Meat Loaf, rock legend and ‘Bat Out of Hell’ singer, dead at 74
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Legendary rock singer Meat Loaf has died, according to an announcement posted on his official Facebook page. He was 74.
“Our hearts are broken to announce that the incomparable Meat Loaf passed away tonight with his wife Deborah by his side,” the post said. “Daughters Pearl and Amanda and close friends have been with him throughout the last 24 hours.”
Meat Loaf was reportedly “seriously ill” with COVID-19 just days before his death.
Born Marvin Lee Aday in Dallas, Texas, in 1947, Meat Loaf began acting and singing in school productions. He moved to Los Angeles after his mother’s death in 1965.
In Los Angeles, Meat Loaf spent his time pursuing careers in both acting and music. He had a brief stint recording for Motown, and opened for touring bands including the Who and the Grateful Dead.
Meat Loaf in 2010. In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published last August, he labelled face masks a “nuisance” and told the outlet: “I’m sorry, I understood stopping life for a little while, but they cannot continue to stop life because of politics.” EPA
In 1971, Meat Loaf was cast in the Los Angeles production of the musical “Hair.” He later joined the original LA Roxy cast of “The Rocky Horror Show” in 1973, playing the parts of Eddie and Dr. Everett Scott. After the success of the musical, Meat Loaf was asked to reprise his role as Eddie in the 1975 film adaptation, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” which became one of the most beloved cult films of all time.
In 1973, Meat Loaf also served as an understudy for his friend John Belushi in “Lemmings,” a National Lampoon stage production on Broadway.
Meat Loaf’s big break in music came with the release of his debut album, “Bat Out of Hell,” in 1977. The album has sold over 43 million copies worldwide and was certified 14 times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Last year also saw the death of Jim Steinman, his longtime collaborator and songwriter. Steinman wrote all the songs on “Bat Out of Hell.”
“Bat Out of Hell” featured many of Meat Loaf’s most recognizable songs, including “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth” and “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.” In “Paradise By the Dashboard Light,” Meat Loaf sang a duet with Ellen Foley about going all the way, and featured mock play-by-play analysis by legendary Yankees broadcaster Phil Rizzuto.
Meat Loaf died “with his wife Deborah by his side,” according to a heartbreaking Facebook post. WireImage
Meat Loaf and his frequent collaborator Jim Steinman in the late 1970s. Photofest
Meat Loaf would go on to record 11 more albums in his long career as a recording artist, including two sequels to “Bat Out of Hell.” In total, he sold more than 80 million albums over the course of his career.
Meat Loaf would also go on to have a successful career as an actor, appearing in movies such as “Spice World,” “Fight Club” and “Wayne’s World.”
Although his official cause of death has yet to be confirmed, he famously labeled face masks a “nuisance” in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published last August.
“I’m sorry, I understood stopping life for a little while, but they cannot continue to stop life because of politics,” he told the outlet. “And right now they’re stopping because of politics. And on CNN last night, it finally came out that the masks we’re all wearing are useless — but I’ve known that for six months.
As for masks, he argued: “They don’t do anything. They don’t stop you from getting Covid. They’re just a nuisance and make your nose itch and make it so you can’t breathe. After the interviewer said: “We’re being controlled by everybody”, he replied: “Yeah, I know. But not me. If I die, I die, but I’m not going to be controlled.”
Meanwhile, celebrities took to social media Friday to pay their respects to the star, including former collaborator Cher and fellow musician Boy George.
With Post wires
Meat Loaf embraces friend and collaborator Ted Nugent backstage at a concert in 1979. Getty Images
Meat Loaf poses with Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry at the party for the premiere of the movie “Roadie,” June 12, 1980, in New York. AP
Who is Jim Belushi?
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ACTOR Jim Belushi is recognized for his various appearances across television and film.
He is the younger brother of the original Saturday Night Live cast member, the late John Belushi, who passed away in 1982.
1 Jim Belushi starred in dozens of television and movie productions, it runs in the family
Who is Jim Belushi?
Jim Belushi is an American actor from Chicago, Illinois.
He followed in his famous older brother, John’s, footsteps by starring in and writing for Saturday Night Live from 1983 to 1985.
Belushi appeared in a titular series of his own, According to Jim, from 2001 to 2009 on ABC.
