If Hollywood Is Dying, Why Are L.A.’s Cinemas Roaring Back?
The Alex has been screening The Odyssey three times daily. TAYLOR UMPHENOUR/FILM LEADER CO
From The Hollywood Reporter: Glendale’s historic Alex theater is back in the picture business. For 35 years, since Terminator 2: Judgment Day debuted in 1991, the venue — where Walt Disney liked to test his cartoons — hadn’t screened first-run films. Then the Alex’s artistic director, Miles Williams, invested $500,000 in time for its centennial last year so that it could host state-of-the-art screenings. Now, the 900-seat house has been holding three screenings a day of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey on 70mm, becoming the epic’s highest-grossing venue in the country on the film format.
Ted’s Frostop redevelopment plan keeps New Orleans diner and adds housing behind it
From WDSU: NEW ORLEANS — A new proposal is on the table for developing housing near Ted’s Frostop in Uptown.
The developer of a controversial project to redevelop Ted’s Frostop into student housing has proposed an alternate plan to develop the area behind the diner.
This comes after the developer, RCR Ventures, withdrew its appeal to override the Historic Commission’s block of the demolition request after the diner applied to be a historic site.
How local historians are trying to save the old Skyway Drive-In sign
The Skyway Drive-In sign is pictured in 2024 on West Market Street in Fairlawn, Ohio. The big blue sign had beckoned drivers for generations. © MARK J. PRICE, AKRON BEACON JOURNAL
From the Akron Beacon Journal: For generations, a big blue sign welcomed hungry motorists to the Skyway Drive-In in Fairlawn, Ohio.
Now a grassroots effort is underway to ensure that the iconic advertising is preserved.
The Skyway abruptly closed July 11 at 2781 W. Market St. after 74 years in business. The restaurant was famous for its speedy carhops, juicy burgers, hand-cut onion rings and thick milkshakes.
Recently renovated Skyliner Motel in Stroud put up for sale
From route66news.com: The owners of the recently refurbished Skyliner Motel in Stroud, Oklahoma, have put the Route 66 property on the market.
The asking price is $775,000, the owners stated in a text to Route 66 News from Facebook Messenger. The motel will stay operational while it’s for sale.
Preservationists eye ‘landmark’ Mountaineer Inn signs as city meets with potential buyers
The Mountaineer Inn sign stands along Tunnel Road on March 23, 2026, in Asheville, North Carolina. © Josh Bell / Asheville Citizen Times
From the Asheville Citizen Times: ASHEVILLE, NC – Rugged and bathed in neon, the barefoot mountaineer toting a rifle has stood along Tunnel Road for over 60 years. Photos of the luminescent man are in the Library of Congress. The city has deemed it a “landmark.”
Though it may not be technically considered historic, many Asheville residents may consider the Mountaineer Inn — and its signs — to be a piece of the city’s history. Sitting vacant and listed for sale as the city meets with prospective buyers, preservationists are seeing what might be saved at the motel. Depending on the goals of the future buyer and whether the aging buildings are demolished, the signs, though turned off for several years, may be their top priority.
Holy Land in Waterbury nearly restored after years of work — final cleanup is Saturday
Holy Land in Waterbury is nearing the end of a years-long restoration effort.
From WFSB: WATERBURY, Conn. – Holy Land in Waterbury is nearing the end of a years-long restoration effort, with volunteers and donors giving new life to the historic religious park that has been a landmark in the city since the 1950s.
Steve Rice, a Holy Land board member and Waterbury native, has worked at the park day-to-day for 12 years and knows the grounds better than anyone.
“It’s nice, this means something to everybody,” Rice said. “We have lots of people come up here. Hopefully it’s going to breathe some new life into this place.”
The Lawsuit that Could Decide the Fate of Calico, Middletown’s Evil Clown
From Preservation New Jersey: Calico the clown, Middletown’s famous roadside advertisement along Route 35, has certainly earned his infamous grin. In the last decade, the 1956 Food Circus store sign has been embroiled in a preservation battle that might be the cause of his grimace of late. Now, the town government finds itself in the throes of a builder’s remedy lawsuit with a developer that could finally decide the clown’s fate.
The developer, AAMHMT Property, is the contract purchaser for the 52-acre property in question. However, the Township Committee recently designated a different developer, Duva Development, for the Circus Liquor Redevelopment Plan, and the lawsuit seeks to prevent an official agreement from moving forward.
Tacky, Rude and Beloved: Is an I-95 Landmark Worth Saving?
Photo by Will Crooks
From The New York Times: On a long, long highway, right where one land turns into another, a place called South of the Border has welcomed weary travelers for generations, beckoning them with a towering, neon-lit sombrero. Underneath its brim: cheap motel rooms and restaurants serving burritos, tacos and margaritas.
The border in question is the one between North and South Carolina. And the approximation of Mexican culture that the rest stop offers has the feel of a Speedy Gonzales cartoon, or if Willy Wonka decorated for Cinco de Mayo.
“What is this place?” Steve Crenshaw recalled asking his friend in the 1970s, when he first visited. Now he was there again, lured by nostalgia.
Indeed, South of the Border in Dillon, S.C., is a relic of American road travel, echoing midcentury highway oddities like Wall Drug in South Dakota and the world’s largest of just about anything across the Midwest. It harks back to a different time in the South, before the region diversified and exploded in growth.