Memories of the Sombrero Playhouse, Part Deux!

Yesterday, we began a conversation with Gary Gohring, who back in the 1970s was the thoughtful film critic for the Phoenix New Times … and the manager of the city’s best art house, the Sombrero Playhouse.

The Sombrero doesn’t get its due when people talk about the cultural scene of the period, so we tracked down Gohring, now living contentedly in San Diego.

He graciously agreed to share his memories of the time, the second installment of which follows.

Part I is here.

PHXated: It was a long time ago, but I have a sense that a certain amount of care was taken with presentation and projection at the Sombrero—-particularly in contrast to that of other theaters in town. Is that a fair impression? Did you have decent equipment? What kind of projectors were they?

G.G.: The theater had a great, dedicated staff, and it was blessed with about four projectionists during my tenure there who did wonders with the prints we received, many of which were in pretty bad shape.  We had standard 35mm projectors for the day.

PHXated: Going through some old boxes a while back, I found a frequent film-goer card from the Sombrero, with dates marked by hand—something like “5/14 …. 5/17 … 5/18 … 5/23.” That shows you how often we went! To me, the theater was a major cultural institution in town at the time, and I have memories of seeing so many classic, foreign, cult and (not least) rock movies there. Is this an overinflated impression of its role in the valley’s cultural life at the time?

G.G.: The discount card you referenced was indeed marked by hand.  Ten admissions for $20, I believe it was.  (The discount card I now get has 5 admissions for $40.)  As I mentioned, we did attempt to bring a diverse collection of films to the Phoenix market, trying to accommodate a wide variety of tastes.  In many cases, we were successful, and in some cases, we were not. I know for sure we did not appease the customer who kept requesting more Oliver Reed films. "He made other films besides Women in Love, Tommy, and The Devils,“ one of the person’s notes lifted from the suggestion box stated. As for leaving a cultural legacy, I think that other than being known as the place where The Rocky Horror Picture Show first played and as the movie theater that had no parking, we probably did not leave much of a cultural legacy.  At least not the cultural legacy I would have liked. However, it is good to hear that there are those like yourself who not only remember but do so with fondness.