Tivoli Theater
Trio team up to save Tivoli
Businessman, WFHB manager, IU student seeking to buy historic Spencer
theater
by Laura Lane
331-4362 | lane@heraldt.com
November 26, 2005
SPENCER - An 18-year-old college student, a community radio station
manager and a Monroe County businessman are combining their talents
and interest in history in an attempt to save Spencer's Tivoli
Theatre.
The 77-year-old theater has been shuttered ever since a 1998 showing
of the not-so-classic film "Babe: Pig in the City."
Indiana University freshman Kathy Cook remembers going to movies at
the theater when she was a kid. So do dozens of others who have
written movie house recollections that have appeared the past few
weeks in a special column in the Spencer Evening World newspaper
called "Memories of the Tivoli."
Barbara Laymon's parents lived in an apartment over the Tivoli after
World War II and learned while residing there that they were expecting
a baby.
"I suppose the Tivoli is where I started out in this world, so it has
been very special to me," she wrote.
When she went to the movies, she always sat in the balcony. She took
her own children there for movies, too.
Laymon and others will be happy to hear that Cook, WFHB general
manager Ryan Bruce and businessman Dax Norton think they have the
financial backing to purchase the theater, which is scheduled for
demolition next month.
"It sounds like it may very well happen; we think we can buy the
Tivoli," Bruce said.
He first saw the for-sale building two years ago while at the Apple
Butter Festival, and took a picture of it with his cell phone. He
intended to inquire about the building, but never did.
Cook worked for him at the radio station this past summer. She
mentioned the Tivoli, and her desire to save it. Then she started
college.
"I got off track, but when I saw the story in the newspaper about it
coming down soon, I knew it was now or never," she said. "And I knew I
could not do it by myself."
They hooked up with Norton, whose wife's family is from Spencer. He
has connections with the Historic Landmarks Foundation and did some
calling around. He learned there may be emergency loans available to
purchase the building.
"We're at 11:59 and 30 seconds, but I think we can come up with the
$40,000 to do this. It's grassroots economic development at work. This
could be the catalyst to bringing back the downtown there," Norton
said.
"Once we light up that marquee, it will be almost like a billboard
saying, 'If we can do this, we can do anything.' Spencer needs that."
He hopes to know by Wednesday if the plan will work. The trio is
establishing a not-for-profit corporation with hopes of bringing the
theater - which still has its vintage 1928 projector and films stacked
nearby - back to life.
"It just breaks my heart to think of it being torn down," Cook said.
"There is so much history there. It's something I think Spencer should
hold on to."
Return to Top
