New seats clear customs, now on way
Town Theatre remains open for business and looking the same, right now, that is.
Originally, volunteers planned to begin renovations Sunday to the theater now owned by the Chillicothe Optimist Club.
With the new 256 seats not arriving yet, plans were set back one week.
Coming from Huangpu, China, the seats arrived in Long Beach, Calif., late last week, awaiting customs.
Last night, they were X-rayed and cleared by customs.
Optimist Irv Latta said Dragon American Logistics Inc. officials are trying to get the seats on a train for a four-to-five-day train trip to Chicago. A truck will then transport the seats to Chillicothe.
This week and weekend, movies will remain playing like normal. Next week, the theater will be closed from Monday through Thursday.
Due to the changes, volunteers decided to see what taking out the seats would entail last week.
Headed by Harry Crull, the men removed the first three rows in each auditorium last week. Crull is the Optimist in charge of the renovations.
“We wanted to get a feel for what it would be like beforehand, and we knew it wouldn’t jeopardize our attendance,” said Crull.
Ironically, Crull took the tickets as a freshman in high school, but most of his four years of working at the theater was running the projectors.
To remove the seats from the smaller theater’s concrete floor, volunteers had to saw the studs to remove the seats.
In the larger theater, the seats were screwed into the wooden floor, which are much easier to remove, Crull said.
A pile of old seats in the basement and behind the screens, which were used for parts, also were cleaned out, making more room for storage.
The new seats are dark gray, about three inches wider than the red ones, with arm rests which can raise.
No one seems to know how old the seats are at Town Theatre, with many estimating decades.
Crull said the old seats need to be taken out in about three to four hours, or sooner if possible. With the last movie Sunday night estimated to be done around 9:30 p.m., volunteers will have a late night.
The burlap sound folds, now with snags and holes, will be taken down to make room for new a polyester covering.
The theater will receive a professional cleaning for two days — ceiling, floors and even plaster patching where there have been leaks.
