Cape Cinema, Dennis, Mass

The Cape Cinema, almost the only movie theatre I ever go to, is a landmark although you wouldn't know if from this dignified but fairly typical Cape Cod building.  I have gone Google-searching for a good photo of the interior but found only the small hint below.

Explanation:  The vaulted ceiling in this longer than wide theatre  as a little sense of the quonset hut but it is far different. The ceiling was painted by well know painter Rockwell Kent. I have never seen it in the brilliant colors in the photo because I've always been there when the lights are pre-movie low. But I have sat many times waiting for a movie and marveling at the painting of Greek gods and goddesses among stars and comets and other heavenly bodies on the ceiling. This is the largest indoor mural in the United States. I never get tired of looking up at it. The photo shows only about a tenth of the entire mural.

My Google search also told me that "Eric" who runs the theatre is actually a long time owner, a 15th generation Cape Codder -- descended from the Brewsters who arrived on the Mayflower. He shows art movies or the movies that are not going to make it in the big mall cineplexes. There is only one screen; the seats are chairs with canvas covers, there are home made cookies at the snack counter and mulled cider in the winter, as well as coffee and soft drinks and popcorn. 

Sometimes Erick shows special movies, usually documentaries but sometimes showings of films made by local film makers in a smaller theatre in the Cape Cod Art Museum which is next door and shares the parking lot.  I feel tremendously lucky to live a 20 minute drive from this theater. He also shows the simulcasts from the Metropolitan Opera and from the National Theatre in London. To me this is an artistic treasure I would never have guessed I'd enjoy when I was thinking of moving to Cape Cod.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I went searching for these photos because of a recent post by Barbara whose post, Folkways Notebook I read regularly. You can find it in my sidebar.