Theatre icon gives up the ghost

By Rebecca Petersen | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, December 29, 2007

It's the end of an era at A Center for the Arts. Last week the popcorn machine died a dramatic death. Right before the first performance of "It's A Wonderful Life," it sparked and coughed and blew a circuit breaker and gave it up for good.

That popcorn machine has been there since before I can remember. It was there when we first moved here in 1991.

I remember Sarah Mellon first teaching me how to make popcorn before the theatre renovation even began.

We gave the popcorn machine a little rest while the theater was being redone, but it came out of storage and found a new theater awaiting it.

Of course, it's old look didn't fit with the new look, so Jeff Zachmann did a little handy work on it, painted the metal a color of purple to match the theater and had it simmering and popping again in no time. It was just like a brand new popcorn popper and it fit right in, in its new home.

Not long after that Don Estenson became the chief popcorn maker. Sure, some of us kept in training so Don could take a night off here and there, but Don was the master popcorn popper.

He cleaned and shined and tinkered with that machine and kept it working through thick and thin.

He'd replace screws and springs and this and that, and through a little tinkering here and a little tinkering there, he kept that popcorn popper popping.

But I knew this machine could not last forever. Forever is a really long time and I'm finding out that nothing lasts forever. Don quit making popcorn last summer. I should have known that two good friends could not be so easily parted. I'm surprised the machine didn't just sizzle out right then and there.

However, it managed to hang in there with us for almost the completion of 2007. Now a new era begins. 2008 is just around the corner. New things are on the horizon, definitely a new popcorn machine.

People have come to expect the smell of freshly popped popcorn when they walk in the door — especially for movies.

And the old popcorn machine? We're hoping Jeff Zachmann can make it into an interesting sculpture or something for old time sake, or maybe we'll have a little going away party for it and Don can officially say good bye to his old friend.

It’s amazing that thing lasted as long as it did. I wonder just how many boxes of popcorn it made during its lifetime. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 per year for at least 15 or 20 years. I'll let you do the math.

Happy New Year from everyone here at A Center for the Arts. In the first week of 2008 please join us for Neal Page's Violin Recital on Saturday, Jan. 5 at 7:30 p.m. (Neal chose this date so pianist Jenny Oliver could join him, along with other friends.)

You guessed it, there probably won't be popcorn.