PLEASE HELP SAVE OUR HOUSE!!!

***MY EMERGENCY HOME PRESERVATION FUNDRAISER PROJECT***

PLEASE HELP ME SAVE MY HOUSE!

I have an emergency situation.  I'm asking for your help. I stand to lose a very unique & very special beach house that has been in my family since 1910.  The time to save it is now very short ...

***MY EMERGENCY HOME PRESERVATION FUNDRAISER PROJECT***

Mark Page here (known to many of you on FB as X)....We've had lots of fun out here interacting and getting to know eachother since 2007...As friends, artists, 60's & 70's fans, musicians....The FB parties have been great. Right now, I'm faced with something both urgent and serious---Losing my family's historic coastal property....Many of you were there for me when I lost my parents (my mom just last year)....Your support was greatly appreciated.
Having A.S. and having had to take care of my parents for 10 years...and manage this property (which is now $30,000 behind on taxes) wasn't a good mix. Although I've really tried....I wasn't able to come up with the funds to pay off the taxes. I REALLY need your help. I'm calling upon any of you who are able & willing to help. 

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This 1910 house is of both extreme historical and sentimental value for me. Lots of info on the GoFundMe link. The summer home of my great grandparents who owned Aurora Films & discovered Thelma Todd...A home to me and members of family (some of you know Cyn, Jenn, etc.) for many years. Now we're being tossed out. The design-unique 16 bedroom house is in great shape for its age, despite needing a good paint job, and a few fixes. I am trying to find more pictures. As a professional songwriter, I'd be willing to work out any sort of incentive/reward deal for help...Many of you are musicians...I'm willing to work out a deal....I'll write custom songs as a bonus for certain donation levels...There are many deals I'd be willing to work out---Please just private message me...!
I'm really down to the wire here, and I would work with all sorts of ideas to save it. If someone could even loan me the money, we could talk. Again...PM me if you like & I'll give all the details, share the newspaper article on the film co, talk about songs I could write for you...Anything. The town wants to throw us out, knock it down & put up a parking lot! I'll be looking for more pictures. I'm willing to share photos and some info about myself privately (so you know who you're dealing with)...I'm willing to chat on the phone with anyone who wants to discuss this...
Connecting all the dots with this fundraiser and my reasons for really wanting & needing to save this precious house has become more and more complex as the days have gone on. So please bare with me as I update this, stand by me in the cause, and kindly help if you can...in any amount that you can. We have next to no remaining (older) family members and my small immediate family is as unable to contribute (same as me!)  But if you can help, PLEASE BE  IN TOUCH! GET ME THOSE CUSTOM SONG REQUESTS!!! I'm sure we can work something out. I HAVE LESS THAN A WEEK NOW TO TRY & WORK MAGIC HERE & SAVE THIS HOME. Maybe we can make some magic happen together.

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HISTORICAL HOME

The following article provides a little more history about the family that built this summer home right during the rise of the Aurora Films story.....

THELMA TODD - AURORA FILMS PICTURES STORY - FROM METHUEN LIFE - FEBRUARY 2013 ISSUE -
Historical Snapshots By Dan Gagnon Methuen Life
Writer
Brothers created films — and a starlet BRIEFS
In the 1920s, brothers Peter and Rosario Contarino established a motion picture studio in Methuen and helpedlaunch the movie career of film star Thelma Todd.
Born in Italy, Peter and Rosario arrived in Boston
in 1905 with their parents and siblings. They settled in a home on Newbury Street in Lawrence. Their father, Emanuel, found work as a grocer in one of the shops in the Italian neighborhood of Lawrence.
When Peter and Rosario became adults, they pur-
chased a movie theater with their father, just a few houses down from their home. They called the new business the Cosmopolitan Theater Company. It was located at 17 Newbury Street and, according to the 1927 Film DailyYearbook, it had 365 seats. Local historian Joe Bella believed that it catered to the local neighborhood by showing imported Italian films.
In time, Peter and Rosario decided to expand the
theater's catalog of films to include American films. In fact,in 1922 they created their own film company in Methuen to supply some of these films and also distribute them to other cities. The new company was called the Aurora Film Company.
According to historian William Donati in “The Life
and Death of Thelma Todd,” "They bought a camera in
Boston for $1,200; afterwards they purchased 3 acres of land in Methuen (off Meisner Parkway) for $3,000." A large barn-like structure was built to film interior scenes for their movies. Donati described the new studio as being about 200 feet by 75 feet. According to Donati, "Behind the building was an outdoor set with a cobblestone street and a saloon."
It's believed that only three movies, two of them in
1924, were filmed in Methuen. The first was called “The Life of St Genevieve.” Local beauty Thelma Todd, who later became a Hollywood movie star, auditioned for a part, but didn't get it. She was cast as an extra instead. The Searles Estate was used to film some of the exterior scenes and included 100 extras dressed as soldiers.
By 1929, the Contarino brothers were out of the movie business. Though nothing of the studio remains today, Peter and Rosario's movie industry legacy is the acclaimed, but brief, career of Thelma Todd.
For more information about Methuen history, check outwww.methuenhistory.org.
 
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