stories

Alan Rubin, one of the theater's six original owners, all of whom lived in DeeCee, is shown in the lobby with Richmond Times-Dispatch movie critic/entertainment writer the late Carole Kass. They (pictured right) were part of the crowd at the theater's 1974 second anniversary celebration, which featured the "Devil in/and Miss Jones" prank.

Rubin was/is an artist, so he in particular got a kick out of the chance we were taking with such a stunt. It was quite a night, for more on that see the history below -- Biograph Times; Part One, for the story of the prank that had thousands of Richmonders in line on Grace St. to see a banned movie, but it didn't go as they expected.

That night most of the staff wore costumes to get in the spirit, or perhaps to hide their identities, in case they needed to make a fast get-away. The hoax/performance art went swimmingly. Then, afterwards, no one had gotten hurt and we posed willingly for a group gloating.

Yes, the rush from pulling that one off was mind-expanding. The problem was -- then what?

Photo Credit: Gary Fisher