Send me a text and give me feedback on this episode!
Join me for a special episode of the Hanford Insider which I am titling "An Ultimate Guide to the Hanford Christmas Parade". Listener's should head over to the Hanford Insider YouTube page to see some "extras" included in the episode.
I get to talk with Danny Humason from the Fox Theater about their upcoming shows and Eric gives a complete rundown of high school sports.
You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider
Thank you for supporting the show!
Send me a text and give me feedback on this episode!
Join me for a special episode of the Hanford Insider which I am titling "An Ultimate Guide to the Hanford Christmas Parade". Listener's should head over to the Hanford Insider YouTube page to see some "extras" included in the episode.
I get to talk with Danny Humason from the Fox Theater about their upcoming shows and Eric gives a complete rundown of high school sports.
You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider
Thank you for supporting the show!
On this episode of the Hanford Insider we'll get an inside look into the Hanford Christmas Parade. Dan Humason from the Fox Theatre stops by to tell us about their line-up for shows coming up. Eric Bentley will also give a rundown of the high school basketball and soccer action.
Speaker 2:Welcome to this episode of the Hanford Insider. I'm your host, rob Bentley. I'd like to thank you for listening to the show. Be sure to stop by my website at HanfordInsidercom and leave a review of the show. It really does help me grow the podcast. Those of you listening to the show should check out the special video version of this week's show on my YouTube at Hanford Insider. That version will have a video portion of the Hanford Christmas Parade update.
Speaker 2:The weather this week will be partly cloudy, with highs in the 60s. I'd like to thank all of you who remembered to turn on your headlights in the fog. Last Friday morning At least a third of the drivers I saw in my commute to work did not have their headlights on. Remember, if you have automatic headlights, they don't turn themselves on in the fog by themselves. Are you interested in local government and want to help move the community forward? Serving on one of the city's three commissions may be for you. There are currently openings on the Parking and Traffic Commission, parks and Recreation Commission and Planning Commission. Applications can be found on the city website at cityofhanfordcacom. Let's check out our community calendar. The Miss Kings County organization is now seeking applicants for the 2024 competition. This is open to single females ages 13 to 28. Email MissKingsCountyOrg at gmailcom for more information.
Speaker 2:The Kings County Art League will be holding a special holiday artist's market on Saturday November 25th from 9am to 1pm in the fast plaza of Atrium. Plan B Taphouse will be holding a holiday extravaganza with perfectly potted succulents on Wednesday November 29th at 5.30. It looks like they're going to have some really fun projects for this workshop. Contact Plan B Taphouse at 707-2941 for more information. The Kings Art Center will be holding a DIY holiday workshop on Friday December 1st. Visit kingsartcenterorg for more information. Board and Brush Hanford is holding an ornament workshop on December 2nd. Visit boardandbrushhanfordcom for more information. Hanford Winter Wonderland is now open. Visit hanfordwinterwonderlandcom for more information about all of the fun activities in the Civic Park.
Speaker 2:You're not going to want to miss next week's episode. I'll be sitting down with Brad Albert in the North Pole Lounge to have an inside look at this year's event. Brad is the director of Parks and Community Services. Tickets are still on sale for the Main Street Hanford Wine and Chocolate Tasting event on Friday, december 1st at MainStreetHanfordcom. The Carnegie Museum of Kings County presents the Hitalos Exhibition of Portuguese History each Friday, saturday and Sunday from 1-5 pm. They're also currently selling tickets to their December 9th fundraiser to restore the original 1905 wood flooring in the old Carnegie Library building. For more information and tickets, visit CarnegieMuseumofKingsCountyorg.
Speaker 2:I want to let you know that I'm planning two special episodes on December 18th and 25th for my YouTube channel. I'm looking for local musicians willing to submit videos of their performances so that I can put together a Christmas special for my listeners to enjoy. If you're interested, contact me and I'll give you more information. I'll be grabbing events as I see them on the Hanford Sentinel calendar and social media pages. If you have an event coming up and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to me at HanfordInsider at gmailcom.
