Photos and story by Adrian Hedden
Carlsbad Current-Argus
achedden@currentargus.com

Historic cinema in downtown Carlsbad celebrates restoration

Barry Pearl was projected on movie screens around the world for the past 47 years as Doody in the 1978 musical “Grease,” a journey in film that led him to Carlsbad Friday, June 20, as guest speaker for the opening of the historic Cavern Theater.

The theater on Canyon Street was shuttered in the 1980s and reopened following a nine-year project led by the city of Carlsbad and Carlsbad MainStreet, a nonprofit that promotes businesses in downtown Carlsbad.

Restoring and updating the aging theater cost about $8.4 million, raised through a combination of state grants and local lodger’s tax revenue after the City Council voted in 2015 to accept the property as a gift from the family of late owner Bob Light. The project to restore the property began in 2016.

Councilors pledged not to spend money from the city’s General Fund budget on the project, and on Friday almost a decade of fundraising along with five phases of construction and upgrades came to fruition in Friday’s screening of “Grease” and a street party held outside the theater on Canyon Street.

For Pearl, 75, the theater opening was part of what he called “the gift that keeps on giving” – his small role in the classic film as one of the supporting members of the T-Birds greaser gang headed by Danny Zuko, who was played by John Travolta.

By mere happenstance, Pearl is the cousin of Sandi Countryman, human resources director for the city of Carlsbad, who notified her cousin of the theater opening and its theme weeks in advance, luring him to the New Mexico desert for the event.

Pearl is originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and first traveled to New York City in 1961 as an actor in the Broadway musical “Bye, Bye Birdie.” A 1976 move to California landed him a role in a TV series, “C.P.O. Sharkey,” alongside Don Rickles. Two years later, Pearl was cut from the series but was offered the role that would follow him for the rest of his life.

“It transcends the paycheck,” Pearl said of his role in “Grease” during an interview in the lobby of the Cavern Theater. “It’s my wonderful haunting.”

Since the film was released to rabid praise, he’s participated in “Grease”- themed conventions, plays and other promotions all over the world, including England, Scotland and cities across Australia. But Pearl said events in American small towns like Carlsbad are unique.

“Everybody deserves to be entertained. Just because your life is here doesn’t make you any less important,” he said. “I love the warmth here.”

Also attending the premier was Carla Nymeyer, 66, whose father, Bill Bartlett, designed and led the construction of the Cavern Theater before its original opening in 1951. Bartlett along with his grandfather C.W. Bartlett designed, built and operated movie theaters throughout the region and at one point, 10 of those theaters were operating across Carlsbad, Loving and Artesia.

Although Bill Bartlett died in 2013 at 92, Nymeyer said memories of her dad are preserved in the original tiles still in place in the Cavern Theater’s lobby and several other historical aspects maintained in the restoration.

The theater was sold to Kansas City-based Commonwealth Theaters in 1975, Nymeyer said, remembering that it meant she had to pay for tickets and popcorn for the first time in her life.

“It’s emotional,” she said of Friday’s reopening. “I’m proud of it. Dad would be, too, if he was alive.”

New Mexico Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R-55) said she was proud of the unique, public-private partnership that funded the work to rebuild the theater.

The fifth and final phase costing about $3.3 million was funded by a Regional Recreation Centers/Quality of Life Grant from the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration to pay for electronics, audiovisual components and acoustics.

The rest was paid for through the New Mexico Economic Development Department’s Historic Theaters Initiative, which since 2013 has provided funds in support of theaters in 11 cities throughout New Mexico.

Carlsbad MainStreet received a $350,000 capital outlay award through the initiative in 2023.

“There was some state money that was applied,” Brown said. “It’s just a great asset for the community. What’s old is new again.”

Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.