The Cameo, in St. Helena, is my favorite cinema in America. It’s only one of 24 remaining, independently owned and operated, single-screen cinemas in the whole country. And of these 24, it’s probably the ONLY theater with Digital 3D capability.
If they gave out medals for civic heroism, Shawn Q. LaRue and Cathy M. Buck (what’s with those middle initials anyway?) would be recipients at the top of my list.
These movie-mad friends bought the 94-year-old Cameo Cinema, in St. Helena, a year ago and completely updated the intimate 140-seat theater, conducting a $150,000 upgrade to the projection and sound facilities.
Under Cathy and Shawn’s direction, The Cameo is now a cinema gem. It could stand to be called The Bijou, French for “gem.”
“We are probably the sole, independently owned, single-screen cinema in the US with Dolby Digital 3D projection,” says co-owner Shawn. “I am not aware of another.”
Not only that, but with their new state-of-the-art equipment, Shawn and Cathy can now project art-of-the-state. Well, at least art of other states. With a just-installed (last week), hi-tech satellite link, and with some additional low-tech copper wiring, the Cameo can now project live operas from the Met, in New York, or can simulcast the Kentucky Derby, in Louisville, in May. This week the Cameo projected the Presidential Inaugural ceremony live, from Washington D.C., on The Big Screen.
Cathy M. Buck and Shawn Q. LaRue, owners of Cameo Cinema, with their curly-haired Wheaton Dachshunds, Maximillian and Tallulah.
Shawn is from Los Angeles, New York, or Hawaii, depending on which decade of his life you dissect. He has been a social worker and an administrator for the math department at Stanford, but in 1997, he heard the siren of wine screeching. He landed at Swanson Vineyards, in Rutherford, where he was put in charge of the very private, very special, tasting salon for eight years. The Q stands for Quick (honest!), one of Shawn’s two middle names.
Cathy was born near Kalamazoo, MI, and spent most of her entire life within ten miles of her birth site. She recalls going to the single-screen, family-owned cinema in Augusta, MI, Sunday nights, which is what probably propelled her into a late-life career in cinema. She has owned a small machine tool company, owned a woman’s shoe store, been a realtor for 22 years, and as she is the oldest of nine children, she knows how to holler to be heard and get what she wants. But you never see, or hear, a forcefulness when speaking with her. Cathy is pleasant, bright-eyed and, like Shawn, dreams cinema. The M in her name stands for Marie.
The pair met at Swanson’s tasting room, where Shawn worked and which Cathy was visiting. Little did they know that the day the met in the sun would project them into a life in the dark.
The pair discovered that they had a common interest – nay, love – cinema. They were both, for lack of a better description, film fanatics. When they learned that Charlotte Wagner, former Cameo owner, was letting go her lease, the pair teamed up to purchase the Cameo.
“Storytelling is our focus,” says Cathy. “ But storytelling is more than just a story on film; it’s also a story that can be set to music, to ballet, it can be spoken or sung. Our goal is to bring all forms of storytelling to the Cameo.”
One of the cinema highlights of the past year was seeing a refreshed digital print of this classic film at the Cameo.
You know the cliché: behind every successful man there is a woman. Well, a variation of this axiom is true for the Cameo; behind the successful operators is a pair of very dedicated benefactors, Mark Nelson and Dana Johnson, who together operate Nimbus Arts, a non-profit, community arts organization, committed to raising the cultural bar of our community.
I met Mark eight years ago, sitting at the bar at Tra Vigne. He had recently sold a successful medical publications business and was in the process of building Ovid, a winery perched atop Pritchard Hill.
Mark and his wife Dana have been enthusiastic patrons and supporters of Cathy and Shawn; their non-profit foundation helped the Cameo acquire its new DCI-compliant Barco digital projector (complete with Dolby 3D technology) and has encouraged (and enabled) the Cameo’s proprietors to run late-night films for St. Helena teens, and Saturday morning films for youngsters – basically developing a community venue with 24-hour utility. All for ‘the love of storytelling.’
Shawn Q. LaRue stands between the old-fashioned 35 mm projector and the new-age, digital projector with 3D capability.
My hat is off to Shawn, Cathy, and their angel benefactor, Nimbus Arts, for saving our local treasure, the Cameo. By contrast, in the town where I grew up, Toronto, Canada, they have torn down all the significant independent single-screen theaters, including the Eglinton, where I fondly recall seeing “Around the World in 80 Days,” “The Alamo,” and “Windjammer.”
The Eglinton had one of the best sound systems I’ve ever heard in a cinema. But the lust for higher profits, which multi-screened Cineplexes promise, doomed the Eglinton and her sister cinemas to the wrecking ball.
Cathy, Shawn, an original West Side Story poster and an old projector.
While most of the four million annual visitors to Napa Valley are here for wine, and the most dark any of them plan to see is the corner of a wine cellar, occasionally visitors want a chance to “see how the locals live.” And let me set the record straight: there ain’t no better place to find the locals, at least 140 of them, and see how we live, than at the Cameo.
The seats in the theater are plush velour, colored the purply pigment of ripe Petite Sirah. The back two rows offer love seats, so that you can snuggle with your date a whole lot more easily.
The weekly, and sometimes daily-changing films, the live digital broadcasts of world-class opera and ballet, and the comforting, nostalgic cocoon that envelops the movie-goer, are worth the price of admission – which is, by the way, less than what most Cineplex operations charge.
There are 41,000 movie screens in America. Only ten percent of them, or about 4,100 screens, have converted to digital projection. Of these 4,100, only 1,000 have taken the additional step of offering 3D. Among them, the Cameo.
While napaman.com attempts to speak to visitors to our valley, to tell them what to eat and drink, it would be remiss not to occasionally celebrate The Best of Napa Valley, even when it does not have to do with food or wine.
And in this category, I place the Cameo Cinema, a cultural icon in our small community. If you want to meet locals, know where we hang out, our how we live, this is the place.
The Secret Nest, produced in 1914, may have been the first-ever film projected at the Cameo, which opened in 1915 as the GG (this likely stood for Golden Gate) Theater.
As the saying goes, ‘None of us is here for a long time,’ but with the upgraded Cameo Cinema, in St. Helena, we sure are here for a good time!
Cameo Cinema, 1340 Main St., St. Helena, Ca. 94574.
For movie information, or directions, telephone 707-963-9779, or go to www.cameocinema.com.
You tell them if they are looking for a booker/programmer that you know someone who would be willing to relocate to napa.... if she had to.
Posted by: sam | April 06, 2009 at 07:18 AM
Liked your old cinema up top. I was watching The Majestic recently and thought about how I missed the old cinemas on Broadway in Portland next door.
Actually, the reason for the post...
Noticed your note in the side column about The Wild Trees as a favorite.
Stumbled on your page, and thought you might like this page:
www.mdvaden.com/grove_of_titans.shtml
Cheers,
MDV
Posted by: M. D. Vaden of Oregon | February 01, 2009 at 06:06 PM