The actor’s cinematic roles include The Man With One Red Shoe, Little Shop of Horrors, Jumpin Jack Flash, Gang Related, and many more.
What is Jim Belushi’s net worth?
Jim Belushi has been actively appearing in television and film since the 1970s.
Belushi’s portrayed characters in the movies Trading Places, About Last Night, Curly Sue, Hookwinked, and dozens more.
He’s amassed quite a fortune throughout his Hollywood career.
According to CelebrityNetWorth, Jim Belushi’s net worth is $50 million.
Is Jim Belushi married?
Jim Belushi married his first wife, Sandra Davenport, on May 17, 1980.
Together they have one son, actor Robert Belushi, on October 23 of that year.
Belushi and Davenport divorced in 1988.
He was married to his second wife, About Last Night co-star Marjorie Bransfield, from 1990 to 1992.
On May 2, 1998, Jim Belushi and Jennifer Sloan tied the knot.
However, the couple separated in 2018.
Although they later reconciled, they ultimately divorced in 2021.
Belushi and Sloan have two children, a son and a daughter, together.
45 Years Ago: Bill Murray Makes His Uncomfortable ‘SNL’ Debut
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It’s never easy to replace a star. The worlds of sports, broadcasting and television are littered with stories of talented individuals who succeeded legends, only to fail.
The cards were stacked against Bill Murray Jan. 15, 1977, when he debuted on Saturday Night Live. Then just 26 years old, he was replacing Chevy Chase. SNL’s first star had departed the series to pursue a film career.
Though the cast still included talent such as John Belushi, Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd, Murray was the new guy. The pressure was on him to fill the show’s Chase-sized hole, and initial results were not encouraging.
“I remember my very first show. I had a sketch that was a little tricky to do, a telephone sketch,” Murray later recalled in the book Live From New York: The Complete Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. “They were making me up for the first time and they were trying to make me look old and — well, you don’t feel really comfortable the first time they make you look old. There was like a committee of people going, ‘Maybe if you put some gray in his temples,’ and you’re thinking, ‘Oh my God, we’re going to be in trouble out here.’”
Murray was still adjusting to his role, and arguments over costumes and makeup didn’t make things any more comfortable: “My confidence sort of dropped, because I thought, ‘This isn’t really helping me.’”
Though he was still finding his place, Murray got through his first few shows relatively unscathed.
“I did three shows and they were on a look-see basis. I think they hired me for three shows. And I remember just walking out onto the street after the first show and Lorne said, ‘I guess you’re going to be moving to New York,’” Murray said in Live From New York. “And it felt great, you know. It felt really good. And so I thought, ‘This is great, I did it.’ But then I didn’t get any sketches for weeks after that. That’s when I became the second cop. Most of the rest of the year I played the ‘second cop’ in sketches.”
Sensing that he was fading into the background, Murray decided to make an appeal to viewers.
“I’d really been there a pretty long time, and they were sort of stuck with me. I was there, they’d sort of hired me, I was getting paid, but I was playing that second cop every week. You sort of have to break through, be noticed by the audience. They have to understand you a little bit, see a little bit of who you are, but as the second cop you don’t really get those opportunities,” Murray explained.
So, on his sixth episode as a cast member, roughly two months after his debut, Murray looked directly into the camera and apologized for not being funny.
Watch Bill Murray’s Apology on ‘Saturday Night Live’
“Hello, I’m Bill Murray. You can call me Billy. But around here, everybody just calls me the ‘new guy,” he began. “I’m a little bit concerned. I don’t think I’m making it on the show. I’m a funny guy, but I haven’t been so funny on the show. My friends say, ‘How come they’re giving you all those parts that aren’t funny?’ Well, it’s not the material, it’s me.”
Murray then told everyone his story, of growing up in an Irish-Catholic family, one of nine children, living in a small Illinois town, losing his father at the age of 17 – all of which, it should be noted, was true. More importantly, it was funny.
“I did this thing, I wrote the thing, and it was kind of funny, and I wasn’t too full of myself or anything. There was a couple tablespoons of humility in it, I got laughs in it, and I think the combination of the two broke some sort of ice, not just for me but for people watching, and they thought, ‘Well, okay, he’s going to be funny. He made us laugh with that sort of “I’m dying here’ thing” — which I’ve seen people do and die at. You know, I’ve seen people make that move before and fail, so the fact that I made that move and it was funny sort of took the pressure off.”
