52nd City

RIP: Kenrick 8 Cine

Midway through last semester, I left a so-so class session at Webster and thought of catching a movie. Don't recall why that group left me in such a squirrely mood, but "Superbad" seemed like an immediate antidote to the problem. And Kenrick 8 Cine was just a five-minute drive from campus.

Past-tense used in the above, because Kenrick 8 is closed, with the eight-screen theatre shutting down over Thanksgiving. Based on my last visit there - which featured myself and three other people for a rush-hour show, in a massive, 500-seat hall - this doesn't come as a big surprise. And, frankly, it's just part of a trend of moviehouse closings, brought on by all the expected, tech factors in today's entertainment world.

As a teen, I spent some years living outside of South St. Louis (gasp!), most of it clocked just inside the Webster Groves/Shrewsbury border. That meant that my neighborhood moviehouse was the Kenrick. It was a 12-minute walk, through the then-in-construction Kenrick housing developments that were springing up from the vast, unused portions of Kenrick Seminary's grounds. To date myself further, I pretty much took in all of Michael J. Fox's star-making vehicles there: "Teen Wolf," "The Secret of My Succe$s," and, of course, "Back to the Future." That wasn't exactly yesterday, was it?

So I'll miss Kenrick. Maybe the idea of the Kenrick, more than the actual place itself, which hadn't undergone much of in the way of an update since its construction in 1984. And, maybe, I miss the idea that kids in that area won't know the fun of walking to a theatre for the cheap, day shows on a sunny, summer's afternoon, one of the cool bits of growing up suburban.

If you've never been to the neat Cinema Treasures site, it features write-ups on a dead theatres. They've already got an updated obit for the Kenrick, which you can find here:

http://cinematreasures.org/theater/6677/