Mesa Theater
206 Main Street,
Clovis,
NM
88101
206 Main Street,
Clovis,
NM
88101
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Dobbin
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A 1959 Clovis High School graduate recalls bits about lots of Clovis theatres on this page:
http://www.rednett.com/Bits.html
Search for the two paragraphs beginning
“I remember all the theaters and drive-ins"
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As I recall the Mesa (1950'ish), it was just across the street from the Hotel Clovis, right by the railroad tracks, and was tacitly thought of as a diversion “for transients,” which would include traveling salesmen, land- or cattle-buyers, military personnel, migratory workers, and the like. One could pick up illegal whisky at the Mesa. “That end of town” was thought of as slightly sleazy, although it can’t have been more than five blocks from the shiny intersection of Main and Seventh Streets, where the Courthouse, the First Methodist Church, the high school, and the wholesome commercial paradise of The Village (an early miniature mall with a soda shop, record store, and magazine stand) presided over virtuous pursuits. On those rare occasions when an “adult” movie was allowed to slip into town, it played the Mesa. My brother-in-law took me there with him to see a movie of strip-tease dancers. The performers never got farther down than to pasties and bikinis, which rankled my brother-in-law. He said that usually when he went to see such movies there, they showed whole breasts. An exception to the rule that adult movies played the Mesa was a “roadshow” called “Mom and Dad,” a sort of negative instructional drama about teenage pregnancy, which played at the Lyceum. There were separate showings for boys only and girls only.
THE SUNSHINE THEATRE, CLOVIS, NEW MEXICO
I’m going to write my few memories of the Sunshine Theatre in Clovis and post them on the pages for the Lyceum, the Mesa, and the State, in hopes that they’ll inspire someone knowledgeable to make a Sunshine page.
The Sunshine was next door to the Thrifty Drug. I worked at Thrifty, and when I was in back unloading deliveries, I clearly heard the movie playing next door.
The Sunshine was narrow-fronted and inconspicuous. I don’t remember it having a projecting marquee or a “title tower,” and none shows in a 1950s postcard of Clovis' Main Street in which Thrifty Drug is conspicuous.
The Sunshine got mostly Paramount, RKO, Columbia, Universal, and United Artists movies, while the State got the M.G.M., Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers, and Walt Disney pictures.
Therefore, in my mind, the State is always showing a Gene Kelly, Betty Grable, or Doris Day/Gordon MacRae Technicolor musical while the Sunshine is playing a black-and-white Ma and Pa Kettle or Francis the Talking Mule or Martin and Lewis comedy. A great exception to this (very inaccurate) rule-of-memory is when I recall seeing the great color spectacle, “The Greatest Show on Earth” over and over again at the Sunshine.
Once the Sunshine showed a “roadshow” movie, “The Lawton Story,” a “family movie” about the annual religious pageant in Lawton, Oklahoma. I supect some touring company just rented the Sunshine on a “four-walls” basis for this presentation, for the ticket-sellers and ushers and a man who tried to sell the audience a poster and a souvenir booklet were all strangers.
You can see wonderful photos of the Mesa and the State, plus several other New Mexico movie theatres, HERE. Please copy this link to other New Mexico theatre pages
This is another 2008 photo.
I apologize if my longer comparative description of the atmosphere of the different theatres in Clovis in the 1950s was considered “off-topic, obscene, spam, or personal attacks.” It was certainly not intended to be so. I wonder if anyone saved it and would be willing to e-mail it to me at
2009 photo of the verticle for the Mesa Theatre.
View link
The Mesa Theatre suffered a major fire and was rebuilt in 1948. Apparently the walls survived the disaster. Reconstruction was about to begin, according to Boxoffice of March 6, 1948. Operator E. R. Hardwick said that everything in the theater would be new, including the four (segregated) rest rooms. The stadium-style auditorium was to seat 768. The architect for the project was Jack Corgan.
Does anyone remember an early 1950’s restaurant called The Aristocrat? My parents, Stan and Jo Curkee, ran it. Some women’s clubs held luncheons there. I’d really apreciate any photos of it. , rbrtptrck
It'smy understandingthat Norman Petty owned this at one time. Didn’t the auditorium ceiling have a star covered sky?