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Last week, after months of planning, the building that was to house our theater went on the market. Given rising construction costs and the slow economy, the landlord decided it was best to sell. There's no one to blame in situations like this. The owner was as disappointed as we were. Bay St. Louis has come a long way since the storm, but it will be awhile before the local economy fully recovers. We'd had several locations in mind, but our hearts had been set on that building.

And we received another bit of news. The multi-screen movie theater on the main highway, which was hit hard during Katrina, sold to a group that intends to show films. Now, this is great news for people here who have to drive twenty-five miles to see a movie, but this great news had a nasty side effect for us. The one thing I always feared was getting blown out of the water by a competitor with more money and screens. It would be difficult to compete for films or filmgoers with a state-of-the-art multi-plex. But I put that out of my mind, thinking if it comes it will come later after we'd built up a loyal clientele (see the prophetic comments by the sound engineer in the previous journal). But it happened now, which is good, right? Because now, instead of being bankrupted and dissapointed for the rest of our lives, we could forget all about it, maybe take a vacation, go to the beach, get a tan, relax . . .

Then something extraordinary happened. The Little Theatre, who has been producing plays for sixty years in Bay St. Louis, asked if we'd be interested in sharing their new building (they've been homeless since the storm). And what a building it is. Built in 1929 by Henri Scafidi, a former mayor of Bay St. Louis, it became a famous landmark when an obscrue but impressive movie--This Property is Condemned--was filmed there in 1966. The film starred Natalie Wood and Robert Redford, was directed by Hollywood icon Sydney Pollack, co-written by Francis Ford Coppola, who adapted it from a story by Tennessee Williams, and also featured appearances by Robert Blake, Charles Bronson, and Mary Badham, who played Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. The building, simply called "This Property is Condemned," was nearly demolished after the storm, but locals banded together and managed to keep its tottering facade intact until the Little Theatre was able to purchase it.

Sounds great, right? Showing films in an historical landmark where movie legends once tread. Still, it took my wife and I awhile to warm up to the idea. We hadn't planned to share a space, and our original concept included a cafe and gallery, neither of which would be possible in this space. But as time passed we began to see the possibilities. Our original idea was to present a mix of first-run Hollywood, independent, and classic films. However, with a multi-screen competitor now in town, it made sense to alter that plan and become an "art house" that specializes in independent and classic films. There's only one theater within a hundred plus miles that shows independent movies, and that's fifty miles away in New Orleans. We realized that the art house concept would bring something unique to Bay St. Louis and beyond, and would facilitate our desire to feature local and regional films and establish a Gulf Coast Film Festival.

It took some time, but I have to say, this new option, which at first seemed to be worse than the first, looks much better. I'm reminded of Powell Glass, the editor of the Sea Coast Echo (our local newspaper) when Hollywood came to town in 1966. Incensed by the willingness of the local government to accommodate filming by closing streets, Mr. Glass called for an injunction against the city fathers. He lost, of course, and as a result our small community was touched by the glow of Hollywood stardust, gaining a story that has been and will be handed down to future generations. I'm not sure Mr. Glass would agree with the notion that sometimes it's best not to get what you wished for--but I would. A funny thing happened on the way to my dream job, it changed. And you know what, it could change again.