Larry Hembree, Executive Director of The Nickelodeon

MidlandsBiz:
What is your education?

Larry Hembree:
I have a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English from Clemson University and a Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in Directing with a secondary emphasis in Acting from the University of Georgia.  After college, I moved around a bit, from New York to Greenwood, SC before becoming the first Director of Theater at the beautiful Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County in Camden, a position that I held for 12 years.    

After that, I was the Director of Performing Arts at the SC Arts Commission.  In that role, I learned a great deal about how different non-profit arts organizations are set up as I worked closely with performing arts organizations across the state offering potential funding and technical and board development assistance. 

MidlandsBiz:
What are the origins of the Nickelodeon Theater here in town?

Larry Hembree:
The Nickelodeon was started in 1979 by two USC media arts students, Linda O’Connor and Carl Davis, who wanted to present more classic film here in town.  They cranked up a 16 mm projector in the storefront we are still in and people came.  Today, Linda O’Conner is in her 50’s and living out in California. I am not sure where Carl Davis is.

Dale Campbell then ran the Nickelodeon for years.  He lived in an apartment above the theater and managed all aspects of running the theater. 

I had been a member of the Nickelodeon for 10 years and loved everything about it.  I came on board as Executive Director in September 2005.  

There are very few non-profit art house cinemas left in this country and we are enormously lucky to have one in Columbia.  The Nick is the only non-profit art house film theater in South Carolina and is the home to 25,000 filmgoers each year.

MidlandsBiz:
Why is the Nickelodeon moving?

Larry Hembree:
The Nickelodeon has been renting our current space for 30 years, showing great independent movies and building up a steady membership, but we wanted to offer more educational programming related to media arts and film and expand our community based programming.  Our current space at the corner of Main and Pendleton just did not fit our needs if we wanted to grow.

We bought the building at 1607 Main where the old Fox Theater used to be. We are planning to renovate the space and be fully operational in our new location, hopefully by the end of 2010. We will have a new name: The South Carolina Center for Film and Media – Home of the Nickelodeon and the SC Media Education Center. 

This new location on Main Street allows us to tap into film history and offer our customers a broader range of film experiences.  We are working with an internationally known archival film projection and sound designer named James Bond (go figure) from Chicago to ensure that we will be able to project all types of movie formats.  We will perhaps be the only movie house in the Southeast with the capacity to show 16 millimeter and 35 millimeter, change over and platter.  Seeing a movie projected from real film allows a much deeper experience than seeing a movie on DVD.  You get to hear it, smell it.  It’s great for film enthusiasts. We are also partnering with the University of South Carolina (USC) to ensure that we can screen their extensive Fox Movietone collection.

MidlandsBiz:
How will you deliver the educational side of the new Nickelodeon?

Larry Hembree:
We have been all over the country researching educational programs designed to teach high school students about civically engaged media and we will be offering that program in addition to many other programs that partner us with schools.  We will conduct a national search for a Director of Education for these and other community based educational programs.  We have a small dedicated space in the new facility that will be a starting point for these programs.

MidlandsBiz:
How did you acquire the new building? 

Larry Hembree:
Since the 1950’s, the building had been owned by the Lourie family here in town.  The Lourie’s wanted the building to be in the hands of an arts organization so they approached us to see if we were interested. We looked at the building along with several other arts groups. We went to the City of Columbia with our idea and they granted us $294,000 over three years out of the hospitability tax revenue to purchase the building.  Lourie’s gave us an in-kind contribution of $129,000 so, after all was said and done, we basically ended up having to pitch in about $6,000 of our own funds for the purchase.   We closed on the property in June of 2005.  Since that time, we have hired consultants to help us put together our strategic and business plans, feasibility study and capital campaign.

MidlandsBiz:
What is the business model for the Nickelodeon?  Will it change as you move into the new building?

Larry Hembree:
The remarkable thing about the Nickelodeon is that we are fiscally sound. We work hard to raise money besides our revenue from admissions and concessions, through such ways as grants, fundraisers and corporate sponsorships, and we stay in the black.

Expenses involved in film distribution for us usually work like this. The agreement would be that we pay something like $400 versus 35% where we pay the film distributor 35% of gross receipts or $400 – whatever is higher.  We are doing well with our movies right now, so we rarely pay the guarantee.  Some of our top grossing movies of all time have been in this past year.   We showed a documentary  that was very popular about Lee Atwater, the politician who grew up in Columbia.  Food Inc. was another big seller for us. Columbia is a good market for independent and foreign films and documentaries.

As many downtown theaters did in the 1980’s in order to increase revenue, the Fox split their one big movie theater into two: a lower level with 500 seats and the upper balcony with 250.  In the new building, we are also going to have two theaters, also.  Downstairs will be a boutique 90-seat theater with a smaller screen that will mirror the intimate feel that we have at our 77-seat current location. In the former balcony we will be able to support another 175 seats and screen more mainstream indie movies. We will be able to show a broader range of movies, in a broader range of formats, to more people and even rent the theaters out for events.

MidlandsBiz:
Outline a brief history of this space.

Larry Hembree:
First called The State, this theater opened in 1936 with a vision of becoming an independent challenger to the much larger Palmetto Theater.  Touting itself as Columbia’s Modern Theater, Locally Owned, Locally Operated, it also promised modern air conditioning, personal maid service, and attractive usherettes.

