UEN's Barry Bryson mentioned it in his blog. Former KUED associate Aaron Evans was quoted about in it the Deseret News. Veterinarian Charlie Gold told me about his “free afternoons” there as a kid. I, too, have more than a few memories of The Villa Theatre which closed forever a couple of nights ago.

I remember Sleeping Beauty as a 5-year-old and with my own kids 25-years later. Somehow Maleficent seemed much more artistic and much less frightening the second time around. Do you remember This is Cinerama, the three-projector widescreen forerunner to IMAX? In junior high I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey on the huge Villa screen, and more recently the Disney renaissance in animation starting with Little Mermaid and continuing with Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and Mulan. And last Thursday night Charlie and I paid our final respects to The Villa as we caught the 8 p.m. showing of The Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers.

As with the Tower Theatre, Valley Music Hall, Promised Valley Playhouse, The Old Social Hall, Capitol Theatre, Kingsbury Hall, Fort Douglas, even Snappy Service and the Olympic Torch, perhaps The Villa will be “re-purposed” or otherwise resurrected or restored in someway. More likely it will meet the the fate of the Dee Burger, the U of U 18-Hole Golf Course, Keith Obriens, Auerbachs, and the Deseret Gym -- and live on only in our memories and in the Utah in the 50’s documentaries of Elizabeth Searles and Ted Capener.

A few of UEN's many "movie" resources are: Digital Video Courses, ThemePark and Film 3210, a KULC telecourse offered by the University of Utah starting in May. Find more with UEN's Google Search and UEN Curriculum Search.

“It's kind of fun to do the impossible.” --Walt Disney (1901 - 1966)

Found while looking for something else: Daypop, a blog search engine