There was a time when Moviefone was the very essence of high tech: Dialing 777-FILM to get movie times and buy tickets.

I’m sorry to have to tell you that the New York Times reports that after 25 glorious years, Moviefone is shutting down. It is perhaps the very definition of what Joseph Schumpeter called creative destruction.

 AOL, which bought it for a kind of amazing $388 million, 15 years ago, is going pull the plug pending a rebranding. Whatever “rebranding” might mean.