STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Cheers, movie fans. The magic of the Magic Lantern Cinemas will continue.

A hometown boy who grew up spending every Friday night at Ketchum’s 50-year-old theater crossed the last “t” and initialized the last “i” Thursday afternoon to purchase the theater from Rick Kessler, who has been the sole owner of the theater for 50 years.

Bob Peterson promptly changed the name of the theater to Merlin’s Magic Lantern after his and his wife's rescue dog, a schnauzer mix who was named after the magical wizard and already is getting his fill of popcorn.

Rick Kessler, who introduced Sun Valley audiences to “Harry Potter” and other iconic characters, tromps into the Magic Lantern Cinemas minutes after signing the paperwork handing the theater over to Bob Peterson.

“It had to be Merlin, whom Taylor and I rescued 11 years ago,” said Peterson. “The website will be merlinsmagiclantern.com. And I want the building to be holistic. I want it to have a restaurant and a bar, just like Rick had originally planned. And I want to make this the center of entertainment for the town with things for the family and more.”

Robert Reed Peterson was born at the old Moritz Hospital in Sun Valley, a member of the Barry Peterson Jewelers family.

A shy boy, he found his joy in the movies he saw at the Magic Lantern where he remembers steering the crowd to the wrong hallway so he could get a primo seat for “Spiderman.” He also remembers the time he tried to buy a beer there with a fake ID at 19 only to have the attempt foiled by someone who recognized him.

He particularly gravitated to sci-fi movies, like “The Matrix.”

Bob Peterson plays with Merlin, for whom the theater is now named.

By 13 he was working for the local TV station KSVT and shooting everything from music videos to local TV commercials to documentaries as a student at Sun Valley Community School.

“He always needed to be making little documentary videos and he always went with friends to the 9 o’clock show, so to have this theater is a dream come true for him,” said his mother, Brooke Peterson.

After graduating from Southern Methodist University in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in Cinema Television and Business, Bob moved to Washington, D.C., to oversee the digital marketing branding for a car dealer. In 2013 he moved to Los Angeles to launch a television development and production company

He has produced such movies as “The Last Full Measure,” the true story of a Vietnam War hero who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on the battlefield 34 years after his death. That film featured William Hurt, Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, Christopher Plummer and Peter Fonda.

Bob Peterson and his employees posed for pictures Thursday afternoon.

He produced “The Camera Store, which starred John Larroquette and Cheryl Ladd and was shown at the Sun Valley Film Festival. And he produced a vampire horror comedy called “Bit,” about a teenage girl who fights to survive after falling in with feminist vampires who are trying to rid the city’s streets of predatory men.

Peterson said he was visiting family and friends after getting married when he went to see “Mission Impossible.”

“Rick had a ‘For Sale” sign up, and, all of a sudden, I felt this sheer terror coming over me. With everything happening to movie theaters across the country and the movie theater in Hailey closing, I started thinking about what it would feel like if the Magic Lantern was to close. I love film, I love this theater, I have experience in real estate and I thought: If I don’t do something, …if anything was to happen to this movie theater…we’d never have a movie theater in Ketchum again.”

Peterson wants to renovate the building and modernize and upgrade it technologically, including making tickets digital,” said Chris Burget, a longtime friend who is working with Peterson on the building.

Chris Burget captures the “ribbon cutting” on his cellphone as friends and family surprise Rick Kessler with a champagne toast.

“He’s got good ideas,” said Burget. “He’s a tech guy, he’s been in the movie business, so he knows what he’s doing.”

Rick Kessler a diehard movie enthusiast opened the Magic Lantern Cinemas at age 25 in Ketchum’s Odd Fellow Hall, naming it for the 17^th century magic lantern technology that laid the foundation for modern movie projectors. He envisioned building a restaurant on the bottom floor and a four-screen theater on the second but settled for a four-screen theater in 1995 when his partnership dissolved.

“I feel bewildered,” said Rick Kessler as staff and close friends raised a glass of champagne to him before cutting into a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. “I told the staff yesterday, ‘When I come in tomorrow you can throw me out!’ ”

“I don’t think it’s sank in that he no longer owns it. He’s been in chaos with all the paper signing,” said Rick’s wife Cherie Kessler. “I have to wonder, if at 50 years, this isn’t the longest running business by one person in this town.”

Bob Peterson and his wife Taylor, a designer, currently live in Los Angeles and, he says, they haven’t even thought about whether they might move here. They were, waiting for the theater transaction to become a done deal before they tackled that question.

“We figured: Let’s do this then figure that out,” said Peterson. “We’ve been at this a year—we wanted to do it in a way that honored Rick.”

Being in the movie business, Bob Peterson is very aware that movie business went through a tough time during the Covid pandemic and is only beginning to bounce back.

“But I think people appreciate it more because of what it did go through,” he said. “And it’s fun. I saw ‘Top Gun’ this year and people were loving it. And I have friends who have moved back here with their kids and they’ve all told me, I love the theater, and I hope it stays.’ “