actually watches a movie and not just reverentially
walks around a space where ghosts are the only ones watching the
silent silver screen.
pax
c
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