Speaker 2:The Hanford Christmas Parade is this Friday, november 24th, at 6 in downtown Hanford. Having participated and attended these parades for most of my life, I thought I'd offer up some of my tips. A few weeks ago we had Amri Marpol, who is the director of the Hanford Chamber of Commerce, on the show. We've been working together over the last few weeks to get important information out to the community about the parade. Most of the parade information can be found on their website at HanfordChambercom, for those of you participating in the parade, you really need to pay attention to your lineup times.
Speaker 2:It's really important for volunteers who are organizing each division. The volunteers will be wearing a blue vest and can be found on the corner of 7th Street and whichever cross street you're lining up at. The lineup area on white, brown, green and hair streets is for entries only. There's no room for personal vehicles to park. Once the parade begins, there is no stopping for people to come in. Once the parade begins, there is no stopping for performances. You may perform at the judge's stand in front of Superior Dairy, but it must be an in motion performance.
Speaker 2:Things like flyers and candy may be passed out, but not thrown from floats or vehicles. It's really dangerous to have kids running out into the street to get candy that is being thrown. Passing out flyers is another thing that's discouraged, because it usually just ends up as trash, left to be picked up by the volunteers after the parade. Now some tips for those of you attending the parade. For me personally, I find that parking west of Irwin Street is best. You'll walk a little farther, but you'll have an easier time getting in and out and spend less time looking for a place to park. I do have some pro tips for those who might want to know, since Sneaky Good Places to Park, but you'll need to join our email list at HanfordInsidercom for that information. Check your email boxes on Wednesday. I think it's maybe set out earlier on parade day, but the city is not liable for any movement of items or theft. Keep this in mind if you're setting out your chairs on Thursday or early Friday morning. If you set your chairs too close to the designated VIP seating near the judging area across from Superior Dairy, they will be moved.
Speaker 2:The parade begins at 6pm at the corner of 7th and White Street. But remember the actual viewing area does not begin until Harris Street. At east of Harris, on Main Street you will not see the last two divisions in the parade. The parade goes from 7th to Irwin, irwin to 8th, 8th to Doughty and then north on Doughty Street just past the Elk's Lodge. The street peddlers will be there. There is no way that they can be stopped. The Chamber of Commerce does have a policy in place to check them in but does not have enough volunteers for enforcement during the parade. If you have a problem with a peddler blocking your view, please let one of the Chamber volunteers wearing a blue vest know and they will do their best to help out.
Speaker 2:Everyone should be prepared to take their trash home with them or place it in one of the 30 trash containers placed throughout the parade route. Take several garbage bags and share them with those around you. You can place those in trash containers on your way to the car. There is no paid staff to pick up the trash on the street after the parade. It's up to all of us to keep the parade route clean. Don't forget there will be fan voting on the Hanford Chamber of Commerce app and on their website at HanfordChambercom. Finally, be very careful when driving around the parade route before and after the parade.
Speaker 2:In other community news, as many of you know, I organized a Christmas Home Decorating Contest for the last 5 or 6 years. This year, since the podcast is taking up so much of my time, I offered it up for someone else to take on the task. I'm happy to report that Hanford Holiday on Facebook will be running the tour this year. I encourage you to go on Facebook and like and follow their page. I'm looking forward to enjoying the tour myself this year without having to record and take pictures. Well, the Hanford Fox Theatre has been a staple in the community since 1929. I've invited Dan Hummison to come on the show to tell us about their upcoming lineup for the holiday shows and movies. Welcome to the show, danny.
Speaker 3:Well, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Hey, it looks like you've got a great lineup for shows coming up. Can you tell us a little bit about your schedule coming up?
Speaker 3:Well, we've got coming up, We'll have the Grinch everybody likes that the day after the Thanksgiving parade. We've decided to do it on Saturday afternoons because people complain to us that they couldn't do the parade and the movie. So that's what we're doing after Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2:That makes sense.
