Council members agreed last week that the city has no say in the operation of the Avalon Theatre, the movie theatre which is located in the Casino building. The Catalina Island Company recently announced that effective Jan. 1, 2020, the company would no longer show movies nightly in the movie house. Many visitors and many Avalon residents have expressed dismay at the situation.
During the Dec. 3 meeting, Council Member Cinde MacGugan-Cassidy brought up the future of the Avalon Movie Theatre (located in the Casino building) at last week’s council meeting.
“I’m not really sure what level of involvment the City Council can have,” she said.
“I know we’ve all been asked by many members of the community to get involved,” Cassidy said.
“I know that the Island Company approached [Mayor] Anni [Marshall], which was a much larger conversation than what was reported in the letter from Randy Herrel,” Cassidy said, referring to a Nov. 29, 2019 Letter to the Editor by Island Company CEO Randall Herrel, Sr. that was published in the Catalina Islander newspaper.
In that letter, Herrel wrote that he had “approached our Mayor, Anni Marshall, to see if the City of Avalon would consider helping underwrite the expense of showing films at Avalon Theatre. She quickly responded ‘no.’”
However, Cassidy said there was more to the conversation than Herrel’s letter “let on.”
“That being said, I don’t know what the city can do other than sit in on meetings and express the concerns of the community … I don’t know that the city’s having meetings with the island company,” Herrel said.
Marshall said that the community was saddened. She pointed out that that theatre was a privately owned business “so they are allowed to do what they will,” Marshall.
Regarding her conversation with Herrel, Mayor Marshall said that they had that covnersation happend after the notification that the movies would no longer be shown regularly at the movie house.
“Now they’re saying, ‘If you come up with any good ideas, let us know,’” Marshall said.
“I don’t think the theatre is a dead issue and I’m appreciating the fact they are keeping it open as much as they are already, but I would hope that if people come forward that they can keep an open dialog on how to maybe make it work, somehow, to make it more available to the community,” she said.
Cassidy said it was great for city leadership to attend meetings and express the concerns of the of the community, but other than that … “We don’t run private businesses, so to speak,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy offered to nominate someone to represent the city at meetings about the theatre.
Marshall didn’t know if it was the city’s place at this point.
As to spending the city’s money on the movie theatre, Marshall said that was a conversation for the council to have another day. She indicated that if they had that conversation, she would not support using city funds to keep the theatre open.
“Because I really don’t think we have a lot of money in our coffers to go in that direction,” Marshall said.
She said she didn’t know if Council Member Steve Hoefs had a comment, but he did not.
A petition at change.org to keep the Avalon Theatre open has collected 14,112 virtual signatures.
