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"I was born in 1953 in Longview,
Washington.
The town of Yacolt, where we lived an hour and half away, did not have
a hospital. It had a population under 300, one store, one tavern,
no bank, and one stop sign. My mom, dad, sister Debbie and I
lived
on the family farm with my When I was five and
ready to attend school, we moved into Vancouver, Washington. Reino and
Fiina stayed on the farm. For the rest of my childhood, I would spend
the
school year in town and the summer on the farm. In Vancouver I saw lots
of early sound black and white films on television. Hollywood was
fighting
television’s encroachment on their audience, and only My two other great loves as
a child were reading and baseball. I adored Willie Mays. I idolized Lou
Gerig. I was a terrible student. I was a good centerfielder. I wanted
to
be a lawyer. When I was fourteen, I skipped school every Friday, and
spent
the day planning bank robberies, reasoning that I should commit these
crimes
while I was still young enough to be charged as a juvenile. I was
thrown
off the football team for refusing to cut my hair. I spent a good deal
of time in detention. I missed being elected Student Body President by
six votes. The summer after
my freshman year in college, I was living on the farm and working as a
janitor at Yacolt Elementary School. The night before I was to
drive
to Seattle to return to
school, I went into Portland to see an Astaire/Rogers
double feature at the Cine Mini. During I had been living there a couple of weeks when Randy knocked on my door. He needed a projectionist. The theater was in a bind and I was the nearest body. I had two lessons in the projection booth, and on the third night was running SEVEN SAMURAI on my own. Being a projectionist allowed me
to work
my way through college and have lots of time to read. I found that I
loved
showing movies to people. That's what I still do. " - Dennis Nyback |
Finnish grandmother Fiina, and my Uncle Reino.
The farm was 120 acres, half in hay fields and half in
forest.
Yacolt Creek ran right through it. It was spooky. The translation of
the
Indian name Yacolt is “haunted valley”. 
allowed
television
broadcast of movies they thought had no marketable value. By the age of
six I was in love with classic gangster films.
the intermission between
TOP HAT and SWING TIME, I noticed Randy Finley leaning against the
lobby
wall. Randy owned The Movie House in Seattle, my favorite revival
theater.He
asked me what I was doing, and when I told him I was driving to Seattle
the next day to look for an apartment, he said. "You should rent the apartment
upstairs above The Movie House.”
opened