Tom Wills started his day last Wednesday serving lunch to homeless people at the Downtown Presbyterian Church. He ended it by closing a million-dollar deal with broad implications for Nashville’s arts community.
Ending weeks of discussion and speculation, Wills, a longtime arts patron, artist and descendant of one of Nashville’s oldest families, agreed to pay $1.4 million for the Belcourt Theatre, the city’s last historic moviehouse and an anchor of Hillsboro Village for three-quarters of a century. In turn, he will lease it at lower than current rates to the residing tenant, the nonprofit Belcourt YES! organization, which Wills co-founded four years ago. If all goes well, the deal will allow Belcourt YES! to build a big enough war chest to buy the theater outright from Wills within five years.
The purchase represents more than the Belcourt’s first real shot at a solid fiscal future. Both Wills and the theater’s board say this is the first step toward making the Belcourt a permanent fixture in Nashville life—a goal that entails community involvement and ownership as well as major renovation. Should the plan succeed, it would make a restored, revitalized Belcourt a major player in the city’s visual and performing arts.
“This has moved very fast,” said Belcourt managing director Steve Small, who was hired last June after a lengthy search to supervise and streamline the theater’s operations. “All of a sudden, thanks to Tom, we have a calming effect that lets us look at how best to use this space.”
That space has undergone almost as many changes as uses in its 78-year history. Built in 1925, the Belcourt served as an early home to both the Grand Ole Opry and the Nashville Children’s Theatre. Its lobby originally faced onto 21st Avenue, where the Villager Tavern stands today. In 1966, a second screen was added, and the Carmike chain leased the theater until the mid-1990s.
In 1997, a benevolent group of investors led by real-estate developer Charles Hawkins purchased the Belcourt from the family of the late Fred Massey. The intent was to rescue the once-grand theater and use it to generate funds for the Watkins College of Art and Design and its then-new film school. Though nobly intentioned, the idea was sunk by bad timing—specifically, by the opening of two nearby Regal Cinemas megaplexes within a year’s time. After two years of losing business and coveted movies to Regal, Hawkins and company were forced to mitigate their monthly losses in 1999 by shuttering the Belcourt.
When the Belcourt closed, Hillsboro-area residents and merchants launched a grassroots effort to save the theater. Out of that effort came Belcourt YES!, whose founders included Wills, Julia Sutherland, F. Clark Williams and Scott and Mimi Manzler. By the summer of 2000, with Hawkins’ blessing, Belcourt YES! had secured a staggered long-term lease. As an incentive to buy, the lease would start low and increase as the years passed. The group set about reopening the historic theater as a multi-use concert hall, stage and arthouse.
Wills says several factors suddenly made buying the Belcourt an urgent matter this summer. First, the lease would be going up next year, draining money that could go toward purchase costs. Second, other groups made inquiries into buying the property. Finally, Hawkins’ investors wanted their money. Wills says he took a hard look at the options and decided buying it himself was the best.
“I’m using personal money I can afford to tie up,” the lanky, redheaded 32-year-old said over coffee at his frequent hangout, the 12 South coffeehouse Portland Brew. “I can keep rent low and make money off the interest.” With a chuckle, he adds, “It helps that I’m single and don’t have a wife to answer to.”
According to William T. Cheek III, chairman of the Belcourt’s 24-member board, having Wills as landlord gives Belcourt YES! a push to start the kind of major capital campaign the theater needs. Cheek envisions upgrades such as an expanded lobby space, a partitioned smaller auditorium and full restoration of the original 1925 theater. He doesn’t rule out replacing the 1966 hall to make that happen. Such plans are just talk at this juncture, Cheek insists, but Wills’ gesture has allowed the board to start thinking in those terms.
Unfortunately, the same challenge remains: how to expand the Belcourt’s customer base despite a crowded marketplace for entertainment and furious competition from Regal. Attendance for the nonprofit theater’s obscure foreign and indie films is uneven and unpredictable, although there have been surprises like the current Bonhoeffer, a documentary about the anti-Nazi theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer that raked in $3,500 its first week. More often, weeknight films play to single-digit audiences.
“Our reputation has been established among a small but devoted group of supporters,” Cheek observes. “We’ve got a long way to go to reach the rest of Nashville.”
But managing director Steve Small mentions several signs that the theater is broadening its appeal. These include expanded children’s events and group-tailored film programming, like the third annual Nashville Jewish Film Festival next month. Talks are reportedly underway with organizations such as the Nashville Songwriters Association International about future presentations. In the meantime, this weekend’s calendar includes an interactive stage production of Hansel and Gretel for tots, and Wills will celebrate his purchase Sunday with an all-day marathon of classics, cartoons and rarities from his collection of several thousand 16 mm prints.
Oddly enough, this collection may indicate what kind of impact a well-funded, upgraded Belcourt Theatre could have on Nashville. Before he got involved with saving the Belcourt, Wills says, he never considered himself a film enthusiast. Less than five years later, he finds himself owning one of the city’s largest private film archives. Blame it on the Belcourt and the passions it tends to inflame.
“I developed a love of film through the Belcourt,” Wills says. “It’s changed me as much as it has the potential to change Nashville.”
