
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 21, 1990                   TAG: 9003212063
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Southwest Virginia
DATELINE: BRISTOL                                 LENGTH: Short

CHRISTIAN GROUP OPENS BRISTOL FAMILY CINEMA

The Cameo All-American Family Cinema will be opened Friday in Bristol's old Cameo Theatre by Christian Cinema Ministries, a non-profit group that has one theater in Kingsport, Tenn.

"I really felt the need for families to have an alternative to secular theaters and television," said Sam Wood, a former Tennessee Eastman engineer who founded the group in 1985 and is its president.

Since the non-denominational group is non-profit, it does not charge admission but does accept donations. It will offer nightly films, children's Saturday matinees, video rentals and perhaps some live performances.

The old Cameo on State Street, which divides Bristol, Va., and Bristol, Tenn., was closed through most of the 1980s except when entrepreneurs would open it temporarily for showings of special-interest films. Christian Cinema bought it last November, has renovated it and added a new projection room, sound system and stage.

The opening at 12:30 p.m. will be followed by tours of the facility.

On the other side of State Street is another closed theater, the Paramount, for which a successful fund-raising drive was held last year to convert it to a regional arts center.

by CNB