I write a lot about movies, including my experiences making them or my experiences watching them. Des Moines’ film history fascinates me, from the insane Evangelical Apocalypse films of Russell Doughten and Donald W. Thompson to Iowa’s own Cinema Paradiso story with the Bev Mahon’s Varsity Theatre.
The first story I wrote for this column back in 2017 was on the love story that followed Des Moines’ Varsity Theatre. Bev Mahon fell in love with his future wife after reading about her in Box Office Magazine while he was enlisted in the Air Force. Patty Crouse worked in the Des Moines film depot wh
Less than 24 hours after news broke that Des Moines’ historic Varsity Cinema was reopening on Dec. 15, nearly all of the tickets for the first movie had