Say Goodbye To Hollywood

Though I am sure based on my occupation that this news would not have escaped me for long, props to Shane for blogging that Hollywood Bar & Filmworks has shuffled off this mortal coil. I just got back from the Chatterbox after a thirteen-hour shift at work, and was hoping to get some writing done and some reading done (the new Stephen King book, Lisey’s Story, is really good - odd, even for Steve, but good), but I suspect that most of the rest of the night that I have will be devoted to bombarding the lovely people who read my rants with what I have to say about this business closure.

But first, before you go any further here, go over to the Hollywood Bar & Filmworks web site, which for now is still up, and read the long missive that owner Ted Bulthaup has posted discussing the many things Hollywood has accomplished during its fifteen year run in downtown Indianapolis, including the reasons he has closed the business. Go ahead, I’ll wait for you.

(Constant loop of that thirty seconds of music they play while the contestants come up with their questions during Final Jeopardy!)

Thanks. I never met Ted personally, though, again thanks to my occupation in the movie exhibition world, I have heard much about the man. He has always been a vocal critic of skyrocketing parking rates downtown, and he has a point, but I have a better one.

There are plenty of places to park for free in downtown Indianapolis. I know. I search them out, and I park there, even - hell, especially - if I have to walk a few blocks to get to where I’m going. I loves me a good walk, especially around downtown, and I absolutely refuse to pay for parking downtown after the meters become free. I won’t do it. Even during Pacers games and concerts, you can find parking on the streets, within blocks of wherever you’re going, as long as you don’t mind walking.

I even managed to park for free on the streets of downtown Chicago once - and the prices for parking there are really outrageous, making the prices here look positively thrifty. Granted, this was on Lakeshore Drive, way the hell down by the bottom part of Grant Park, where the Buckingham Fountain is (that’s the one from the opening titles of Married..With Children, if you’re not sure what I’m talking about), but I managed it.

And it’s actually easy to do here. I’ll even name the streets for you - but keep in mind that this is when there aren’t any “No Parking Today” signs or those red leatherish No Parking covers on the meters. That’s most of the time. Also, on the handful of days when there are parades or festivals downtown, and these are relatively rare, it is very difficult to find free parking downtown - but it can always be done. You just have to be willing to walk a bit and plan ahead. I know that might seem like asking a lot in a world where you can blog from your cell phone and fire up a single serving of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese in the microwave, but I don’t think that I am entirely daft. Yet. I am about to become a father, so that may change my impending daftness. Who knows?

At any rate...here are the good streets for free parking after the meters have gone free. (It should be noted that Hollywood does - ugh...I suppose that should now read, USED TO DO - most of its business after the meters have gone free on the weekdays and also on the weekeneds, when the meters are always free.)

Vermont Street - virtually anywhere along it. Pennsylvania Street north of New York Street. Massachusetts Avenue - same as Vermont, but be warned that events at the Murat and the American Cabaret Theatre in the Athenaeum can make this a nightmare. South Street when the Colts or Pacers aren’t playing (not that the Pacers will probably - or deserve to - draw big crowds this season). Meridian Street north of New York Street. Capitol Avenue north of New York Street. Virginia Avenue (same caveat as South Street). Indiana Avenue anywhere between New York Street and IUPUI. Ohio Street between West and Capitol. Bottom line - most of the streets north of New York Street are safe bets for easy free parking after the meters go free. I don’t doubt that over-inflated parking rates in the heart of downtown (the polygon bordered roughly by New York, Capitol, Delaware, and South) had some impact on the business at Hollywood, but I can’t believe that was the only reason it had to go under.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I am reading Ted’s rather wordy missive as I am writing this blog post, and I’m becoming more and more disturbed by it, because it is making me rethink, a bit, my stance on the Colts and the stadium project. As well, my previously assured vote for Melina Kennedy for prosecutor, which leaves me up in the air there, as I refuse to vote for Republicans.)

I, personally, have never had trouble parking for free downtown for anything. The only time I will pay to park downtown is when the meters are not free, on the afternoons of my weekdays off when I go downtown for walks.

There has to be something else at work here. I wonder if it has anything to do with the smoking ban that went into effect in March. I suspect that this is possible, although the auditorium was still very full when Amy I went to see A Prairie Home Companion on July 11th, long after the ban had been in place. I did miss the John Waters smoking trailer, though. Many of the folks (64 when I checked after I got home tonight) who commented on the Star’s article about the closing noted that the auditoriums were always full when they attended, and this makes me wonder what else could have played a part in Ted’s decision to close up shop.

And I’m going to stop there for now. It’s late, and I’m tired, and I need to try to get some words down for my novel, in addition to these words for my blog. I don’t think that parking is completely a non-issue here, but I do suspect that Ted is making it a red herring.

Regardless, it is sad to see Hollywood Bar & Filmworks go. It was the best place to see a movie in this city. New theatres and amenities be damned; where else can you go for all those movie posters on the wall, the elevator ride up, the flight of stairs down to your theatre, past that couch no one ever seemed to sit on, past two bars at different altitudes, and finally into your newspaper editor's chair, where you could order a burger and fries and get them just in time for the best part of the movie?