Our grandparents and parents spent their Saturday evenings in elaborate movie theaters built to resemble European opera houses. Today these “palaces” are all but gone, victims of redevelopment, gentrification and the multiplex. Now Oakland artist Miron Murcury has created a unique love letter to the neighborhood movie palace. The Historic Grand Lake Theater is an e-book tour of the Roaring Twenties era theater in over 223 photographs, accompanied by a Kevin King mini-concert on the Wurlitzer organ. A short movie of the landmark roof sign is sure to delight historic theater buffs. A limited number of the first edition multimedia CDs are available now from the author at mironmurcury@aol.com , at the Grand Lake Theater, Walden Pond Books, and other local outlets.  'I wanted to help preserve this beautiful palace and celebrate the theater's 79th anniversary,' said the author, whose first CD-ROM earned a Partners in Preservation Award from the Oakland Heritage Alliance.

 The Historic Grand Lake Theater is a 14-chapter picture book presented as an Acrobat Reader document. It begins with antique and historic photographs and a brief biography of the building with the theater's organ playing in the background.  

 The pictures, selected by Murcury from his half-decade of work as the theater's resident restoration artist, show many normally unseen ornate details and locations.  The camera serves as your guide as it reveals the entire building. It circles the French rococo inspired exterior, glides through the domed foyer and sensuously curving lobby and travels into the four movie palace auditoriums, and peeks into the three projection booths. You'll be guided through the three projection booths, past the proscenium curtain (rescued from San Francisco's Fox Theater) and into the vaudeville-era stage and dressing rooms. You'll even be taken up to the roof to learn how the largest rotary-contact sign west of the Mississippi operates.

 A man of few words, the author clearly explains the many artistic and technical wonders of The Grand Lake Theater. He briefly discusses the three Tiffany Studio stained glass pieces, the roof sign that operates like a music box, and how films are projected in a continuous loop from a platter. In a building equal parts art and commerce, there are many artistic wonders that deserve notice. The hand painted wallpaper and plaster architectural details are the jewelry in the building.  But this is not a ''silent picture show.'' While reading and looking at the photographs, you can listen to the theater's Wurlitzer organ. Kevin King, Grand Lake Organist, has contributed a delightful miniconcert recorded on the 3-manual, 18 rank, Wurlitzer pipe organ. Before restoring the theater's organ, Mr. King played a key roll in the rebuilding and installation of two other large Bay Area Wurlitzer organs. Kevin has performed concerts at many of the country's major theater organ venues and plays the Grand Lake organ Saturday evenings before the feature film. With this CD, you can hear him play at home as well.  With lights, cameras, musical action and costing over one million dollars, The Grand Lake Theater, opened as America's largest neighborhood theater on March 6, 1926. The Historic Grand Lake Theater multimedia CD opens the doors of history and provides a window into a restored cathedral of cinema as no book can.