- Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson in Saraband
Visiting the Pickwick Theatre last month—and poking my head into its five auditoriums of different shapes and sizes—brought back fond memories of going to the Highland Park Theater as a kid. I grew up about 45 minutes west of Highland Park, but my parents made a point of driving there every few months to see a film. They were smitten with the layout of the building, which had opened in 1925 as a vaudeville theater called the Alcyon. The main auditorium still had a balcony, and though it was no longer in use, it granted a certain majesty to the seating area that was unlike anything we found in theaters closer to home (that the theater was located in Highland Park’s downtown provided me with another layer of fascination, as the decentralized suburban sprawl where we lived had nothing of the sort).
I was saddened by the news, but not as much as when I learned that the theater had been shuttered. I hadn’t seen a movie there since 2005, and I kept procrastinating because I wrongly assumed it would be there forever. As consolation, I remind myself that my last visit had an air of finality to it. At least I can pretend I got to say goodbye.
