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Show , ISfiEi i " . by ALAN iOSS Photos by Raiuh janoski mm xb iiinFrntmi mini j&fr - jim tim iHfr imi-.-- iffmQ i r riTpitt iJSStSiii&AimbrfieSSTf 3 . if i. The fnarquee on the bid the words Shelley Long.The Scotts still shake their heads .; dung ro Qiggean : Rmie. Some of the jeans dangled, hanging by a thread, teady to compete the fall into oblivion, d much like die structure itself The. in it Theater Nations! Gnham. Tbtis, town of movie thegrin ' !.' w wrapping up tihow--68-y- run 8,71 film likemovie its glorious pat poetically slipping one km time through projector sprockets onto a fake-u- p .; reel. Flap, flap, flap, flap, flap. That was in 1988. Little did anyone know ; at the time, but some local champions were ' : riding to the rescue. What David and Pun Scott haveTlorifc since ::. then to tame die National to its former regal self is a stOiy of dieait, grit, ejdiaustion, patience, "'. at the serendipity of it all; at their own Ourra-geo- us fortune that connected them with the theater purchase in 1989. But it wasn all hits, popcorn, and Milk Iids at the outset. The old National never even had a concessian stand, and film companies .;. W fr . - Pag 4 American Profile ;. v dried away fiom o&ring fisMun blockbusters, knowing the state, of neglect and disrepair the theater had been in prior to die Scotts acquisition. Obstacles lay before thwn like a minefield. v A parous ceiling allowed water to collect on the floor and ruin the seats. The burlap-covet: walls had to be tom down, a task handled by the ' Scotts. : Muriatic add was required to dean : decades of diewing gum from dre float Because ' of the enormity of work that lay ahead,much of it neediog o fit historic prererwtion guidelines,' no contractor would touch the project sothey oversawthe work themselves. Of even greater potential peril, the Scots were divided in rfadr opinion on how to proceed. "I wanted to David remembers, gut but my wife is a historian. Shes got that nos--; trig ic tear in her eye.. They decided to find memos in die business and located one in Ed Alcorn, who had . ; ed - . if U a i L - !- ..fttii; t . Bnd...outtageousfixtune. "That was the last picture that played hem. before die theater dosed down," recalls Pim Scott of the marie starring Bette Midler and.. V ! box-offi- ce bnce-prou- . 'V V . , I s S ' . . |