The Circle Cinema Celebrates Its 85th Birthday

Moviegoers, rejoice! The Circle Cinema is turning eighty-five! The theatre opened on July 15, 1928, with a showing of "Across the Atlantic," starring Monte Blue --- in this picture, according to advertisements from the period, Blue "flies to France...and...finds romance." The Circle is Tulsa's only remaining historical movie theatre (and the only theatre in town built before the 1960s); it's listed with the Oklahoma Historical Preservation Office and on the National Register of Historic Places. And although its days as a commercial movie house are over and done with, the Circle remains, today, one of the most cherished and popular nonprofit arts organizations in our community. (Many of us, indeed, basically think of it as a "cultural lifeline" to the twin realms of indie and foreign cinema.) And now, at last, the long-running reconstruction/refurbishment of the Circle has been completed --- in fact, with the official arrival of its 85th birthday on Monday of next week, the Circle will celebrate a Grand Re-Opening. Our guests are two Circle staff members: Clark Wiens, the theatre's founder, and Chuck Foxen, the office manager. They tell us that many events are planned to mark this gala Birthday/Re-Opening; several of these events will be free, actually, with the schedule of said events running from the 11th through the 16th. (You'll find a complete rundown of those events here.) Also on this edition of ST, our commentator Collin Hinds is thinking about the Supreme Court's recent --- and landmark --- DOMA ruling in the context of both cultural evolution and national politics.