Speaker 3:So that's at two o'clock in the afternoon, and so that's oh. And the other cool thing about the movies that we have coming up is we have the new laser beam projectors, which make all the difference in the world. So you probably notice a difference, or maybe not, but I hope you do.
Speaker 2:So you've got some other movies coming up too. I see on your website you've got several listed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have the traditional, the Christmas story, and or no, it's not the Christmas story, it's home alone. Those go back and forth from time to time, but those are popular and they're on the website and they're selling like normal. We have a thousand seats, so if a movie does a couple hundred, we figure that's good.
Speaker 2:Oh for sure, and as well as movies, you also have some groups coming in. I know you've got King's Symphony and other groups coming in. What does the schedule look like for live performances?
Speaker 3:Well, we've got let's see here coming up. The symphony is always great. That's always the last show of the year. That'll be on the 17th of December. They do that usually about three o'clock in the afternoon, and I think they have a new conductor. You are in tune with those kind of people. Are you aware of that?
Speaker 2:I'm aware of the new staff that they have.
Speaker 3:Okay, great, well, we've got that and that'll end the year. But up here we're doing a lot of movies with schools these days, so they figure that it's a treat for the kids and hopefully for the teachers too. They pick a movie and they come in the morning and they do them. So we've got Washington School in the first and Home Alone, of course, is on the second, and then we also have Kings River Hardwick School and they come and do their winter performance here on the 5th and 6th of December. We've got the movie Elf, which is always popular, on the 8th and that's at 7 o'clock, and then we have the Bethel Ballet on the 9th, and that would be a nutcracker.
Speaker 2:So where can they find out about these shows on your website? What's the address for your website?
Speaker 3:It's real simple it's foxhanfordcom.
Speaker 2:That's super simple. So well, I've got you on the horn here, danny. Let's talk a little bit about the theater itself. You and I are both involved in keeping historical buildings alive in Hanford, and what are the specific things that you've been doing to the theater to? I know you mentioned the projectors, but what other projects do you have that you've been working on to keep the theater relevant?
Speaker 3:Well, it's always important to keep up with the latest technology. So we try to do that, but in an old-fashioned setting as much as possible, and we find that the old theaters are real comfortable. Whether you're in Hanford, vicelya, bakersfield, there's Fresno theaters, the old things, old ones, just seem to have a different feel about them, so we love them. A project that's been going on for a couple of years now is the pipe organ. We've got a 1926 Mighty Words with Theater pipe organ that came out of the Westlake Theater in Los Angeles. When they tore it down they donated the theater organ to us.
Speaker 3:Our pipe organ originally was donated to the Eastern Presbyterian Church in the 50s. So the project's been huge and what we're doing now is we've been collecting, we go through old theaters and go to old weird places and pick up odd instruments that go to pipe organ. So they've been sitting in the corner for years and so we finally found a great technician, dave Marino, out of Sacramento, and he comes on Thursdays and he takes the train down and he's a pipe organ technician and he takes care of about 20 organs in the Bay Area and down in the valley and he has work also in Porterville. So it's convenient, and so he's been coming and teaching Tim Grubb and a few others of us in here who've just donated our time and money and we've been resizing the different pipes and all that sort of thing.
Speaker 3:The other thing that's really cool about what we're doing is we're digitizing it and although that sounds like something modern to go on an old instrument, as long as you still hear the wind through the pipes, that's kind of what we need to hear, because it's completely acoustic and, of course, there's no way to distort. So there are these giant boxes that are full of air and springs and strings and all kinds of different things that take up a huge amount of space and it's really really hard to work on and nobody ever sees that. So we're eliminating that and we're putting in a digitizer, and the digitizer is nice because you can record organ concerts and then play them back. So it's like kind of like having a player piano, but on an organ. It's on a huge scale. So that's the real exciting thing for us and what we've done silent movies here coming up in the spring.
Speaker 2:That's what I was actually going to hit on. Next is, I know, turning the calendar to 2024. I know that you put a pretty good effort into looking at different musical acts that are on tour and seeing if they're a good fit for the theatre. Do you have any inkling as to what we might look forward to in 2024?
