Flying Monkey NH

Mark your calendars!

2010-05-13T10:08:00.001-07:00

Heads up on Monkey Happenings...

July 23rd is our opening - it may be "soft" - but we will open...James Montgomery and friends will be playing that night...then we'll have a "block party" with our wonderful neighbors - Peppercorn, Venture Print and others.
What do you think about a pancake breakfast on Saturday, July 24th?
We'll also have entertainment throughout the weekend - at least that's what we're thinking!

A silent film series will begin August 12th with musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis. This series will continue the second Thursday of every month...I saw "Grandma's Boy" at the Wilton Town Hall and laughed so hard I had tears running down my face...it's an education in itself - seeing how films were made "way back". As Jeff says: "it makes me realize how much life remains in these pictures if they're shown under the right conditions: that is, on the big screen, in good prints, with live music, and with an audience. It's how they were designed to be shown in the first place, and if all those elements are present, they still work marvelously".

Rebecca Rule will be at The Monkey on Wednesday, October 6th. We'll start out with a Lumberjack Dinner followed by Rebecca speaking on her “40 days and 40 nights” in 2007recording stories of the memories of mill workers entitled: Crosscut: A Spoken Documentary, Stories of Logging & the Berlin Mills.

stay tuned...

other special events we had at "The Monkey"

2010-05-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

A very moving event was our Haiti Fundraiser.
Alex, Cathy and John Bentwood, and Carolyn Brown went to Haiti after the earthquake to help wherever they could. upon their return we served a Haitian meal, showed a homemade video they made while there, followed by a panel discussion. A direct result of that evening was a new nonprofit organization - The Limb Fund. The money raised that evening (more than $4000!) will go directly to prosthetics for the many people who lost limbs. If you would like to contribute to this worthy cause please make your check payable to "Limbs Project" and mail to PO Box 525, Plymouth, NH 03264

DAcres in conjunction with the Plymouth Area Democrats had a fundraiser...DAcres prepared a delicious, organic, fresh meal (chicken vegetable soup, vegetable soup). Peppercorn donated the most mouth watering coleslaw I've ever had (it was a special vinegar - rice?) as well as fresh bread. The movie "Fresh" was shown followed by a panel discussion...it was a huge hit and once again showed me/us how many groups of people (age, interests, etc.) we reach by the different events we have – and how endless the possibilities are at the Flying Monkey!

Our final event before closing for renovations was our Oscar party on Sunday,March 6th. The fashion police were onsite and we awarded trophies for best and worst dressed (the worst dressed trophy was a horses rear end)…Thank you Carol Dunn from Dressers Unlimited for bringing a bevy of beauties. Eva Nagorka and her husband Roger Ellsworth won for best dressed couple. Jeff Day (from the Rumney Diner and partner of Alex’s 104 diner in New Hampton) made an ice sculpture of Oscar which stood on the front sidewalk. We used him for many photo ops. Alex was determined to find a large spotlight – and of course he did. He contacted a guy from Laconia who brought the spotlight up on a trailer. The next day and weeks later people told me of the bright light in the sky as they came south on 93…much like the star of Bethlehem…they followed it – but not to a stable – to The Flying Monkey. The buffet was delicious and my favorite was beef bourguignon served over a dollop of mashed potatoes served in a martini glass.

Okay – I’m finished telling you a brief (?!) history of “The Monkey”…from now on my entries will be about the renovations and what entertainment is lined up – unless I think of something very funny or interesting to share with you. Thanks for reading.

Special Events

2010-05-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

Events held at The Monkey – as you will see, we’re open to anything and everything!

Silver Streaks – the “over 50” ski group from Waterville Valley held their weekly gathering at the Monkey. We expected 30 people and 60 showed up…John Allen from the New England Ski Museum spoke to the group and then showed the film “Dr. Quackenbush Skis the Headwall” – a silent film about a fictitious daredevil skier (thank you google).

Pat Moore - local professional snowboarder - showed his movie "Forever"...it was a huge success with 102 people at the 5pm seating and over 150 at the 8pm seating. Many of Pat’s sponsors were there...I remember Redbull because that was the first time I ever tried it - thanks Redbull. Another sponsor: Electricity – great goggles, sunglasses, hats, sweatshirts…We hope Pat will return yearly!

Chef of the Month - Franz Dubach - former owner of The William Tell in Thornton prepared an excellent meal one night – complete with Jagermeister. Marinated Pork Loin served over egg noodles - his famous "Tell Salad" and the even more famous "Toblerone Cake”. We will continue this once we reopen. Each chef will have the opportunity to donate half of the dinner proceeds to the charity of his/her choice. Franz chose NH Special Olympics.

Plymouth Elementary School P.T.A. had a spaghetti and meatball dinner during their February vacation week. Half of the dinner proceeds went to the PTA.

more special events in the next blog!!

