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My dream job is to run a movie theater in a small town on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I grew up with movies. Every day after school, I’d watch black and white classics on TV--Casablanca, On the Waterfront.  On weekends, I’d take the bus downtown eagerly awaiting the aroma of fresh-popped popcorn, plush seats, and big screens. I waited an hour in a line that went around the block to see the Beatles in A Hard Day’s Night. But my friends and I didn’t notice the time. We were filled with electric anticipation. Everywhere we looked we saw familiar faces: the owner of the donut shop, a cashier from Woolworth’s, neighbors and classmates.

That was the magic of old theaters. It was a shared experience that brought people together as they laughed and cried in the dark. My dream is to recreate that experience in my small town, Bay St. Louis, a beautiful community on the Gulf Coast that was transformed when the eye of Hurricane Katrina pased over it in August of 2005. The hurricane destroyed our only movie theater. For the last two years, my wife and I have been talking to locals and consulting with a friend who owns and operates theaters. We believe a theater in Bay St. Louis will succeed financially and spiritually, for all of us here need the healing a community-oriented movie theater can provide.

Our plan is to show films that will appeal to our town's diverse populatioin. We have a unique mix of people here: artists who have relocated from New Orleans and elsewhere, retired people who come for the weather and the beaches, and working families with children. Consequently, we will present a variety of movies: matinees for children on Saturday afternoons, classics, like Gone with the Wind, on Sunday afternoons for seniors, and Independent films and Hollywood first runs most nights. We'll also have a cafe where people can discuss a movie or just catch up. In short, our theater will be a public place where locals can come together, relax, and enjoy themselves.

Operating a movie theater will be a career change, but I have played the role of entrepreneur before. In 1977, I opened a restaurant with two friends in San Jose, California, which was and still is one of the most renowed restaurants in town. I sold my shares in 1990, went back to college, and began teaching in 1996. Since then, I have studied film, written screenplays, produced a feature-length film, and worked for Cinequest Film Festival, writing reviews and judging screenplays.

I believe my knowledge of film and experience as a business owner will enable my wife and me to bring the magic of those old theaters to our small town. This is my dream job, but it is also a familiar of story of rebirth against difficult odds, just like the movies we love to watch.