Speaker 3:Well, that's 64. We never know what sells. I'm always surprised at what sells and I'm always surprised at what doesn't sell. So I'm not a really good judge there. But what we have had a lot of requests for are I've had a lot of people ask for Selena dates. So we on the 4th of May, to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, we'll be having a Selena. She's one of the top West Coast Selena girls and it's a full band and that ought to be fun. So we've never done that. So we'll see what happens there. And we're looking at some tribute bands too. We have a lot of people that are interested in tribute bands, so we'll venture into those waters and see what that brings us. Nothing specific yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's going to be cool. Hey, thank you for all that you do for Hanford and the surrounding area by bringing musical groups to the Fox Theatre and always opening up your doors for rentals and school groups to be able to perform, and especially the movies. I know a lot of people are really looking forward to the Christmas movies that you're going to be showing. So I just want to thank you for coming on the show and I wish you and your family a great Christmas season.
Speaker 3:Well, you too, Rob, for everything you do for the community. I know you're so involved in the museum and so many other things. We always appreciate all your work. And now it's time for Hanford Insider Sports with Eric Bentley.
Speaker 4:There was lots of action this week, so let's get right into it. We'll start with basketball, as both Hanford West teams took the court. We'll start on the boys side, as they took on a very good bowler team. Unfortunately they lost that one 97-50. The girls played in the Hanford Girls Tournament this weekend and were able to come away with a 1-2 record in their 3 tournament games. But earlier in the week they took on Hanford. That game happened on Tuesday. It was a crosstown showdown that saw the bullpups emerge victorious 63-40. And with that let's talk about Hanford High. Unfortunately, the girls were in action this week and after the win over Hanford West they took on Buchanan and unfortunately couldn't find the offense, as they lost that game 64-22. The Sierra Pacific girls had a busy week as well, but unfortunately weren't able to find the win column as they took on National Powerhouse Clovis West on Monday and then went 0-3 in the Hanford Girls Tournament over the weekend.
Speaker 4:And now let's talk some soccer. This is a score that really stands out. It's Hanford West, as they were able to start their season by taking down Avonau by a final score of 17-0. You heard that right 17-0. The Huskies get their season started on a good note. The Hanford Girls were also able to start off well, as they picked up a 4-0 win over Selma. And this year Pacific girls took the pitch twice. This past week they dropped their season opener to LeMour by a score of 5-1, but bounced right back as they were able to beat Central 2-0.
Speaker 4:And on the boys side, all of the schools had two matches this weekend. We'll start with Hanford, as they lost their season opener to Selma 3-1 but were able to bounce back a little bit, and they played for a draw against Madeira. Final score of that match 3-3. Hanford West was able to pick up a victory in their season opener against Woodlake, 4-2, but dropped the second match of the year to Avonau 1-0.
Speaker 4:Ancier Pacific wasn't able to pick up a win in their opener against Faith Christian. However, they bounced back and picked up a W in their second match against Granite Hills. Final score of that one 2-1. And a special shout out here on the Hanford Insider in Youth Football, a big congratulations to the Hanford United Junior Black for winning their championship this weekend. And speaking of youth sports, hanford Youth Baseball signups are taking place until the end of December. You can sign up by going to hanfordyouthbaseballcom, as always, if you're a fan or a coach who wants your team featured, send us an email HanfordInsider at gmailcom. I'm Eric Bentley and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.
Speaker 2:That's it for today's show. If you enjoyed this podcast, I'd like to ask you to leave a review on your podcast player or on our website. It helps me with the growth of the show. If you'd like to join the Hanford Insider email list, stop by our website at wwwhanfordinsidercom to sign up for updates. I also need help getting the word out about the show by liking and sharing on social media or by telling a friend For more information about the show. You can find this podcast on Facebook, instagram X threads and YouTube at Hanford Insider. If you have a show idea, be sure to email me at HanfordInsider at gmailcom and I'll get going on it. Thanks for listening. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.