THE NEW YORK TIMES
“You Must Remember This; A Sign Is Not Just a Sign”
Excerpt
Yesterday, on Humphrey Bogart Place, there was only one fedora in sight. Yet the rain came down hard, like it does in old movies, and people stood beneath their umbrellas looking for the ghost of Sam Spade. They were not quite world-weary — this was the Upper West Side, after all — but they were at least a little wet.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Here's Looking at You, 103rd Street”
Excerpt
Every actor has his calling card, his inimitable, unmistakable badge of identity. For Humphrey Bogart, fans would say, it was the trench coat, the fedora, the lisp and the toast, "Here's looking at you, kid," growled at Ingrid Bergman with just the right measure of affection and stoicism. For Gary Dennis, the owner of Movie Place, one of the West Side's last remaining independent video stores, it's the Dean Martin wardrobe and the greeting "Helloo, Moovie Place!" delivered in a throaty basso that sounds as if it has been practiced in the shower.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Lights Out”
Excerpt
One evening late last month, Gary Dennis was striding around Movie Place, his video store on 105th Street near Broadway, with a cordless phone clamped to his ear. His graying hair was brushed back, and he spoke, as usual, out of the side of his mouth. "No, I'm not going to be in this industry anymore," he told the caller. "The industry's dying." He waited a beat, then added, "I'm going to sell drugs to junior high schoolers."
THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Of All Streets in All the Cities in All the World”
Excerpt
Here’s how much Gary Dennis loves movies: His video rental store, Movie Place, has some 20,000 titles in stock, including mounds of splendid oldies that you will be hard pressed to find at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video.
Robert Mitchum posters abound. In one corner of the store, on West 105th Street, Mr. Dennis keeps what he calls his " 'lost theaters of the Upper West Side' exhibit" -- framed photographs of movie houses long gone and all but faded from memory. They are names from a pre-video, pre-digital age, like the Riverside, the Riviera, the Arden and the Nemo.