Rock’s 60 Biggest ‘Saturday Night Live’ Performances
Did SNL Finally Confirm the Fifth Beatle?
from childhood threesome to ‘murderous’ dad & ’trying to shove Prince Andrew in moat’
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HE flew into the music charts like a Bat Out Of Hell and spent the rest of his career beguiling fans and journalists with a mixture of fact and fiction.
But today, it was revealed Meat Loaf has passed away at the age of 74 - a year after he retired from music.
9 Rock legend Meat Loaf has passed away Credit: Alamy
9 Meat Loaf with Sarah Ferguson during The Grand Knockout tournament in 1987 Credit: � USA Network / courtesy Everett Collection / Mary Evans
Few musicians can claim they managed to irritate the Queen, Prince Andrew and half of the entertainment industry over their career.
Yet the singer, whose real name is Michael Lee Aday, lived life to the full after overcoming a childhood of abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father, who allegedly tried to attack him with a knife after his mum’s tragic death.
In his school days, Meat Loaf claimed he experienced his first threesome and got his incredible voice due to a freak accident - the first in a long line of eyebrow-raising tales.
After conquering the music world with his iconic record Bat Out of Hell, the rock legend went on to cheat death, row with Donald Trump and even appear in the Spice World movie.
He married his first love, Leslie, within just a month of meeting, but passed away this week with his second wife, Deborah, by his side.
‘I fought for my life as dad plunged knife’
9 The singer, pictured in his school days, had a tumultuous childhood Credit: Handout
Meat Loaf’s mother, Wilma, spent her days teaching and her nights going from bar to bar in a bid to find her missing husband around their hometown of Dallas, Texas.
But in 1966 she died from cancer, devastating the teenager, then 19, who claimed he grabbed her dead body at the funeral and screamed at undertakers “you can’t have her”.
Shortly after the funeral his father, Orvis, allegedly attempted to attack him with a knife and Meat Loaf had to fight him off, breaking his father’s nose and ribs in the process.
“I rolled off the bed just as he put that knife right in the mattress,” he said.
“I fought for my life. Apparently I broke three ribs and his nose, and left the house barefoot in a pair of gym shorts and a T-shirt.”
Meat Loaf never went home. Instead, he moved to LA in 1967 and began singing in bands and acting - getting an understudy role for John Belushi in National Lampoon Show.
He has since forgiven his father, explaining in a 2016 interview: “He tried to kill me with a butcher knife but all of that is just life. Alcoholism is a disease. You deal with it, you go on, you don’t hold grudges.”
Cat with ‘48 lives’
9 Star Jones, Marlee Matlin, Donald Trump, Meat Loaf and John Rich attend An Evening with ‘The Celebrity Apprentice’ Credit: Getty
Meat Loaf’s baffling number of injuries and near death experiences led him to describe himself as a “cat with 48 lives”.
In 2013, he told Ultimate Classic Rock he suffered 18 concussions, survived eight car crashes, and had close calls on planes.
He also claimed he had “fallen three storeys” and had so many near misses and collisions that he “should have died” - but the truth of these accidents has never been verified.
Meat Loaf even claims his singing voice came as the result of a 12-pound shot put being thrown at his head from 62-feet away during school.
He told The Telegraph: “Didn’t even knock me out. Weird.”
Shortly after he was trying out for a choir and found he suddenly had a three-and-a-half-octave vocal range. He was also left with a dent in his head.
But school wasn’t all bullies and injuries - Meal Loaf also got to experience his first ‘threesome’ at just 11 despite his large size.
“I had my first three-way in my mother’s car in the fifth grade,” he said. “OK, it was a make-out session with two girls, but that’s still a threesome.”
‘I was a perfect monster’
9 Meat Loaf was known for his seminal record Bat Out of Hell Credit: Rex
Before Meat Loaf made it big in the music industry, he worked as a jobbing actor and starred in The Rocky Horror Show film and Fight Club.
His big breakthrough came with 1977’s Bat Out Of Hell, which has since sold 43 million copies globally.
Meat Loaf’s larger-than-life persona dazzled listeners.
He stepped his antics up a notch on tour, opting to make out with singing partner Karla Devito on stage while performing “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”.
She had no idea it was coming.
