Larry Hembree The Nickelodeon, Columbia's art house cinema, is moving from its first home at Main and Pendledon to the 1600 block of Main, the former Fox Theater( 1962- 1987) and The State Theater (1936- 1961), just north of Lourie's. Managing the move is Larry Hembree, the movie house's executive director.

Hembree and his twin sister were born in Rock Hill. (He also had an older sister.) At the time, his father worked with Daniel Construction. In rapid succession, the family moved to Ware Shoals and then Greenwood, where Hembree graduated from Greenwood High School.

With a major in English and a minor in drama, he graduated from Clemson University. Hembree enrolled in the University of Georgia for a masters in fine arts, graduating in both acting and directing.

Hembree moved to New York City, where he took assignments at the Circle Repertory Company in Greenwich Village. At the Circle Rep, he worked with Lanford Wilson, the Pulitzer- prize winning playwright of Talley's Folly. While cutting his teeth in theater, Hembree worked at a telephone answering service.

After a year in New York, he took an offer from the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County, which was for one year. Hembree stayed for 12 years. During that time, he directed more than 200 shows and raised the $2 million for an education wing to the theater.

Hembree left Kershaw County for the South Carolina Arts Commission to become its director for performing arts through late 2005, when he took over the Nickelodeon.

The Nickelodeon began in April 1979 as the southeast's only not- for- profit movie house. The Nickelodeon had two directors before Hembree, Dale Campbell and Ann Raman. Raman had already championed the decision- making to move the Nickelodeon to the 1600 block of Main Street. Under Hembree's leadership, the Nickelodeon's intern program has expanded to six.

Over a three- year period, the city contributed $300,000 for the real estate and the move. Lourie's helped with inkind contributions, and an anonymous donor will cover the cost of the marquee. The projection room and its equipment is expected to cost at least $950,000.

The State Theater and the Fox Theater had more than 600 seats altogether, but in the late 1970s the balcony was walled off for a two- screen movie house, one upstairs and one downstairs. Considering how the space was converted for retail, some of the lower seats lost their opportunity for restoration in favor of what will now become a large lobby, replete with a restaurant.

Nickelodeon board member and architect Sanders Tate is helping with early concepts and with the selection of the architect.

The new Nickelodeon will have two screens, one with 175 seats above and one with 100 seats below. Hembree plans to show two movies concurrently and, thereby, collect ticket revenues from a minimum of 1,300 shows a year to a maximum of 2,000 shows a year.

According to the business plan partly authored with the help of the Moore School of Business, Hembree needs to sell just eight percent of the tickets projected to make it work and break even.