For more information about “PAL Hop Days” and the Lewiston-Auburn Film Festival, go to www.lafilmfestival.org.

LEWISTON — Bill Maroldo has spent most of the winter of 2011 in a corner of his paneled Lewiston study.

“I really haven’t come up for air since Christmas,” Maroldo said. “I haven’t had time to breathe.”

The former Maine Public TV reporter has been editing his love letter to Lewiston’s 1960s music scene, “PAL Hop Days.”

A compilation of footage from the still-unfinished movie is scheduled to be the headlining film of the inaugural Lewiston-Auburn Film Festival on April 2.

This week, Maroldo gave the Sun Journal a peek at more than an hour of edited material.

The result is a film that tries turning back the clock for a group of 60-somethings who once were hometown stars.

The movie’s title comes from the Friday night Police Athletic League dances, or PAL Hops, that would draw as many as 2,000 local teens to the performance hall inside Lewiston City Hall.

Maroldo profiles six of the era’s most popular bands — The Royal Knights, Terry & the Telstars, The Rockin’ Recons, The Moon Dawgs, The Travelers and The Innkeepers.

All six reunited last summer for a benefit concert at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. Maroldo’s cameras recorded their rehearsals and the concert. He also conducted more than 40 interviews.

In the film, the men and women tell their own stories. Images of the people today are countered with archival images of teens trying to look like the big bands of the day, from the Beatles and the Byrds to Jefferson Airplane and the Doors. They dreamed of being scouted by “The Ed Sullivan Show” and made famous.

The first time The Royal Knights played the PAL Hop, dressed in Beatles-like gray suits with Nehru collars, there were rumors that the actual Fab Four were in the building.

When the Knights took the stage, they couldn’t hear themselves sing or play, band members recalled. All felt like they had arrived when they performed there.

Both The Royal Knights and The Moon Dawgs put out records. The “Dawgs” would open for The Kingsmen, who were famous for the song, “Louie, Louie.”

And when a scheduled band failed to arrive as an opening act at the Lewiston Armory, Terry & the Telstars took its place. The headliner was Jimi Hendrix.

When the concert ended, the guitar legend even had a few words for Dan Caron, the Telstars’ drummer.

“Hey kid, not a bad drummer. Keep it up,” Hendrix told him.

The PAL Hop ended on Nov. 24, 1967. It was the night after Thanksgiving and a fight broke out on the dance floor. Police ended the concert and began hauling the two brawlers out of the building.

About 700 kids followed them outside. Teens smashed windows in City Hall and tried knocking over the Christmas tree in the park.

The next day’s paper wrote of a riot. The dances ended. 

But the groups were already beginning to end. Musicians got older and moved away. A pair of Knights went to Vietnam.

To Maroldo, the role of the film is to remember the men and women and the music they created. Some of their songs deserved to be heard by a wider audience, he said.

“The cream didn’t always rise to the top,” Maroldo said. “Nothing would make me happier than to attract more attention to these musicians.”

The screening of “PAL Hop Days” is scheduled for April 2 at the Franco-American Heritage Center. A reception is planned for 3 p.m. The movie is scheduled for 4 p.m. with a question-and-answer period to follow. Tickets are $10 each.

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