DATE: Sunday, October 5, 1997               TAG: 9710050088

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Paul South 

                                            LENGTH:   57 lines

REEL LIFE CATCHES UP WITH OLD MOVIE HOUSE

Some things on Roanoke Island, thank goodness, don't change.

Folks still still speak kindly to one another at at the post office despite the prospect of navigating the demolition derby course that once was the Chesley Mall parking lot.

Crossing guard Belva Weeks still keeps children safe as they traverse U.S. 64/264 near Manteo Elementary School.

You can still get a good chili dog at Poor Richard's, and find Hemingway, Frost and Faulkner in abundance on the shelves at Manteo Booksellers.

And admission at the Pioneer Theatre, one of the nation's oldest family-owned movie houses, is still $3. Junior Mints are 65 cents and nothing racier than a PG film will grace the Pioneer screen.

But there was a change at the venerable old theater that has served as entertainer, baby sitter, smile provider and tear jerker since ``Hell Diver'' starring Wallace Beery debuted at the theater on Oct. 28, 1934.

The theater's steady old projector, known lovingly for periodically causing films to break or even disintegrate, was put out of commission after almost a half century of performances. And not because of mechanical malfunction.

Technology murdered that marvelous conglomeration of metal and glass and power and light, the grandson of Edison's mind spark. It ended a streak by the mechanical equivalent of Cal Ripken.

``It was like a Rolls-Royce,'' said H.A. Creef Jr., owner of the Pioneer. ``All you had to do was change the parts, and it would keep going. It was wonderful.''

Now, because of the formats used by film distributors, Creef's dependable Century projector is for the most part obsolete.

``The light and sound are changed,'' Creef said. ``The pedestal and the heads are the same. I'm doing the minimum just to keep up with the technology. The amount of technology that's out there is staggering. It's like it's all outside the door waiting to tumble in.

``The old projector had to be monitored and pampered, like taking care of a baby. Now I press a few buttons.''

The new projector's premiere was the movie version of the classic TV series ``Leave It To Beaver.'' I didn't see it. But most TV knockoffs work on the big screen as well as Eddie Haskell's compliments did on Mrs. Cleaver.

It was a less-than-auspicious debut for the highfalutin machine, especially when you consider just a few of the films that flashed on the screen by the Pioneer's old reliable - ``To Kill A Mockingbird,'' ``Forrest Gump,'' ``Shenandoah,'' and one of Creef's favorites, Peter Sellers's classic ``Being There.''

But Creef, thankful for the support given down through the years by locals and visitors alike, said the movies will go on. Four generations of his family have worked in the theater business.

``I have mixed emotions about it,'' Creef said. ``It's something that's been here nearly 50 years. I get nostalgic about it. My daughter said, `It's nice, but it's kind of sad.' But it's part of the human endeavor to automate everything, where each generation gets a little lazier, but a whole lot wiser.''

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