(Tench Phillips and Thom Vourlas share a laugh and popcorn outside the Naro Expanded Cinema. Photo by Jeff Maisey.)
Tench Phillips III and Thom Vourlas were featured on WTAR News in August of 1977—about two weeks before they opened the Naro Expanded Cinema on Colley Avenue in Norfolk.
“We feel like the only place for this type of cinema is in Ghent,” Vourlas said at the time, “because Ghent is growing. … Colley Avenue seems to be coming back alive. 21st Street is going to be rebuilding. We have townhouses going up in the neighborhood. We feel like this is the only place it can happen.”…