In 1962, after closing down for one year, The State reopened as The Fox Theatre with a grand, ornate staircase and flashing marquee. At its heyday in the 1960’s, five movie theaters occupied Main Street: The Carolina, the Palmetto, the Fox, the Strand and the Miracle are names that people from that generation might remember.  The Fox was the only one of the five that had separate ownership and was known more for independent films, lots of westerns, and as the theater where a lot of Columbians saw premieres of films like West Side Story, The Exorcist and Annie Hall.

MidlandsBiz:
What happened?

Larry Hembree:
The arrival of multiplexes in the suburbs so
unded the death knell for downtown movie theaters. Why would you come downtown to an older theater when the national chains such as General Cinemas, Regal, and Carmike were showing snappy movies in contemporary buildings out in the suburbs? The Fox hung on until 1987. Of all those theaters that existed on Main Street, this one, The Fox, is the only one that survived.  All of the others were torn down.

MidlandsBiz:
What happened to this location after 1987?

Larry Hembree:
The Solid Gold Beauty Supply, selling beauty supplies and wigs, opened up in this location in 1987 and has been here ever since.  When we moved into this location in February of this year, they moved directly across the street.  Solid Gold operated as a retail store on part of the ground floor and left the rest of the space untouched. When we first toured the building, for a film buff like me it was like walking though a museum.  There was an original popcorn maker from the 1970’s and the hand-written log that Mr. Marion Richardson Senior kept for his popcorn sales.  There was the original chandelier from 1936.  Even one of the original carbon arc movie projectors was in the projection room complete with the overhead sprinkler system and exhaust pipes for the carbon monoxide to escape still intact. 

MidlandsBiz:
Where are you coming up with the money for the renovations to the theater?

Larry Hembree:
Since we are non-profit we can write grants and The City has given us $750,000 matching dollars, and the remainder of the funds that we need to renovate this space will come from corporate, individuals and hopefully some county funding.  The key to our moving forward on this initiative was an extensive business plan we did with the Moore School of Business and a feasibility study undertaken by The Wheless Group. The great thing about a feasibility study is that you find out the truth about your organization.  Can you raise the money? Who is going to help you raise it? Is it the right timing for raising the money? What is the perception about your organization?  We also knew that the Nickelodeon had little corporate identity.  We had enough of an identity to successfully support a niche movie house, but not enough to go to the public and private sector and raise money for a $3M renovation. So we have been working hard to attract corporate dollars and it makes sense because our project is a Main Street downtown redevelopment project that will reenergize Main Street.  How cool is that? And the media education center will also give us more leverage with granting organizations such as National Endowment for the Arts.  

There are still naming opportunities available for our renovations and we encourage people to come on down to 1607 Main Street and check us out.  Call the Nick at 254-8234 or email me at [email protected] to schedule a walkthrough of the space. Also, go to our website at www.nickelodeon.org to get more information on the campaign and make a pledge.

MidlandsBiz:
What are the challenges that you face as you move into the new space?

Larry Hembree:
Of course, the economy has been a challenge. There are lots of people and companies around town that want this project to happen tomorrow, but when we approached them a year ago, they said, Come and talk to us next year.  As a result, we originally devised a plan to do the renovations in two $1.5M phases, but are now more optimistic about raising sufficient funds to do all of the construction at once.

Our other challenge is demystifying perception about the 1600 block of Main Street, in particular the homeless issue, safety, parking and lighting, all issues cited in our original feasibility study. Since the study was done, many challenges have been addressed. The streetscape has greatly improved lighting. It looks like we have a new parking garage that will be built a block away which will give an additional parking alternative and potential easier access to Main Street.  Mast General will become our next-door neighbors which will mean we will both have an after work hour presence. Most importantly, City Center Partnership’s Downtown Safety and Clean Team, which consist of bike and foot patrols 7 days/week, day and evening hours, have been key in reducing safety issues in the business improvement district.

MidlandsBiz:
Who is going to renovate this property?

Larry Hembree:
The LPA Group is the architect firm working on the project. 

MidlandsBiz:
How do you explain the popularity of the Nickelodeon over the years?
What is the key to your success?

Larry Hembree:
There’s a core group of people who just want a different movie experience and we provide that at the Nickelodeon. At the end of the day, the multiplex experience is not all it’s cracked up to be.  The concessions are expensive; you’ve got people’s cell phones going off, people talking.  You don’t have to worry about that at the Nickelodeon.  And we show amazing movies that you are just not going to be able to see in another cinema around here. 

MidlandsBiz:
Will the move and the new vision for the Nickelodeon be successful?

Larry Hembree:
First of all, the days of hanging up a movie poster and expecting people to show up are over.  For the past year, the Nick staff has been hard at work embracing social media, Twitter and Facebook, and really deepening our reach into the local community.  We have been a niche market for years, but that is already changing as we explore new programming and marketing opportunities. We are still staying true to our roots – offering great independent films in a unique environment.  Only now we will be doing that in a very cool, very sexy newly renovated historic building with top notch educational and community programs. 

But this project is way more than just a new home for the Nickelodeon – it’s adaptive reuse of a building that used to be a movie theater into another movie theater downtown. The streetscaping project is finished and new stores have moved in.  Gotham Bagel, White Mule, Sammie’s Deli, Frame of Mind and all the wonderful events that they are doing, our proximity to the Art Museum and later, the Renaissance Foundation project, the purchase last week of Lourie’s by the Mast General Store.  More restaurants will follow, some bars, some music venues.  This has the potential to be the hot spot on Main Street.  You might say we are cautiously optimist but every day, the cautiously fades away a little more.

This is a great move for the Nickelodeon.  I just can’t wait to see that marquee hanging out front of the building once again!