Movie Theaters

MOUNT VERNON, VA. -- For a century and more, it was about the house. A Mount Vernon spokeswoman: "It kind of evolved into a decorative arts tour." Wallpaper and bed linens. And George Washington? The man of whom historian Peter Henriques wrote: "If ever a man deserved secular immortality and eternal remembrance from a grateful nation, that man was George Washington"? Well, we were left with the white-mopped guy on the dollar bill whose grim lips hid false teeth and who slept -- beside the largely anonymous Martha -- in the house when he wasn't busy fathering a country.

If you're looking for a way to add some guilt and stress to your life, here's a suggestion: Take your 85-year-old mother to a movie that's totally inappropriate for her. This is what I did on a recent visit to my mom's, when she decided we needed to get out of the house. "Let's go to a movie," she said. "You pick which one." Well, there wasn't much playing at the movie theater in the small town where she lives. There was a gross-out (Jackass Number Two) and a martial-arts (Jet Li's Fearless)

Seeing that the Maryland Film Festival will be bringing a series of rock 'n' roll movies to the beautifully renovated and refurbished Hippodrome Theatre next week - and kudos to anyone who brings movies back to that grand old movie palace - brings to mind a continuing sore point that tarnishes Baltimore's growing reputation as a great place to be a movie fan. Why can't something be done about all the wonderful old movie theaters that lie abandoned and...

Judging from the number of laughs and cries, the crowd seems to like Adam Sandler's latest flick. But then, about half of those in the theater are asleep. That's not a commentary on the movie Click, the mothers filling the White Marsh theater will tell you. It's a chance to watch a movie in its entirety. Offered a weekly break in otherwise baby-centered days, about 30 mothers have come to the AMC Loews White Marsh theaters on a Tuesday morning, carrying their infants in fabric slings or pushing them in strollers with the requisite dangling bags.

We established loyalties during the childhood Saturdays spent at the neighborhood and downtown movie houses. My own allegiances went to the Waverly, Boulevard, Parkway and Aurora, all still standing, but all out of the motion picture business. I miss them all and the sense they imparted of a neighborhood coming out for a good time. I am indebted to author Robert K. Headley, who in his comprehensive tribute to Baltimore's theaters, Motion Picture Exhibition in Baltimore, An Illustrated History and Directory of Theaters, 1895-2004, takes us from the Alpha (Catonsville)

The screen will go up tonight at Greater Grace Harvest Church in Baltimore, the lights will go down, and the end of the world will draw near. Eighteen months after hundreds of millions of people vanished mysteriously from the face of the Earth, President Gerald Fitzhugh has placed his trust in the new global leadership of the Romanian Nicolae Carpathia. But an underground group of born-again Christians believes Carpathia is the Antichrist prophesied in the New Testament Book of Revelation - and must be stopped.

Gliding into a parking space in front of Apex Cinema in Calvert County on a recent Sunday evening, Jennifer Mutchler stepped out of her dark green Neon with little time to spare before the 8:10 showing of the flick The Amityville Horror. The 20-year-old Huntington resident did not rush, however. She had purposefully arrived a little late. It has become part of her moviegoing routine. "I hate commercials before movies," Mutchler said. "I go to the movies to see movies, but I don't go to watch commercials.

Former Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts, clad in a straw cowboy hat with a sweat-drenched red bandanna around his neck, commands center stage at the Recher Theatre, frenetically soloing as his band rolls though his timeless "Jessica." Tie-dyed teenagers and older fans in polo shirts sway as a unit to the dips and peaks of Betts' effervescent guitar work, which fills the converted movie theater's expansive concert hall. Betts, who with his band Great Southern played the Recher last weekend - followed a night later by Nils Lofgren of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band - is among a roster of music legends and rising stars who have performed there in recent years.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s buyout unit agreed yesterday to acquire a majority stake in AMC Entertainment Inc. for $2 billion and plans to take the movie chain private. Marquee Holdings Inc., a joint operation of private equity firm J.P. Morgan Partners LLC and AMC's current majority owner, Apollo Management LP, plans to buy the company and take it private, paying stockholders $19.50 per share for 50.1 percent of AMC, the companies said. The New York bank also will assume $748 million in debt.

The hot spot this summer in Columbia for dining and entertainment is at the mall. Business is booming at The Mall in Columbia's open-air entertainment plaza: the group of three freestanding restaurants and the AMC movie theater that opened in December. On a Friday or Saturday night, the restaurants are packed, moviegoers wait in line to buy tickets and cars troll the parking lot in search of an elusive space. AMC Theatres Columbia 14 has added an entertainment anchor to the plaza and a significant boost to the mall, which is seeing significant "double digit" sales increases compared with last year, said Karen Geary, manager of the mall.