Twenty-four Frames Cinema

1998-04-01: Cheney Lands Twin Cinema

Alison Boggs

Two Spokane cinema veterans plan to build a two-screen movie theater in downtown Cheney.

Larry Blair and Kathryb Graham, who operated downtown Spokane's Magic Lantern cinema for eight years, plan to open the The Cheney Cinema this summer.

The pair bought the brick building at 2nd & College, the former site of Savage House Pizza. The building will be divided into two theaters, one with about 140 seats, the other with 100 seats, Blair said.

"Spokane gets 16-plexes and Cheney gets a twin," Blair joked. That suits Cheney officials just fine. Tonight the city is holding a meeting in City Council chambers to kick off a new downtown planning effort. Blair and Graham's cinma will be the star of the show.

"For us this is big news," said Steve Worthington, director of community development. "This is a major event, even a coup, to locate the cinema here." The meeting begins at 7 pm. and will focus on ways to revitalize the downtown core and forge more connections with the Eastern Washington University campus.

Blair said the Cheney Cinema will play hit movies, but might get them slightly later than the multi-plexes in Spokane, he added. "We'll give them some breaks," he said. "It'll be cheaper and it'll be their theater."

Blair and Graham lost their lease to downtown Spokane's Magic Lantern cinema last summer and a new operator took over. The pair has been looking for a site to open a new arthouse cinema, perhaps near Gonzaga University.

Blair also is a partner in the Post Falls Cinema and owns a movie theater in Sandpoint, Idaho.

In 1998, Twenty-four Frames Cinema moved the entrance to 2nd Street. They used both the 122 and 120 building spaces for their 2-screen theater. It closed in 2003 after the industry's push for digital-only releases of movies and the hurdle of expensive equipment.