Gone, but not forgotten. Yet.

Making way for much needed construction jobs is the death of the Varsity Theaters on University Avenue, due to disappear from the neighborhood this week.

With few exceptions, old theater buildings just don’t last. It has nothing to do with construction. Many old theater buildings could last for over 100 years. Their death has more to do with math in the form of revenue per square foot.

A movie theater doesn’t have much going for it except plenty of square feet and even more cubic feet. It’s a lot of space for very little money, and fewer paying customers. As a sign of the times, most theaters in Honolulu have congregated together in movie complexes, like a herd of elephants waiting for the final attack.

I saw movies at the Varsity Theater. My kids saw movies at the Varsity Theater. I even had a couple of UH classes at the Varsity Theater. You know you’re getting older when places you once frequented end their days in a pile of concrete rubble and they call it progress.

Of course, Klum Gym fell to a similar fate, and I considered that to be progress. And, I haven’t forgotten, either.