The drummer in his band claimed Karla went through hell, with Meat Loaf allegedly hurling “a giant heavy steel mic stand bottom” at her and one time he got so carried way he chucked her off stage.
But he tortured himself just as much, requiring oxygen after some performances where he pushed himself too hard.
After one performance when Meat Loaf opted to begin with speeches rather than singing, his band was booed - leading to him trashing his dressing room backstage in a characteristic fit of rage.
“I was a perfect monster,” he recalled. Quickly the broken furniture turned into broken bones, with Meat Loaf fracturing his leg falling off the stage which ended the tour.
Furious, devastated and high on cocaine, the singer suffered a nervous breakdown and threatened to throw himself off the edge of a high-rise building.
Thankfully he was talked down by road manager Sam Ellis and continued his rise to world stardom.
Married first wife after a month
9 The 73-year-old passed away with second wife Deborah by his side Credit: PA
By 1978 Meat Loaf was one of the most high-profile performers on Earth.
He and his band teetered on the edge of self-destruction - fuelled by insurrection, drugs, and infighting.
The same year, he met his first wife Leslie, then a secretary for Bearsville Records. He married her within a month of their first meeting.
His proposal to her at The Bear Cafe was bizarre to say the least.
Producer Todd Rundgren recalled Meat Loaf got down on one knee with “a giant whole salmon. And it was as if a bear had proposed to his mate. Instead of a ring, a salmon.”
The pair moved to Stamford, Connecticut, with Leslie’s daughter Pearl from a previous relationship.
In 1981 they welcomed their daughter Amanda Aday and Meat Loaf coached baseball and softball while the girls grew up.
By 2001 the marriage had collapsed and the pair divorced. The singer later found love again with Deborah Gillespie who he married in 2007 and stayed with until his death.
The couple split their time between LA and Texas and while her husband may be comfortable in the public eye, it appears Deborah was not.
Little is known about her, despite being credited on two of Meat Loaf’s documentaries.
The pair did not go on to have children, but Deborah was a step mum to his two children with Leslie.
Bankruptcy troubles after voice disappeared
9 The Bat Out Of Hell legend, pictured with singer Karla Devito, was known for his larger than life personality Credit: Corbis - Getty
Shortly after Bat Out Of Hell was released, Meat Loaf was unable to sing for psychological reasons.
Longtime collaborator Jim Steinman said Meat “sounded literally like the little girl in The Exorcist … like a dragon trying to sing. It was a horrifying sound.”
His inability to sing lasted for years and required six months of psychological therapy to restore his voice.
In 1983 he was forced to declare bankruptcy - his road to financial hell paved with poor money management and expensive lawsuits.
He became more insular and admitted: “I was nuts. I mostly turned it inward. And it was all over being famous. I didn’t want people to call me a star.”
The singer claimed coaching little league baseball got him through the rough patch - and it’s no surprise he turned to sport.
Meat Loaf has had a long love affair with the beautiful game and was a proud supporter of Hartlepool FC despite growing up across the pond. He was allegedly planning to move to the town but never made it over.
He was also a devoted Yankees fan and owned a large collection of memorabilia and made history by drafting the first girl to a Stamford Little League team.
‘I don’t care if you’re Prince Andrew - you’re going in the moat’
9 Meat Loaf greeted at Stafford railway station by Prince Edward for rehearsals of the Grand Knockout Tournament in 1987 Credit: PA
By 1987 he was back on his feet and performing in England and even managed to have an alleged scuffle with the Royal Family.
Meat Loaf took part in the UK’s Royal Knockout tournament. The event involved celebrities and members of the royal family dressed as damsels, squires, and minstrels at an amusement park.
The event, broadcast on TV, raised £1.5million for charity and had more than 18million people tune in to see royals prodding celebrities in the bottom and messing around.
Allegedly, the Queen was furious for it making royals look ridiculous and Meat Loaf claimed he riled Her Majesty by putting his hands on Prince Andrew.
In one of his typically tall-tales, the singer joked that Sarah Ferguson - then still married to the Prince - wanted a piece of him, and her husband was less than impressed.
He explained in a 2003 interview: “Fergie wasn’t exactly flirting with me, but she was paying attention to me.”
Andrew allegedly tried to shove Meat into a moat, but the singer grabbed Andrew instead.
