Former Town Hall Theater Seats Find A New Venue

By Kendra Bobowick

Below his bare feet the water waited to catch John Kirhoffer more than 20 years ago when he jumped from the infamous Glen Road Silver Bridge, claiming his piece of local daredevil tradition.

A 1981 Newtown High School graduate, Mr Kirhoffer now lives in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., but during one long-distance call this week he talked about Lake Zoar, his high school friends, and the house where he once lived.

“I think we’re all a little nostalgic,” he said.

Now a producer for the television program Survivor, he still keeps his hometown ties firmly cinched. Newtown center stares back at him from a painting that hangs in his house. Newtown friends’ names fill his date book, and each year the group maintains a Super Bowl tradition: get together and watch the game.

This year he added a surprising touch of hometown authenticity. Four former Edmond Town Hall Theater seats sat reupholstered in his yard, ready for his guests to arrive.

“I brought a piece of Newtown here,” he said. His friend and local documentary producer Harvey Hubbell V, also a Newtown native, told Mr Kirhoffer about the seats. While at work on his latest documentary, Dislecksia: The Movie, Mr Hubbell had the seats shipped to Lake Havasu.

From those seats earlier this year a collection of former Newtown residents sat in Lake Havasu, watching football. Thinking back to high school and the diminishing light inside the theater he said, “We probably sat in those seats.” With a quick call to assistant town clerk Ann Benore before the end of football season, he was able to get the town seal, which he reproduced and secured to the seats.

Despite the distance in miles and years, Mr Kirhoffer confessed, “I miss Newtown.” Each year he comes back to see friends, a brother in Oxford, and to remember.

“I’ve been by my old house I grew up in. I’ve knocked on the door,” he admitted. He was able then to tour his old house and yard. A resident here from 1972 through high school graduation, he has bumped into Newtown reminders since he left for college.

As a production assistant just after college, he worked on a set where he met Bruce Jenner. Newtown High School’s football field was once named after the Olympic athlete before being renamed Blue and Gold Stadium.

“It was neat talking to him about Newtown. He jumped off the silver bridge, too,” Mr Kirhoffer laughed.