On December 23, Ganado said goodbye to a legend. A little over a month after his 88th birthday, Alvin Svobota passed away.
Alvin was best known to many as the longtime owner of the Ganado Cinema. He loved movies from childhood onward, and began working at the cinema at the age of 15 as a janitor and projextionist. As a teen and young man, eventually becoming the owner.
In a 2016 interview with the Herald-Tribune, Svoboda said he sometimes worked multiple jobs in order to make enough money to keep is work at the cinema.
““I did other things too,” he said, “I drove the Catholic school bus. I was a carpenter’s assistant. I got work where I could supplement. I got by on a minimum salary just to stay here and work. I could have gone out and looked for a job, but nothing interested me but the movies.”
Svoboda loved Ganado, and Ganado loved him.
“Alvin was a true Ganado legend and a blessing to everyone who met him.,” said Ganado Mayor Clinton Tegeler. “There is no possible way to measure the impact to this community by him or the incredible movie theater he devoted his life to.”
Svoboda spent his final years at Grow in Grace Senior Living in Ganado, where he was adored by the staff and fellow residents alike.
“I’m so honored to have gotten the pleasure to not only met him but to care for him the last few years of his life” said Kim Hicks, owner of Grow in Grace. “He always had a good story to tell from the past.”
