The years seemed to melt away as Bethel Lusk Davis gazed at the large black and white photograph on an easel in the lobby of the Whiteside Theatre. It was a group portrait of the theater staff made by Hise Studio during World War II.

Smiling at the camera from the first two rows are a dozen pretty young girls, their hair done up like Dorothy Lamour, decked out like a sophisticated chorus line in matching jackets and trousers: the Whiteside usherettes. Front and center is a teenaged Davis.

"We loved the uniforms," sighed Davis, remembering a time when crowds of moviegoers thronged to the Whiteside Theatre every night for a 10-cent double feature.

"I'm so glad they're not going to tear it down. It made me sick when I heard that."

Davis lives in Eugene now, but she was back in town this week for the 60th reunion of the Corvallis High School Class of 1948. On Friday afternoon about two dozen classmates and spouses toured the old picture palace, which closed down in 2002. The theater was to be converted into retail stores and a restaurant, but owner Regal Entertainment Group donated the property this year to the nonprofit Whiteside Theatre Foundation, which is working to restore the building as an entertainment venue.

Friday's tour was organized by Bob Newton, a '48 CHS grad and a Whiteside Foundation member. He thought his classmates would enjoy seeing the theater that had been such a big part of their lives, he said. He hoped some of them would decide to join the foundation.

The walk-through brought back memories of blockbuster films from Hollywood's golden age - "Gone With the Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz," "Ben-Hur" and "The Ten Commandments."

"When we had a real good movie, the line would start out there and go around the corner," said Newton, pointing toward Madison Avenue and sweeping his arm in the direction of Third Street.

"How about the newsreels? That's how we got a lot of our news," said Orval Cary, who traveled from Payette, Idaho, for the reunion.

"Do you have a 'Tom and Jerry' cartoon?" asked Lyle Read. "We've got to have a cartoon."

Davis grabbed a flashlight to lead the group down to the front of the auditorium, where the visitors heard a presentation on the foundation's restoration plans. Preliminary cost estimates to renovate the 86-year-old hall have run from $1 million to $1.5 million.

"Obviously, we'd love to have members, we'd love to have donations - anything we can do to get this thing going," foundation member Margot Pearson told the group.

The interior retains much of its period elegance, with gilt paint gleaming softly on the walls and an ornate Art Deco chandelier glowing from the ceiling. Although plenty of work remains to be done, foundation member Doug Eaton said, the group intends to reopen the Whiteside for classic films and live performances.

That sounded good to Davis.

"We've got to hang on a couple more years for that," she told her classmates. "We better keep up with our Geritol."