Can Boyd still have film role?

Over the years the Boyd, Philadelphia's last remaining movie palace, has seen high noons and close encounters, and not just on its giant screen. It has witnessed riots and demonstrations, hosted

Gone With the Wind

and

Star Wars

. It has survived near-extinction and the wrecking ball.

But can the tarnished Art Deco gem on the 1900 block of Chestnut weather the on-demand age?

The owners of the Boyd, mothballed since 2002, confirmed last week that they were weighing its conversion into a House of Blues, a pop-music venue.

"The two most likely scenarios are a House of Blues or a sale, and we're open to other options," said John Vlautin, a spokesman for concert promoter Live Nation, owner of House of Blues, by phone from Beverly Hills, Calif. In January, Live Nation listed the property with CB Richard Ellis. Neither would discuss the asking price.

Few epics that played at the limestone villa with its etched-glass murals can match the theater's own 79-year saga of trying to keep pace with the fall and rise of civic fortunes and trends in film exhibition. It has evolved over the decades from palace to porn emporium, multiplex anchor to white elephant.

Neo-Nazis sparked a riot at the 1960 premiere of Exodus. Gay-rights pickets protested Al Pacino's 1980 Cruising. Philadelphians of a certain age remember the emotional impact of seeing Gigi there with their sister, or Moby Dick with their mom. Many would like to see it restored to its former glory.

Might the 2,400-seat pleasure dome, deemed an anachronism in the Internet era, be repurposed as a music venue just as experts say movie showplaces are the next big thing in exhibition?

Despite perceptions that film lovers are staying home to watch in their dens, movie-theater admissions rose 3.3 percent last year, according to figures released last week by the Motion Picture Association of America.

"Luxury cinemas attached to eateries are among the ways exhibitors nationwide are making the out-of-home movie experience unique," said Patrick Corcoran, spokesman for the National Association of Theater Owners.

"Movie theaters with upscale restaurants are draws," said Larry Steinberg of Michael Salove Realty in Center City, referring to the Bridge in West Philadelphia; Muvico in Boca Raton, Fla.; and Los Angeles' ArcLight, next to the Cinerama Dome.

Active single-screen cinemas of any size are rare. But those that haven't been twinned, triplexed, or reconsecrated as houses of worship are pilgrimage sites for those who want to see event films the way they are meant to be seen.

"People drive three hours to see Lord of the Rings and Spider-Man at Cinerama Dome," said Ross Melnick, coauthor of Cinema Treasures, an illustrated history of movie palaces. He pointed to Muvico, which is going back to the future with neo-palaces such as Xanadu, scheduled to open next year at New Jersey's Meadowlands.

"Muvico is the quintessential builder of the new wave of theaters that combine the grandeur of the movie palace with state-of-the-art digital projection and sound," he said. Not to mention food and babysitting.

"The trick is to offer people an integrated movie/dining experience," said Michael Whalen, president of the chainlet, which grossed $125 million last year at only 12 locations. Whalen said he was interested in a site in Philadelphia's western suburbs and "urban situations."

One urban success is Pacific's Cinerama Dome, a restored theater adjoining the ArcLight, an 11-screen multiplex with a bustling bistro. It could be a model for the Boyd, Steinberg said.

"The economy of Center City real estate today precludes a moviehouse-only operation. A theater has to be part of a larger mixed-use development," he said, pointing to the success of the Bridge, where the adjoining Marathon Grill generates revenue for the complex.

The Boyd is one of four parcels, including two surface parking lots and an adjacent triplex theater sold to Pearl Properties, that might be redeveloped.

"We would be supportive of a project that restored the Boyd and created other entertainment and mixed-use opportunities for the benefit of the surrounding neighborhood," Duane Bumb, the city's deputy commerce director, said last week. Incentives include the city's 10-year tax abatement for new construction and federal tax credits for historic preservation.

Whatever the Boyd's future - live-entertainment venue, movie house or some combination - that it has one at all can be credited to efforts by architecture buffs, movie buffs or both.

In 2002, when the Goldenberg Group, which owned the theater, obtained a demolition permit, Center City lawyer Howard Haas created Save the Sameric, as the four-screen complex was called.

His group, now Friends of the Boyd (www.friendsoftheboyd.org), gathered at the boarded-up theater for Saturday-matinee protests. The activism won the eleventh-hour intervention of Mayor Street and the attention of Clear Channel. In 2005, the radio-and-entertainment giant bought the Boyd for $4.75 million, and said it would restore it as a showcase for Broadway musicals.

Estimates to restore the theater as a legit venue with a stage house that could accommodate Lion King-scale productions were in the neighborhood of $30 million ($10 million less if the Boyd presented only concerts and movies).

What about restoring it in stages, as is being done to theaters in Bryn Mawr and Ambler?

"No one has explored a phased restoration," said John Gallery, executive director of the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia and vice president of Friends of the Boyd. "The obstacle in all our discussions is this: Is there a program for the theater as a space that fulfills its original use and breaks even?"

The belief of some Friends of the Boyd stalwarts might be summed up this way: Lovers of historic painting have a place called the Art Museum, lovers of historic music have a place called the Kimmel, but lovers of historic movies have no venue to congregate and practice their faith, which is why they want the Boyd restored to its original use.

Gallery said the Preservation Alliance and Friends of the Boyd wanted to interest theater operators. He sees the Boyd as significant not only for its architecture and historic use but as "a place that tells important stories about the history of Philadelphia."

Whether it will resume telling those stories is in the hands of Live Nation, the world's largest concert promoter and venue operator. Friends of the Boyd worry that to remodel for a House of Blues, Live Nation might level the theater's raked floor and render it unusable as a movie house or legit theater.

Said Live Nation's Vlautin, "We have a history of revitalizing old venues, including the Wiltern in Los Angeles, and making them usable for today's climate without compromising their historic value.

"We don't want to destroy what made the buildings great in the first place."