Dinner and a Movie

2010-04-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

Before reading check out the latest video on the renovations!!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/lxBY9tgT/1/4655206

One of the most popular nights at The Monkey was “dinner and a movie” every Thursday. In Cinema #1 we removed every other row of seats 10 rows back and put a banquet table in its place. We set up a buffet in the front...we borrowed trays from one of the Cman summer restaurants in Meredith – Town Docks – when we ran out of table space people could eat off the tray on their lap. Thanks to Chef Eric and his crew at Foster's at the Common Man Inn who prepared many meals for us. Also, The Italian Farmhouse and the 104 Diner. It was somewhat comical (looking back on it now) to pick up the food at Foster's in an old van, park in front of the FM, unload, set up the buffet, tear down in time for the movie to start, load the van and take everything back to Foster's. I'll never forget the time the van didn't start so Diane used my AAA card. The wrecker came, loaded the van (which you could call a wreck because of its age) and took it to Foster’s – less than one mile away. I remember watching on the sidewalk as it was loaded onto the wrecker…waiting for the sound of buckets, chafing dishes and silverware to crash against the rear door – luckily, that didn’t happen.

Oh yes – Alex has the ability to look at anything and turn it into a functional space. He slapped a coat of paint in the broom closet (after removing brooms, dustpans, etc.) and turned it into our “Broom Closet” beer and wine space. A refrigerator on wheels stored our keg of Common Man Ale…and the many shelves stored cups/glasses and wine. Alex called from Honduras with the idea to use 6 oz. “Ball” canning jars for wine glasses.
It was a huge hit – especially when securing the lid on it. Thank you Woodie Laverack, a recently retired friend who at a moment’s notice stood in as our bartender. He stands over 6’2” so there wasn’t a lot of wiggle room in the broom closet. And you can imagine the jokes about "the closet"...

I’d like to personally thank everyone who works at Peppercorn Natural Foods store that abuts the Monkey and Venture Print across the street. What wonderful, helpful, do anything for you neighbors. Dawn at Venture Print made a banner of Alex as a flying monkey and hung it in her front window in time for our opening - it read “welcome to the neighborhood”…Love thy neighbor…

Also – thanks to Lisa Lundari at True Colors for our monkey artwork and weekly flyers.
And, of course, Erica Murphy, The Common Man’s Director of Communication and Community Relations …little did she know the additional pile of work that would land in her lap - but, of course, she was up to the task and continues to be.

More anon…

Flying Monkey Movie House and Performance Center

2010-04-27T06:12:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Flying Monkey blog!
I'm at a Facebook class and started a blog instead...not that I know everything about FB, but I've been wanting to do this...no time like the present!
The Flying Monkey closed for renovations March 7th and we plan to reopen mid-July.

Here's some history for you:

Alex Ray from The Common Man Family of Restaurants bought the cinema in December 2009
for a mere $125,000. It's located on South Main Street in Plymouth, NH which is in the lakes and mountains region in central NH. Plymouth State University is located here...

The cinema was built in the 1920's and was originally a vaudeville theatre. In the 80's, the balcony and stage were covered up and the theatre turned into two cinemas - each holding 195 people. The two projection rooms were built where the balcony was.

You may wonder where the name Flying Monkey came from...Well, Alex's significant other and business partner, Diane Downing suggested The Flying Monkey because Alex was a flying monkey in The Wizard of Oz - performed at Plymouth State University in January of 2009 through the Educational Theatre Collaborative - directed by Dr. Trish Lindberg.

We held a meeting on December 6th at the Common Man Inn and invited any and all to come share their thoughts and ideas of what they'd like to see happen with the space. Fortunately for us, Steve Zachowski (I think I spelled his name wrong) was present - along with George (you'll hear more about him soon).
Steve was the manager and projectionist at the Cinema before it closed so it was a no brainer to hire him. We received lots of ideas - from live opera feed to paintball in the cellar. Thank you to all who attended.

We opened in time for the holiday season with a limited food service license and a liquor license.
Our first film was the classic Jimmy Stewart film "It's a Wonderful Life"...we then went to first-run movies (Squeakquel, Sherlock Holmes, The Blind Side, It's Complicated...) now, for those of you who don't understand the film industry - IT'S COMPLICATED...we had to find a booker to get movies through (he gets paid weekly)...find someone to pick up and deliver the films to us - it turned out "George" lived in Ashland, NH and had been delivering and picking up movies for over 30 years...George gets paid monthly...every Thursday he sets off for his 800 mile tour...picking up films in Boston and delivering them as far north as St. Johnsbury, VT, west to Middlebury, VT and all over NH...

Going back to the film industry...
Each film has a certain percentage of the ticket sales that goes directly back to the film company (Paramount, Fox, Warner Bros., etc.). For instance, 35% of Wonderful Life ticket sales went back to the film company - Sherlock Holmes was in the 50% range. We had to keep track of every ticket number...even if we had 4 movie times each day we had to write down the beginning ticket number and the ending ticket number for each show. This data was sent to our booker every Thursday night who in turn sent it to the film companies so they could keep track of their sales nationwide. One Saturday we had a woman from Fox show up without warning to make sure we were honest about our ticket sales...she checked our ticket numbers and counted the audience members to be sure they matched. She had a form to complete and Steve had to sign off his first child saying it was accurate. Ever wonder why ticket and concession prices are so high? It's because so much money is leaving your business and going directly to the film companies. This bothered Alex so after consulting we reduced our child price from $6 to $5 - and our senior age from 65 to 60. Plymouth State University students received $5 ticket price on Wednesday nights.

I think I'll end the post now...stay tuned for more...I had to break this post into several because I was trying to say everything from December until now...not sure I could keep your attention for that long...all I can say is I'm glad I took typing in Highschool...