The Reels Keep Turning

The “last picture show” won’t be playing at the 1916 Luna Theater anytime soon. Despite dwindling audiences and competition from video rentals, the 2,524 residents of this traditional ranching and railroading village of Clayton, N.M., still can go downtown to Main Street and enjoy a recently released movie at the Luna—with real popcorn.

Rancher Roy Dean Leighton and his wife, Nancy, family members, and community volunteers have lovingly restored the Mission-style theater, with its buff-colored pebble-dash textured stucco exterior and crimson trim. The Leightons poured $95,000 of their own money into buying and renovating the building, while volunteers chipped in 500 hours of elbow grease. So the theater in the town perched on the plains of northeastern New Mexico, within shouting distance of the Texas and Oklahoma borders, remains open Friday through Monday evenings. The reels keep turning, even though on a good night only about 50 people turn out for the 375 seats.

“It’s been a struggle,” Roy Dean admits. “Still is. But I just hated to see it close so there wouldn’t be a theater. I just don’t want the town to be without a movie.” He works every night the theater is open as projectionist, box office manager, and janitor.

Nancy Leighton agrees. “I’ve only been here 45 years,” she says, “but we’ve raised five children in Clayton, and we don’t like the idea of kids having no place to go on a date. Parents don’t have to worry about their kids when they come to the movies.”

It was the struggle of ranching that set the Leightons on the path to the Luna. Roy Dean took outside jobs to help make ends meet on their ranch. One of those jobs was movie projectionist, and he fell in love with the theater. After they bought the Luna in 1984, Roy Dean installed state-of-the-art platter system projection equipment, replacing the old carbon arcs that required changing reels midway through the movie. The Leightons then replaced the leaking roof, fixed up the box office, repainted the gold-leaf plaster arches over the black-and-white tile reception area, built new bathrooms, and painted the interior lobby. The theater has unique original features such as red, blue, and green sconces with 40 light bulbs each, art deco seats, and an elaborate ceiling star.

“We still want to replace the neon of the winking moon on the marquee,” Nancy says.

D. Ray Blakeley, local historian and director of the Herzstein Memorial Museum in Clayton, says that for years the Luna’s basement was called the Mission Ballroom and was “the scene of many high society grand bailes (balls).” It later became a roller rink.

As director of the Union County Historical Society, Blakeley nominated the Leightons for the New Mexico Heritage Preservation Award, an honor they received in 2001 for their efforts to preserve the theater on their own, without grants.

Glenna Hanson, a retired math teacher and Clayton native, loves the memories a trip to the Luna stirs. The sight of the elegant velvet curtain sweeping across the gold-leaf stage to reveal the screen brings back the thrill of Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Dick Tracy serials, when a Saturday afternoon matinee cost a quarter, Coke was a nickel, and popcorn was a dime. “My favorite was Nyoka of the Jungle, with the heroine tied to a log and going over a waterfall, where slews of alligators waited for her,” she recalls.

“For Roy Dean and Nancy to keep the theater open gives us courage,’’ Hanson says. “They keep us from having just another boarded-up building on Main Street, and they give us a place that helps the community stay together.

“They make us think that maybe, if we all just hang in there together, we’ll make it.”

Sharon Niederman is a freelance writer in Albuquerque, N.M.

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