“You can’t touch me. I’m royal,” the prince supposedly said, to which Meat replied, “Well you try to push me in the moat, Jack, I don’t give a s**t who you are, you’re going in the moat.”
Not one to be pigeon-holed, Meat Loaf even made waves on reality TV when he appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice in 2011.
During the show, he became pally with Donald Trump but things went sour after he was asked a question about Trump running to be president.
Meat Loaf said: “And I answered honestly – ‘Well he’s not running for President. But if I was President I would see if I couldn’t get him to join the staff in a finance position and give me advice on finances and the economy as the man is really smart at that.’”
It resulted in the pair having a heated row backstage at an Emmy nomination ceremony - with Trump being furious that Meat Loaf didn’t think he should run for president. He did anyway.
But music was always Meat Loaf’s first love, and he even hoped to die on stage - saying it would be the best thing that could happen to him.
He said: “Because then I’m dying doing what I love.”
When the time came, he didn’t pass away in front of a large audience.
Instead it was in bed surrounded by friends and family, who remained his most loyal fans.
9 He was also an actor, appearing in hits like Fight Club and Spice World Credit: Supplied by LMK
It’s hard to talk to a Hollywood star when you don’t realize he was one of your heroes
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It’s hard to talk to a Hollywood star when you don’t realize he was one of your heroes
In this 1969 file photo originally released by CBS, actor James MacArthur is shown in character as Detective Dan Williams in the TV show “Hawaii Five-O.” MacArthur, the son of actress Helen Hayes and playwright Charles MacArthur, died in 2010 at age 72. MacArthur also appeared in 1960’s “Swiss Family Robinson,” favorite of the young Dave Heun. Associated Press File Photo/CBS
Throughout my career, I’ve interviewed or at least spoken to several people who have been in the national spotlight. Marquette basketball coach Al McGuire; former Bulls standouts Michael Jordan, Jerry Sloan, Norm Van Lier and Artis Gilmore; actress Michael Learned of “The Waltons”; presidential candidate Bob Dole; comedian Jim Belushi; rock star and Steppenwolf frontman John Kay; Sun Records owner Sam Phillips (he, of Elvis Presley fame); Cubs stars Randy Hundley and Billy Williams; and White Sox star Tim “Rock” Raines. There are probably others, but the point is, you meet interesting people when you are a journalist.
But imagine talking to a Hollywood star and not realizing he was actually your childhood hero. It’s frustrating to figure that out years later.
And I’ve been frustrated before. After all, I had the opportunity to visit another hero, Larry Fine of The Three Stooges, in 1974 when he was in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center near Hollywood. My friend’s grandmother worked at the hospital and arranged for us to visit.
We got to the hospital parking lot and chickened out, under the excuse of not wanting to see one of our beloved Stooges in bad shape. Larry died in January of 1975 and the Stooges’ Moe Howard wrote in his book that Larry was disappointed fans never came to visit. I regret it to this day.
So, who was the childhood hero I actually spoke to and didn’t make the connection? That would be James MacArthur, who played Fritz Robinson in the Disney adventure yarn “Swiss Family Robinson” in 1960. As a 7-year-old kid, it was easy for me to believe it was the greatest movie ever made.
It turns out MacArthur, whose mother was theater legend Helen Hayes, was a distant relation of the late Skott Zimmerman, a St. Charles golf store operator who sponsored and organized the Midwest Golf Pro-Am event each summer at the Royal Fox Country Club to benefit Special Olympics.
MacArthur came to St. Charles a few times for this event that I was fortunate enough to play in. I never played with MacArthur, but I talked to him in 1998 at the post-event dinner.
I knew him only as a famous actor in “Hawaii Five-O” in the role of Danny “Danno” Williams, with the famous line of “Book ’em, Danno” closing many of the shows after a criminal was caught.
He was a nice fellow. We shook hands and talked about golf, because I didn’t know what else to talk about. I didn’t watch “Hawaii Five-O.”
James MacArthur, right, goes over his script with actor Edward Arnold in preparation for MacArthur’s first professional acting job on a national television program (“Climax,” CBS) in Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 25, 1955. - Associated Press Photo/Ellis R. Bosworth
In just the past month, I came across an old VHS tape of “Swiss Family Robinson” in a box at home – and there it was. James MacArthur had a huge role, along with other Disney child stars – Tommy Kirk, who passed away late last year, and Kevin “Moochie” Corcoran, who died in 2015. And it all came back to me that MacArthur was my favorite character, kind of an Errol Flynn swashbuckler type, fighting giant snakes and pirates and eventually winning the love interest in the film.
