'Lobster Fisherman Of Marblehead' Sells Out At Warwick Cinemas

When Johnny Ray and Dan Dixey met for lunch at the Three Cod Tavern in Marblehead last spring to talk about playing Dan's new documentary, "Lobster Fisherman of Marblehead" at Warwick Cinemas and Event Center, neither one of them knew what to expect. As a native of Marblehead with ancestry going back to the landing of the Mayflower, Dan Dixey is a well-known Marblehead historian, author, photographer, and now documentarian. In fact, his 10th great grandfather Issac Allerton who was the passenger on the Mayflower established Marblehead's first commercial fishery in 1631. "I think Dan's deep ties to the community along with his natural fascination with the family industry and the dozens of friends he knows in the business was all the inspiration he needed," says Ray, "so, to pick up his camera on state street landing one day during the pandemic and start documenting the comings and goings of the lobstermen he knew personally was just one of those fortunate moments of inspiration that happens organically. As a composer and recording artist, I get it." Two years later Dan had a full-length documentary that Mr. Ray discovered while perusing the Marblehead community pages on Facebook. "Dan was getting major support from the Marblehead Museum to exhibit his film and every showing was bursting at the seams just by word of mouth. Something told me that a film like this is exactly what the founders of Warwick Cinemas had in mind when they built the theater over 100 years ago. So, I reached out to Dan and the rest is history. " As it turns out, Mr. Dixey was thinking the same thing and many of the locals were asking him how to facilitate this. He had also been trying to reach someone at the theater. Mr. Ray who is one of the partners at The Beacon Restaurant and Warwick Cinemas and handles public relations has been known for his community outreach by producing the first "Woman of Color in the Arts" exhibit at the theater and by providing a weekly stage at the restaurant for high school performers who were part of the "Marblehead's Got Talent" series created by the local Rotary Club. Mr. Ray says, "my partners and I believe that running first run movies will always be the heartbeat of Warwick Cinemas but branching out into special events like this will be the soul of the venue moving forward." Last week Mr. Dixey came to town for a final meeting at The Beacon Restaurant to discuss opening dates and ticket pricing. It was decided that the tickets would be made affordable at only $12 general admission so that everyone would have a chance to see the film. Johnny Ray also suggested that a portion of the box office proceeds be donated to the Marblehead Museum who have been so supportive of the project from the very beginning and because they do such good work for the community in general. Mr. Ray intends to award a check to the museum on the night of their annual speakeasy soiree September 9th while he'll be performing there with his band. In the meantime, nobody could have expected the reaction to the tickets to Mr. Dixey's documentary when they went on sale on Thursday August 10th. The decision had been made to have two shows on September 7th. One matinee and one evening showing. No sooner did Johnny tell Dan that the event had been created and posted that the email alerts came flying in. "When I got home from the restaurant that night, I messaged Dan to tell him that the first show had sold out already and the second show would probably be sold out by morning. The next day I contacted our cinema director, Harold Blank and we had to do some shuffling to make sure we could accommodate all the tickets sold." By the end of that day, there would be two 4'oclock showings in both theaters on September 7, and one 7PM showing in cinema 1, with all of the shows sold out! To keep up with the demand, two more shows were added. One for Friday September 8 at 4PM and another for Saturday September 9th at 4PM, all of which sold out in a matter of hours once they were added. As of right now, Mr. Ray says the cinema is reeling from the recent Barbie mania and the Oppenheimer film which were released around the same time, but they are also delighted at Mr. Dixey's success and hoping for more showings of his documentary in the near future as well as making the documentary available for streaming on the theaters new streaming app called Warwick TV which is currently available right now in the App Store for all IOS and Android devices.