Nebraskan
Thursday. July 22. 1993
Arts^Entertainment
Joyo theater stint continues in Havelock
PEOPLE
Protile
By Gerry Bettz ^
own rfepOnm
For die last 14 years, Don and
Edy Montgomery have kept die
Joyo Theater, 6102 Havelock Av
enue, up and running.
The Joyo, the only indepen
dently-run movie theater in Lin
coln, has been in business since
1927, and Don was a patron of the
theater long before he ever owned
it.
“Back then it was the Hopalong
Cassidy and Gene Autry films, then
after World War II started it went
to a lot of John Wayne movies,”
Don said.
The Captain Midnight serials,
he said, were the the most popular
pieces when he went to the Joyo as
a boy. Don can remember bikes
from children going to the shows
would be “strung up from the cor
ner down to the alley.”
Prices for admission were a bit
lower then: nine cents (including
tax). An enterprising young per
son could so die park and pick a
bushel basket of dandelions in ex
change for a free ticket, Don said.
In March 1979, when Don was
sellings piece of property he owned
in Milford, he came across an ad
for the Joyo in die newspaper and
contacted the owner.
There were other possible fates
for the Joyo at the time, including
a warehouse or an adult film the
ater.
Don said he bought the Joyo
with plans to use it for income
when he retired from the business
of commercial ait, which he has
been in for 40 years.
“You don’t have to spend that
much time doing it,** he said.
“Three, maybe four hours a day
maximum.
“The problem is you have to be
there every day, iust like fanning.”
Both Don and Edy said the main
reason people wait to
foe Joyo was the hometown atmo
sphere of die theater.
“The first thing they say is4 Hey,
this is just like the theater back
home.’,” Don said. “Back in that
era, all of them were built the
same.
“The sidewalls were all coated
with die same material. They all
had maroon curtains.”
Don said the Joyo was the only
theater in Lincoln that had body
formed seats, which slide out and
lean back when you sit down. The
theater also offers its customers a
lot for their money, he said.
“... We offer a wider variety of
choices in the concession stand —
with cheaper prices than the bigger
theaters,” he said.
n Edy added, TW a dollar, you
get a real value.”
Don said the family-oriented
format of the Joyo is another major
factor for its consistent patronage.
“It’s a mom and pop family
type theater,” he said. “They want
to come here with the kids and sit
down and relax and not be embar
rassed. That’s our market. We play
See JOYO on 10
Damon Lm/DN
Don and Edy Montgomery outside the Joyo Theater In Have
lock, which they have owned for 14 years.
Disney film
fails to make
movie magic
“Hocus Pocus”
By Arm* Stayer
Staff Report*
Walt Disney Pictures has always
been associated with making movie
magic. Unfortunately, the only tiling
magical about its latest feature,
“Hocus Pocus” (The Lincoln, 12th
and P streets), is the name.
The story centers on the Sanderson
sisters — Winifred (Bette Midler),
Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Mary
(Kathy Najimy)—three witches boil
ing toil and trouble for the residents of
17th century Salem.
The terrible trio is busted and
hanged after stealing the life force
(killing) a young female Salemite,
but not before they turn her brother
into an immortal feline. They also
cast a spell that will allow them to
return to life after a virgin lights a
black flame on Halloween night.
This is the segue into 20th century
Massachusetts. And a feeble one it is.
A smart-aleck kid. Max (Omri Katz)
E lbe flame to impress • pretty
Vinessa Shaw) and scare the
)ut of his sister (Thora Birch).
He scares all of them, including him
self when the sisters return ready to
renew their wickedness.
What follows is supposed to be
madcap adventures in me traditional
Disney style. Some of the scenes are
mildly amusing, perhaps even more
so to a younger audience. But the
overall feel inspires only a yawn and
_______I See HOCUS on 10
Paranoia of cold war displayed in ‘Prisoner s Dilemma ’
“Prisoner*! Dilemma”
William Pound*tone
Anchor Book*
ly Mark Baldridge
toff Reporter
The bomb was still new in those
ays — a terrible novelty.
Many considered it a monstrous
eapon, one that should never be
sed again. They wanted it banned,
cstroyed or placed at the disposal of
ie United Nations: no single nation
lould be allowed to posses so great a
ol of destruction.
Then, late in 1949, the situation
tanged forever: The Soviet Union
igan testing atomic weapons. The
ng paranoia of the cold had begun.
“Prisoner’s Dilemma” by William
•undstone takes the reader into the
ick of those double-dealing, fright
h---^ .rty;;..-, - t
ened times.
Political theorists in the free world
arguing over what to do next were
guided in part by a new mathematical
model called “'game theory.” And
game theory’s “prisoner’s dilemma”
was touted by some to signal the only
appropriate response to Soviet atomic
capability.
Public figures — among them the
secretary of the Navy, British phi
losopher and pacifist Bertrand Russell
and mathematician John von
Neumann, doclared that the only ra
tional decision was to wage immedi
ate unprovoked nuclear war on the
USSR and unite all the world under
one government, headed by the United
States.
Von Neumann’s argument bore
particular weight. As part of the origi
nal Manhattan Project and father of
game theory, he had the ear of mili
tary strategists at the highest levels.
He was considered by many to be the
world’s greatest genius.
Today, in light of the recent crum
bling of the Soviet Union, such tactics
seem outrageous and misguided in
the extreme. ■ <
It is to Poundstone’s credit-then
that he recreates the paranoia and
mistrust of those dark days by a simple
examination of game theory and die
prisoner’s dilemma in particular.
The arguments for blowing up the
Soviets in 1949 take on weight even
as one’s sense of outrage against such
a proposition grows.
It is this split reaction of fear on
one side and honor on the other that
defines the early decades of the cold
war: It was a schizophrenic time.
No one was to be trusted, the en
emy was everywhere, and old Ameri
can ideals of tolerance and freedom
of opinion were suspended in the pro
longed emergency of the Red Men
ace.
Younger people may findall this a
little hard to believe. The spirit of the
age has changed. We are more aware
of the dangers, perhaps.
But the human capacity for fear
and mistrust is more solidly en
trenched than we imagine and we will
no doubt hear from it again in America.
Poundstone’s book, then, serves as
a kind of skeleton key to those times -
— for those of us fortunate enough to
have come of age on this side of the
Iron Curtain.
