June 1 Premiere of New Provo Theater To Be Benefit For Proposed Inter-Faith Chapel at State Hospital

The 18-year-old drive to obtain enough funds to build an inter-faith chapel at the Utah State Hospital is expected to take a long step forward on June 1.

For on that date, three-fourths of the proceeds from the premiere opening of Provo's new Fox Theater at 1230 North and Third West will go into the chapel fund.

The opening picture for the new theater's premiere will be "The War Wagon," a top-budget Hollywood production with a host of big stars including John Wayne.

The theater management Is selling 750 seats to the chapel fund organization at $1 per seat. The fund group intends to resell the seats for $4 each — a tax deductible purchase, incidently. Thus, the committee ropes to net $3 for each of the 750 seats.

The drive for funds to build an inter-faith chapel at the hospital has been a long, and at times discouraging one It started in 1959. Through various means over the past 18 years, a total of $41,552 has been raised. The chapel will cost an estimated $80,000.

In addition to the money already raised, Hugh Dougall, of Springville has volunteered to donate the stone for the building, worth an estimated $15,000, from his property on the North Fork of Hobble Creek.

But that still leaves a long way to go, and the June 1 premiere benefit event is expected to provide only about $2500 of the total amount still needed. It should, however, be the shot in the arm the drive needs really to get it rolling again.

The new chapel will be located where the old Hardy building, recently demolished, was situated south of the Central Administration structure. Utility lines are already into this site, and the hospital administration has given assurance that it will bring utilities to the chapel, maintain the building and provide utilities afte construction, and that it will landscape the surroundings.

The new chapel when constructed will perform the following functions: Inter-faith worship services conducted by the hospital chaplain, LDS Sacrament meetings and Sunday School, separate worship services of other faiths where sufficient numbers exist to justify them, services as part of "Family Days" where families and patients may worship together, office for the hospital chaplain and one for the LDS Branch Presidency (which presides over the big majority of the patients), LDS Relief Society meetings, branch officers and teachers meetings In the conference room, organ recitals and religious concerts, memorial services for deceased patients, chapel and grounds to be open for meditation at all times.