The marquee outside the iconic Bay Theater at the entrance to Seal Beach’s Main Street has said the same thing for about a year since it closed its doors: “Watch for our reopening.”
It hasn’t. Amid speculation that the theater that first opened in 1947 would ever be used again, or if it was headed for demolition, the site sold off and redeveloped as something different, interest grew in the possibility of saving the old building.
Nick Carabetta, the 28-year-old restaurant manager who works nearby at Crema Café on Main Street, decided to get involved to try and save the Bay Theatre. He enlisted the help of former Seal Beach Chamber CEO Esther Kenyon and formed The Bay Theater Foundation in the hope of raising the money needed to buy it. The plan would be to restore it for use as a multi-purpose facility to show films and hold other activities in the historic building.
“I saw 'Hard Days Night' here," Carabetta said outside the theater on Monday, Aug. 26. “I think a lot of people have memories of seeing movies here. We’re hoping we can save it from becoming retail.”
To do that the foundation will have to raise more than the $2.17 million that Carabetta said for which the property is now listed for sale. While it may seem a daunting task, the path has become clearer lately as the asking price for the property has dropped significantly over the past few months. When owner Rena L. Singer listed it for sale in 2008 for $3.3 million, people in the seaside city began seeking a way to save the theater.
However, it took Carabetta with Kenyon’s help to actually get the foundation and its efforts in progress.
So far, supporters have raised the $850 necessary and the paperwork has been filed to the IRS to become an official nonprofit.
“Once we have that in hand we can really start accepting donations and raising money,” Carabetta said. The current order of business for the Foundation is to raise awareness of the mission to save the Bay Theater. To that end they have enlisted the help of Haley Pollock, and executive assistant with Fresh Cut Creative, a local business that creates trailers or film and videos. Together they have organized a Movies in the Park series.
“We are doing a four night movie series on Friday nights in Eisenhower Park (next to the Seal Beach pier),” Pollock said. “All the movies will be family friendly, having a PG rating or below. They will be free to attend.”
The movies, which will start between 7 and 7:15 p.m. (around sundown), will run on four consecutive Fridays from Sept. 13 through Oct. 4. The series will start with “Ghostbusters,” followed by “Wreck It Ralph” on Sept. 20, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” on Sept. 27 and ending with the surfing film “Step Into Liquid” on Oct. 4.
The screening of “Step Into Liquid” will feature guest speaker Dana Brown, son of Bruce Brown, the director of the seminal surfing film “The Endless Summer.” Father and son have worked together on sequals to the original surfing documentary movie as well as other film projects.
Carabetta, who lives in Long Beach, said his involvement in the community project dovetails with where he currently is in his education career, studying at Pepperdine University to get his MBA.
The 28-year-old Long Beach resident said he’s hoping to raise enough money to buy and restore the 65-year-old Seal Beach cinema. He said he knows the Foundation has its work cut out for it and they are working against the clock to save it.
“It still could become retail,” he said.
For more information about the project, see the website: www.baytheaterfoundation.org.
The marquee outside the iconic Bay Theater at the entrance to Seal Beach’s Main Street has said the same thing for about a year since it closed its doors: “Watch for our reopening.”
It hasn’t. Amid speculation that the theater that first opened in 1947 would ever be used again, or if it was headed for demolition, the site sold off and redeveloped as something different, interest grew in the possibility of saving the old building.
Nick Carabetta, the 28-year-old restaurant manager who works nearby at Crema Café on Main Street, decided to get involved to try and save the Bay Theatre. He enlisted the help of former Seal Beach Chamber CEO Esther Kenyon and formed The Bay Theater Foundation in the hope of raising the money needed to buy it. The plan would be to restore it for use as a multi-purpose facility to show films and hold other activities in the historic building.
“I saw ‘Hard Days Night’ here,” Carabetta said outside the theater on Monday, Aug. 26. “I think a lot of people have memories of seeing movies here. We’re hoping we can save it from becoming retail.”
To do that the foundation will have to raise more than the $2.17 million that Carabetta said for which the property is now listed for sale. While it may seem a daunting task, the path has become clearer lately as the asking price for the property has dropped significantly over the past few months. When owner Rena L. Singer listed it for sale in 2008 for $3.3 million, people in the seaside city began seeking a way to save the theater.
However, it took Carabetta with Kenyon’s help to actually get the foundation and its efforts in progress.
So far, supporters have raised the $850 necessary and the paperwork has been filed to the IRS to become an official nonprofit.
“Once we have that in hand we can really start accepting donations and raising money,” Carabetta said. The current order of business for the Foundation is to raise awareness of the mission to save the Bay Theater. To that end they have enlisted the help of Haley Pollock, and executive assistant with Fresh Cut Creative, a local business that creates trailers or film and videos. Together they have organized a Movies in the Park series.
“We are doing a four night movie series on Friday nights in Eisenhower Park (next to the Seal Beach pier),” Pollock said. “All the movies will be family friendly, having a PG rating or below. They will be free to attend.”
The movies, which will start between 7 and 7:15 p.m. (around sundown), will run on four consecutive Fridays from Sept. 13 through Oct. 4. The series will start with “Ghostbusters,” followed by “Wreck It Ralph” on Sept. 20, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” on Sept. 27 and ending with the surfing film “Step Into Liquid” on Oct. 4.
The screening of “Step Into Liquid” will feature guest speaker Dana Brown, son of Bruce Brown, the director of the seminal surfing film “The Endless Summer.” Father and son have worked together on sequals to the original surfing documentary movie as well as other film projects.
Carabetta, who lives in Long Beach, said his involvement in the community project dovetails with where he currently is in his education career, studying at Pepperdine University to get his MBA.
The 28-year-old Long Beach resident said he’s hoping to raise enough money to buy and restore the 65-year-old Seal Beach cinema. He said he knows the Foundation has its work cut out for it and they are working against the clock to save it.
“It still could become retail,” he said.
For more information about the project, see the website: www.baytheaterfoundation.org.
