{"id":247246,"date":"2014-04-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/the-ken\/"},"modified":"2014-04-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-25T07:00:00","slug":"the-ken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/the-ken\/","title":{"rendered":"El Ken"},"content":{"rendered":"

You don\u2019t know what you got ’til it\u2019s gone*<\/p>\n

Dale Larabee | La verdad de Larabee<\/p>\n

Can you imagine the Eiffel Tower shutting down because of a drop in attendance, or the Coliseum in Rome converted to a fabric store because the owners couldn\u2019t afford to upgrade it?<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Ken Theatre on Adams Ave. in Kensington (Photo by Dale Larabee)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The historic Ken Theater, centerpiece of downtown Kensington, is closing on April 27th due to a spat between the property owner and Landmark Theaters over who pays the bill to drag our Ken into the 21st century. To many of us longtime residents, \u201cThe Ken\u201d is Kensington and has been since it was built in 1947.<\/p>\n

Outsiders come to Kensington to eat, get their hair done, find a rare video at Ken Video or see a movie at the Ken. The Ken makes us unique since it is the only neighborhood theater left. Problem: The Ken is a dinosaur and fewer folks care about dinosaurs anymore. You can only show \u201cThe Rocky Horror Picture Show\u201d so many times. I hate change and was surprised so few of us were upset The Ken would close, and there have been no picket signs or \u201cSave the Ken\u201d movements. The local reaction is a loud and clear \u201cSo?\u201d<\/p>\n

Will our equally loved Ken Video be next?<\/p>\n

Tom Guarnotta, a resident since 1945, remembers The Ken built when Kensington was the end of the trolley line.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ken made Kensington. The theater drew other businesses and then more homes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Guarnotta remembers in the early days \u201cDish Night\u201d and bathroom scale giveaways were used to drum up business. At The Ken, he saw \u201cIt Happened One Night,\u201d \u201cThe Bishop\u2019s Wife\u201d and Saturday matinees of \u201cThe Cisco Kid\u201d and \u201cHopalong Cassidy.\u201d<\/p>\n

S. Charles Lee was The Ken\u2019s architect and built it in the Art Deco style of theater design \u2014 pretty far out in its day. Unfortunately, nobody upgraded The Ken much since \u201947, and I\u2019m told one using the women\u2019s\u2019 restroom can\u2019t comfortably sit where one needs to sit and still be able to close the door.<\/p>\n

Scores of locals once worked at The Ken. Davene Gibson worked for a time as an usher in the early 1960s while a student at Hoover High.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sat in the box office, sold tickets, locked the booth, hustled inside to punch tickets, sold popcorn and showed patrons to their seats,\u201d Gibson recalled.<\/p>\n

\"Dale<\/a>
Dale Larabee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Ken was the first San Diego theater to show foreign films. Evelyn Riddick, another Hoover co-ed, remembers in 1962 watching French, Italian and Japanese movies with heartthrobs Bridgette Bardot and Marcello Mastroianni \u2014 her semester abroad at The Ken. During slow times, she and others \u2014 bored behind the concession counter \u2014 would unwrap chocolate cherries and try to hit their lonely classmate in the box office.<\/p>\n

After a brief hysterical outcry following news that The Ken would close, life around these parts has returned to business as usual. There are lukewarm rumors of another theater group taking over or Landmark renegotiating a deal. My friend Betsy McIntyre said it best as I whined about The Ken\u2019s closing: \u201cIt\u2019s business!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019s going to run a theater where no one goes? Landmark is not in business to keep the theater open just because we like it there,\u201d she said. \u201cI just hope they don\u2019t put in a Walmart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or a Fabric Store.<\/p>\n

*Added following the April 24 announcement that The Ken would not permanently close: The lukewarm rumors are true! The Ken is saved by a last second deal cut by Landmark Theaters and the owners. But why do I fear a second shoe will drop? Pray the May 2Dakota del Norte<\/sup> re-birth, reopening won\u2019t feature \u201cThe Rocky Horror Movie Show\u201d and a bathroom scales give-away. I am an optimistic person, but will our love affair with The Ken change to include us actually attending once we welcome the old girl back? We must wait and see. For now, we can breathe easy for there will be no dismal, deserted theater with used popcorn boxes blowing around the entrance \u2014 or worse, the fabric store.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You don\u2019t know what you got ’til it\u2019s gone* Dale Larabee | Larabee\u2019s Lowdown Can you imagine the Eiffel Tower shutting down because of a drop in attendance, or the Coliseum in Rome converted to a fabric store because the owners couldn\u2019t afford to upgrade it?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":235380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"The Ken","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}