Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 28, 1994 TAG: 9404280020
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
The basketball star and Sony Pictures Entertainment plan to build a chain of theaters in minority communities.
"You're going to get all the first-run movies" in neighborhoods that traditionally have been poorly served by the film industry, Johnson said Tuesday.
Johnson has just wound up a 16-game stint coaching the Los Angeles Lakers and doesn't want to go back to the job next season.
The first Magic Johnson Theatre, with 12 screens and 3,700 seats, is to open next summer southwest of downtown Los Angeles. Johnson did not say which other cities are being considered for movie houses.
DeO bbie Reynolds, who went from teen-age movie idol to unsinkable star,
has received the first Liberace Legend Award.
Reynolds, who operates a hotel and a movie memorabilia museum in Las Vegas, was honored for her "major contributions to the community and the world of entertainment," according to The Liberace Foundation.
The foundation, supported by a museum Liberace opened here in 1976, provides funding to 59 colleges and universities in 33 states.
The award will be presented May 16, which would have been Liberace's 75th birthday. He died in 1987.
by CNB