I dug out the printed program for that 1998 golf event (yes, journalists don’t throw things out) and read the entry about MacArthur, and it did not mention the movie.
It’s hard to believe I missed the chance to talk to him about what it was like to make that cool movie. It would be similar to someone talking to actor Tom Hanks when he was in downtown Geneva in 2001 filming “Road to Perdition,” but not realizing he was the star of “Big,” one of your favorite movies when you were a kid in 1988.
I didn’t make that mistake when I met Jerry “The Beaver” Mathers and Tony “Wally” Dow at an autograph signing event at DuPage County Fairgrounds two years ago. I knew what I wanted to ask them beforehand, being familiar with most every episode of “Leave it to Beaver.”
As it turned out, I never saw James MacArthur again – and he passed away at age 72 in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2010.
Getting a chance to talk to a famous person isn’t a rarity in the Tri-Cities area. We’ve had our fair share of Hollywood, music or sports royalty turn up; Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys lived in St. Charles for several years, and Donnie Wahlberg and Jenny McCarthy call St. Charles their home now.
The Arcada Theater has so many music icons perform here, you could run into one at any time – like seeing Graham Nash at a nearby car show before his gig or, prior to his passing, seeing Davey Jones of The Monkees walking around town.
I’m not certain what the moral of this story is. But don’t pass up the opportunity to talk to a movie, sports or music star if you ever get the chance. At the very least, make sure you remember if that big star was one of your heroes.
Let’s ‘Gather’ at bakery
Like most teachers, Sandra Ranney of St. Charles enjoys seeing her former students do well. In the case of one of her former third-grade students at Fox Ridge Elementary, Deanna (Pieniazek) Keilty, it also carries the benefit of trying delicious bakery goods Deanna and her husband, Eric, prepare for various marketplaces.
Eric and Deanna lived in Chandler, Arizona, where they began an in-home bakery called “GingerBrick,” selling goodies at various markets throughout Phoenix.
Because her family is still in this area and her mother, Donna, a former substitute teacher in St. Charles, was quite ill, Deanna and Eric moved back and ended up in Rockford.
After Donna’s passing, they changed the name of the bakery to “Gather” in reference to gathering again with family and friends – and they started selling in local markets.
Gather Bakery has a booth on Fridays at the Baker Community Church indoor market in St. Charles, and on Saturdays at the Batavia downtown indoor farmers market.
When visiting friends in Arizona, Ranney said she would sample some of the couple’s bakery goods – Jalapeño cheddar bread, Danish, bagels, focaccia, scones, croissants and fudge.
“My friends here would beg Ken and Donna to bring up some treats when they would return for visits,” Ranney said.
As a lifelong resident of St. Charles, Ranney has it in her blood to support local businesses. After all, her father was George Worthley of the Klick and Worthley Drug Store, which is now the site of the ZaZa Trattoria restaurant.
Her grandfather was Carl Soderquist, whose construction company built the original Illinois Street Bridge, among other area sites.
“It’s a reason why I like to support local business and give a shout out when someone like Deanna and Eric have brought their future to our area,” Ranney said.
A tile takeover
In case anyone is wondering what is going on when they see work crews at the former Binny’s Beverage Depot site in St. Charles, you may soon see builders and handymen alike visiting the place.
The city doesn’t have a lot to share on it yet, but preliminary information indicates the former Binny’s at 1950 Lincoln Hwy. is being cleared to make way for a tile store.
Binny’s moved to the Geneva Commons nearly a year ago.
The city didn’t have a name to share yet on who is potentially taking over the St. Charles location, but Floor & Décor comes to mind as a guess, because it’s a rather large tile store.
It’s almost movie time
I’m not really in a moviegoing mindset yet, but it has been difficult to see the Randall 15 complex in Batavia empty since last March.
Michigan-based Emagine Entertainment is about to take over the complex and include Emax, a 94-foot-wide screen. Anyone itching to go to the show at this Randall Road site has a reason to be hopeful about doing so sometime in 2022.
Emagine also is seeking a liquor license for the theater complex.
Oh boy, another place for me to imbibe a bit and fall asleep while watching a movie.