Treat Las
Great Music!

76

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Head t-e Ann Arbor

On The Boolishelfi
ALC.
rXani ninr,
,

Skip Rosenthal
says banjo
MuSie makes
people smile.

I (9senthal found

dience outside

his bookstore.

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Now he entertains

at the theater next door.

4.,

ELIZABETH APPLEBAI.N1
Special to The Jewish AI,ws

P

irst comes the silence.
Skip Rosenthal takes a key
from his pocket and walks
slowly into the lobby, still filled
with the smell of popcorn mixed with a
bit of chocolate and that indefinable
aroma that says — no matter whether
you're in a metropolis or a town with a
population of 100 — movie theater.
It's dark in here, and quiet except for
the sound of footsteps.
Rosenthal's footsteps.
He's almost reverent when he thinks
about .vhat has passed in this old movie
theater, sitting just on the edge of a corner
in Farmington: thousands of viewers, gen-
eration alter generation, in the same room,
mesmerized by the films ofevervone from
Greta Garbo and Rita I layworth to Paul
Newman and Al Pacino.
These days, they come to see Skip
Rosenthal, too.
For 10 years, Rosenthal had been play-
ing banjo in front of his bookstore, Books
Abound, in downtown Farmington. "Men
several months ago management at the
city-owned Farmington Civic Theater,
right next door to Books Abound, invited
him to play i 15-minute show before the
start of every film, in each of the two the-
aters. I is agreed.
These days, Rosenthal plays four con,
certs each evening, on Friday and
Saturday nights, reaching an audience of
ntore than 1,330 on a typical weekend.
He (owes in before t h e movie begins,
sits M. the front and takes out his banjo.
Rosenthal does it for free because he
loves it - I am
ittiti you should
excuse the expression ---• a 'ham,'" he
says. "And banjo playing makes people
happy. You start ',L y ing and people
smile. That's wily I do it."
Farmington
City Manager Frank
, ,.,,
Lannon is among those ,AsIto t otne to
heat Rosenthal play. Ile saVS, - I \ve
known Skip for about 17 years and, in a
wow, he has established himself as a eitV
ndm just like the Civit. Theater.
laark,
"I le enjoys people, and they enjoy
him. I remember When he began. to
play outside his bookstore while people
waited to buy their movie tickets. He
actually made it enjoyable to stand in
line and wait for 30 militates; it

BANJO MAN on page 74

4Aiti

6/8
2001

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