Coming Soon Arguably Houston’s most interesting movie house, the River Oaks Theatre returns to its original status as film buff paradise by Blase DiStefano

The River Oaks Theatre has long been a Houston landmark for quality out-of-the-mainstream films, including a rich repertoire through the years of gay/lesbian offerings. The River Oaks–now the Landmark River Oaks–has gone through many changes through the years. Most recently, the theater chain went into bankruptcy and was faced with having to lift itself out of a malaise into which it had sunk. The original founders, Paul Richardson and Bert Manzari, have returned to the company (after having left for other cinematic pastures several years ago) and were in town this summer to see how to bring back "the old River Oaks." OutSmart talked to Richardson about the history of this venerable film house, the business factors that play into trying to showcase quality cinema, and what may be upcoming at the RO.

OutSmart: So start from the beginning.

Paul Richardson: Bert and I started in Albuquerque in 1974. We were both in college and loved films. I was in grad school in architecture, and he was in psychology. We started this little storefront conversion theater playing Charlie Chaplin movies and that kind of stuff.

Then, while we were [in Dallas negotiating for films], we decided to expand our little idea and have a chain of two. Based on our success, we went to St. Louis because we had a friend who knew the family that owned all the theaters there. They had just closed a theater that was in the university district; it was an old, run-down theater, a perfect fit. But everybody was saying we needed to go take a look at Houston. So I drove down to Houston and was driving around in River Oaks–and this was such, even then, an obvious area of regentrification and growth–and it was dynamic. Montrose is such a dynamic part of this city.

OutSmart: About what year was this?

Paul Richardson: 1976. Driving around River Oaks, there is this big sign in the window that says "Weingarten Realty–For Lease." This was the most expensive theater; we really had agony over whether we could afford it, because at the time it was three times more expensive than our most expensive theater. But it was also bigger and more beautiful, and I knew from living in Montrose that this was the area we wanted to be in. Other than maybe the Alabama [now Bookstop], we couldn’t have picked a better theater to be in. We came in and remodeled this theater on my Sears card because we really didn’t have the money to do it. We painted it up and re-carpeted it, fixed the seats and put a little repertory calendar in here, and we opened the doors in July of 1976. It was an instant success. I mean the city was ready for it. The theater was right. Everything about it really worked and it always has since day one.

OutSmart: I used to come here at least once a week. I mean every time a movie opened, I was here.

Paul Richardson: It’s my sentimental favorite. I just really love this theater.

OutSmart: I work with OutSmart magazine, which is a gay and lesbian publication. One of the neat things I saw downstairs [in the theater lobby] was the framed plaque showing that our readers voted River Oaks Theater the best theater.

Paul Richardson: Of course, of course! Being part of the fabric of the community is what makes these theaters work. And it’s really good for us, because a lot of gay films come to the River Oaks Theater and the Greenway–in fact, I would say most of them do. Really, the tried-and-true gay films come and play here. And your constituency is a huge part of our audience. They are very important to us.

OutSmart: Let’s go back. So at what point did you leave?

Paul Richardson: In 1982 we merged with the two guys that started Landmark. They started in Los Angeles, and we started in Albuquerque. We moved to Los Angeles and merged our companies. That is what I call the formation of the New Landmark, because two things happened: We became a national art circuit with the combination of these two companies and, at the same time, videocassettes came out.

Before cable and videocassettes came out, if you wanted to see a Charlie Chaplin or Humphrey Bogart film, they weren’t available, unless you saw them on late-night television. So all of those films hadn’t been seen by a whole generation of people, and the prints deteriorated over time as they sat in musty warehouses. When videocassettes came out, it wiped out our business.

So, when I say New Landmark, we had to reinvent ourselves because we didn’t have a business anymore. We started focusing on first-run art. We had some theaters that played first-run art, but it was stuff most people had never heard of. We converted the circuit, and most of the theaters worked, but some were in neighborhoods that weren’t conducive. Part of the reason it worked, ironically, was because at the time, the little mom and pops had been playing pictures for the beret crowd from the ’50s and ’60s. Then they started playing porno like I Am Curious Yellow. They abandoned that little tiny niche [of high-end art films] and we jumped in to grab and grow it. Because we felt there was an audience for foreign-language pictures and American independent pictures, [and that] our theaters would be the place to do that. So the New Landmark started, and the River Oaks was certainly one of the theaters that successfully changed over from our repertory calendar format to open-ended first-run art. That was a trauma for us.

OutSmart: Financial trauma?

Paul Richardson: Yes, but it was the right thing to do and it’s basically still working. We were always a bootstrap company; we never had $1.98. We were always borrowing money, but we kept growing in situations like the River Oaks. And we worked on what I call our manifest destiny to really get coast to coast through a series of owners.

In April of 1998, Silver Cinemas, a company based out of Dallas that ran discount theaters, bought Landmark. Their business plan was to trim the costs and run these theaters more in line with what the discount theaters and commercial theaters costs are. Even though film rental is historically a little bit lower in these [art house] theaters, you’ve got additional marketing costs and higher labor costs, because we don’t pay minimum wage. A commercial circuit may have one booker for 300 or 400 screens, while we have one booker for 35 screens because of the time it takes to do these deals and coordinate the marketing and do the grassroots stuff. We’re doing the marketing ourselves. There’s no national ad or television time. So those costs and more modest box office mean that it is solid, but a small niche business. Silver Cinemas’ business plan was to grow by cutting those overhead costs and boosting concession sales.

I worked with Silver Cinemas on their transition for about a year and then I went to Sundance, because I really felt that the values and the excitement about independent film were there. Sundance was, at that point, committed to building cinemas. I joined the cinema team and actually got those projects started until they went into bankruptcy.

I was obviously very disappointed and trying to figure out what my next step was. Meantime, Landmark goes into bankruptcy. So I said, "That’s it. That’s obviously what I need to do. I need to get back in because I know how to fix that. I know all the players. I am a good fit for fixing the malaise at Landmark."

We have to move back to those core values that were built in the first place. We are always going to be a modestly successful company because our niche is only so big. As long as we stick to fulfilling our customers’ desires, and run our business responsibly, we’ll be just fine. The raw ingredients are still here. The theaters are still great, though a little run down; we want to get grass roots marketing going again. We can get back in sync with where we were.

There are a lot of idiosyncrasies about our business. Our customers don’t necessarily want the largest soda or popcorn you can buy. They really want something more modest and they want a wider range of product. You can’t strangle customer service, and you can’t get employees who don’t know what the films are. You want employees who are excited about a film to say, "You have really got to see Memento." And our audiences are film buffs, which means they go to everything. They come back here after they’ve seen the commercial films, because they prefer to see challenging movies in an environment where you are not standing in line with a bunch of teenagers, not in the herd. That’s our business.

OutSmart: We are going to have our old River Oaks back?

Paul Richardson: Yes, you are going to have the old River Oaks back. We’re back! As you can tell, I am very happy, too. It is really a thrill for me.