SOUTH 2ND & CENTER ST, TUCUMCARI—The Odeon Theater lights up South 2nd St. in Tucumcari. The rest of the street is pretty dark. This is not on Route 66 that has the world famous neon signs…signs like the Blue Swallow Motel and the TeePee Curio Shop.
No, this is old downtown Tucumcari. Route 66 bypassed this part of the city. It runs a few blocks south of here. There are signs of decay, but there are also signs of new beginnings. For instance, the railroad depot has been completely redone. And a nearby burned out building is scheduled to be demolished and something new built in its place.
But the Odeon Theater is another story. Built in 1936, it is the oldest continuously running movie theater in New Mexico. And its art deco features are virtually untouched in the 80 years since it was built.
The word “Odeon” means “theater” in Greek. The original owner apparently went to France and was impressed with how the French were using the word all the time. Not only that, it only had five letters and that made the neon sign a bit cheaper. Nevertheless, the Odeon had a hard time getting Tucumcari residents to call it that. They seemed to just want to call it The New Theater.
But moving forward 80 years, we see another owner, older and tired of running the theater. He was getting desperate. It was the 21st century and the Odeon was still showing 35mm film. It had a single speaker in back of the screen that was from the original 1936 opening. The seats needed to be redone…as did the floor, the bathrooms, roof and the ceiling.
But the biggest problem of all was that the old projector needed to undergo a digital conversion. That would include a new digital projector, a new sound system and a new screen. Frankly the owner at that time could not afford it.
But he didn’t want to close the theater down. After all, there were so few entertainment options for people in Tucumcari that he felt he needed to keep it open. But he was so tired. And by the way, he even had to open the curtain by hand for every showing.
Meanwhile, two younger Tucumcarians were caught in the woof and warp of time. They had grown up in Tucumcari, gone to the same high school, yet didn’t know each other because the boy was 5 years older than the girl. They went their separate ways.
But then, 25 long years later, all grown up and in the prime of their lives, they noticed each other. And so it was that one day two years ago Robert Lopez texted Christy Dominguez.
“Would you like to go to the movies?”
Because there is only one movie theater in town, the Odeon, Christy knew what was playing: How to Train Your Dragon. She texted him back:
“You do know it’s a cartoon, right?”
“Yeah.”
So there they were in the Odeon Theater on their first date. On their way out of the theater Christy noticed a sign that said the Odeon was for sale. She said to Robert right then, “Let’s buy this theater.”
Their first date. On their very first date she said, “Let’s buy this theater.” And when they got married, they did!
Keeping the Odeon running has been pretty tough. It has taken a lot of money—more money than the theater cost. The digital conversion cost $78,000, which included the projector, screen and speakers. Just a bulb for the projector, a foot-long tube of glass, runs $1000.
Other parts of the theater redo took more physical effort. Just scraping eighty years of chewing gum off the seats was a huge job. “Then we sanded every single seat,” said Christy. Robert sprayed the frames with a coat of Emron, an automobile paint. “They should last forever,” he added.
Christy’s dad reupholstered the seats in the entire theater with a 500 pound bolt of denim. Robert bought an old school bus and converted some of the bus seats into extra large theater seats to replace a few of the old ones.
They are running out of money but not vision or enthusiasm. “There are only three things to do in Tucumcari: the bar, the bowling alley, and this theater,” stated Robert. That seems to have been the reason the previous owner kept the Odeon running as well.
The Odeon Theater is important to the community. High schools come here for their reunions and the Odeon finds a movie that was popular during their graduation year for them to watch. The Odeon livestreams the state basketball championships using a feed from a laptop into their digital projector. They show the games for free.
School field trips to the Odeon were a big favorite for end-of-the-year outings from the surrounding towns…towns like Logan and San Jon, both of which are over 20 miles away.
Robert and Christy have applied for a Local Economic Development Act grant to fix the roof and some of the exterior. As important as the Odeon is to them and to all of this vast corner of New Mexico, I can only hope they get it.
