Nickelodeon Theatre
The Nickelodeon is owned and operated by Santa Cruz resident Jim Schwenterley. The Nick is a business, but over the years it's become a Santa Cruz institution as well. Jim feels honored to be the caretaker of such an important part of the Santa Cruz Arts Community. In February 2002 Nickelodeon Theatres added the operation of the Del Mar Theatre at 1124 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz and in 2005 the operation of The Aptos Cinema at 122 Rancho Del Mar in Aptos. Nickelodeon Theatres is committed to providing Santa Cruz with a flawless cinematic experience.
Berkeley architect John Elphick was hired to design a movie house for us. We explained to John that what we wanted was basically simple: an innovative theatre design that was both a "work of art" and "state of the art." Cutting edge. The latest in motion picture design. A twin theatre. What a concept! But it would have to be cheap, because we didn't have much money to spend. John drew us up some plans for a big auditorium, to be called the Odeon (music hall, in French), and for a little auditorium next door, the Nickelodeon. Back in the real world again we soon discovered we might be just able to afford that little auditorium, provided we cut out most of the fancy stuff. Who needs all that junk, anyway? The Nickelodeon was never quite the theatre of our dreams, but by the time it opened I had come to love it. Maybe someday we would be able to put up that Odeon.
With the help of designer Roy Rydell and contractor Ed Cacace, we slowly got our little theatre up. Near the end of construction JoAnne and I hired our first employee, Christopher Jones, General Factotum. Jack of all trades, trouble-shooter, operations manager, good and loyal friend, Chris still holds down the fort today. The Nickelodeon Theatre opened for business on July 1, 1969 showing a Swedish art film about a draft dodger and his girlfriend running around in the woods in the nude, in slow motion--plus City of Gold, a Canadian documentary about the Yukon gold rush, a personal favorite of mine.
We soon learned to be wary of those, "personal favorites." Our programming expertise, such as it was, had been learned in San Francisco and Santa Barbara. We found that many of the films that were popular in other cities did not "draw" in Santa Cruz. People were somehow different here. Gritty, hard-nosed, realistic movies typically played to near-empty houses. Santa Cruz seemed to march to its own drummer. It liked far-out comedies. And films about the arts. Musicians, dancers, actors, painters: Santa Cruz ate it up! Best of all, we discovered, were films about crazies. I can't begin to count the times ("back by popular demand," of course) we played KING OF HEARTS and HAROLD AND MAUDE, often on a double-bill and more often than not to packed houses. Finally we had it figured: insanity was where it's at in Santa Cruz!
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