ESSAY: A Plan to Re-Open the Liberty Theatre, Part Two

Read Part One

At the end of my Zoom interview earlier this month, with Sherry Phillips and Evelyn Tennyson — the new owners of the Liberty Theatre — Ms. Tennyson assured me that pickles would be available for purchase, when the remodeling is complete and Pagosa’s only movie theater starts showing movies again.

“I have to tell you, when I was a teenager — and even past my teenage years — I always had to have a dill pickle and a Coke. And it makes your teeth feel really funny, but that was part of my movie experience — getting that dill pickle at the theater,” she said with a smile.

Prior to our interview, I had paid a visit to the Liberty Theatre to snap a few photos. The movie theater has gone through numerous owners since opening its doors in downtown Pagosa Springs — in 1919, at the dawn of the Age of Film. I suspect the movie theater business has always been challenging… partially fueled, as it has traditionally been, by the sale of buttered popcorn, candy and soft drinks.

This photo shows Ms. Phillips and theater manager Phil Swearngin in the theater lobby, in the midst of a major make-over — part of which will involve the installation of a bar. Yes, part of the plan for revitalizing the Liberty Theatre includes the allowance to consume beer or wine while watching the shows.

And the shows will not all be projected films, as I found out during our interview a few days later.

Liberty Theatre’s co-owner Sherry Phillips in the soon-to-be-remodeled lobby, with theater manager Phil Swearngin. March 2021. Not shown is Sherry’s husband, Les, who was upstairs working in the projection booth.

As anyone knows who has tried remodeling a 100-year-old building, any attempt to repair or remodel this or that facet can open a can of worms.

We then moved into the actual theater space, where Phil and Sherry discussed the idea of re-upholstering the seats — or possibly replacing them. Sherry mentioned the idea of contacting closed movie theaters, to see if anyone was selling seats.

It’s certainly possible some theaters in the US will be closing during 2021. The industry got hit especially hard by the coronavirus. Below is a graph from The-Numbers.com, which showed the number of sold theater tickets declining since 2002… even while theater revenues continued increasing, due to higher ticket prices. Industry sales were about $11.4 billion in 2019, on sales of about 1.2 billion tickets.

Both ticket sales and box office crashed last year, and according to The-Numbers.com, revenues might fall below $2 billion in 2021. (The 2021 figures shown are an annualized estimate.)

An interesting moment, for sure, to purchase a 100-year-old movie theater.

Here’s another portion of my Daily Post interview with the Liberty Theatre’s new co-owners, Evelyn Tennyson and Sherry Phillips.

Ms. Tennyson had made an offer on the theater last year, but following the inspection, had backed out of the deal.

“But it just kind of kept haunting me. If I put something in my mind — that I want something — I’m not going to let it rest until I get it,” she laughed. “So I got to thinking about it, and I talked to my real estate agent at the time, and told her, ‘You know, if there’s anybody out there who might be interested in doing a partnership, let me know.’ And at that time, I hadn’t even thought about Les and Sherry. And then one day, I was just sitting there and the light bulb went off, and I sent them a text and said, ‘Hey, what are the chances you guys are interested in going in on this, as a partnership?’ And they said, ‘Yay!’

“And here we are today…”

Ms. Phillips:

“We had a preliminary fire inspection, and Ray Davis came, and told us, ‘You want to keep your improvements at less than 50% [of the purchase price] because otherwise you’re going to go into another whole approval process. And this place will never meet [the updated] building code, no matter what you do.’ So, that’s where we’re at — we’re keeping the costs at less than 50%.”

On the question of refurbishing the theater seats, no definite decision had yet been made. Cost will be a factor.

Ms. Tennyson:

“But we’re going to get the place nicely cleaned up… so it’s pretty… give it a different look on the inside. And I think people are going to be very pleased.”

Ms. Phillips noted their intent to continue working with Phil Swearngin, the current theater manager:

“Phil’s participation was essential, for me, in purchasing the theater, because… we don’t know anything about the movie business… I mean, we could learn; but Phil does know the business. And he was willing to stay on.” The theater’s assistant manager has also agreed to stay on, Ms. Phillips said.

Will the theater expand its offerings beyond movies?

Ms. Tennyson confirmed that intention.

“We’re going to continue showing movies, for adults and for children, but we’d also like to try and bring in magicians, music acts… the type of act that is not going to perform in the park, but it’s more of a ‘sit and listen to’ versus ‘stand up and dance’ — I have the Tennyson Building for that type of act.”

The Tennyson Building is an event and performance space at the west end of town, next door to Boss Hogg’s Restaurant.

“We have not scheduled anyone, as of yet; there’s a gentleman in town who we hope to get some assistance from, for scheduling. Actually, we probably need to get working on that real soon, so we have some acts scheduled for this coming summer. I suppose, with lots of things opening back up now, band and performers are booking left and right.

“I honestly haven’t been on the stage, so I don’t know how big it is. Whether it would be conducive to, say, a small ballet performance? I don’t know whether it is, but that would certainly be something. We have the dance troupe here in town, but there are also traveling performers that we could get in. You know, try and tap some of the acts headed for Telluride, for example.

“And eventually, we’d also like to try to do movie festivals. I know Durango and Telluride have movie festivals. Why can’t we have something in Pagosa, as well?”

Ms. Phillips:

“A lot of people have some up to me and said, ‘You could do a Monty Python Festival… or a Robert Redford Weekend.’ Or Clint Eastwood. Those kinds of things.”

Ms. Tennyson agreed:

“Those are good ideas. And just so everyone knows, there will be pickles…”

Bill Hudson

Bill Hudson

Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.