ticketed-event
Catch a Movie
A working five-screen, 869-seat multiplex showing first-run films inside the 1937 Streamline Moderne building, marquee and neon intact.
- Duration:
- 2 hr
No photograph
on file
Est. 1937on file
HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
- 01Shadowy figures
- 02Footsteps in the aisles
- 03Seats moving on their own
Theater / Performance Venue
Alliance Theatre
A 1937 Art Moderne movie house in a 1903 hotel, still screening films and telling stories about a ghost named Mary.
410 Box Butte Ave, Alliance, NE 69301
Wheelchair Accessible
Research-Backed · 4 sources
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Standard movie-ticket pricing; varies by film and showtime.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved downtown sidewalk; level multiplex interior.
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1937 · Streamline Moderne / Art Deco Architecture · Alliance Commercial Historic District · Continuously Operating Movie House Since the 1910s
The building at 410 Box Butte Avenue started as a hotel: the 1903 Preston Hotel, later known as the Charter Hotel. It first became a movie house in 1910, when the Imperial Theatre began showing silent films inside it, and was substantially rebuilt as the New Imperial Theatre for a September 1, 1914 opening with the film "Beneath the Lion's Paws." Denver architect Frank E. Edbrooke oversaw a second major overhaul in 1919 that added a $10,000 Wurlitzer pipe organ for live musical accompaniment.
The Fox West Coast circuit bought the theater in 1929. Its most visible transformation came in 1937, when architect Walter H. Simon gave the building its current Streamline Moderne face -- the marquee and neon that still define it today -- and it reopened November 23, 1937 as the Fox Alliance Theatre with Errol Flynn's "The Perfect Specimen." Ownership changed hands several more times over the following decades: Commonwealth Theatres took over in 1971, United Artists in 1988, and the building expanded to a triplex between 1990 and 1997.
Today the Alliance Theatre operates as a five-screen, 869-seat multiplex under GEJU Theatres, still showing first-run films in a building whose Art Moderne marquee now anchors the Alliance Commercial Historic District -- one of relatively few small-town Nebraska movie palaces from the studio era still in continuous operation.
Sources
- https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/13670
- https://history.nebraska.gov/a-theater-where-every-movie-is-scary/
- https://www.loc.gov/item/2021757814/
- https://ghostlandia.media/2022/09/27/ghost-to-coast-alliance-theater-in-nebraska/
Shadowy figuresFootsteps in the aislesSeats moving on their own
The Alliance Theatre's ghost story centers on a performer named Mary. Nebraska haunted-places listings describe her as an actress who died on stage during a performance -- dressed as a bride -- when overhead stage lighting came loose and struck her. No cast record, newspaper account, or date for this accident turned up in any source consulted for this entry; the story is told without one, the way most theater ghost legends are.
Better documented is the pattern of reports theater staff and patrons attribute to her: shadowy figures glimpsed at the edges of the auditorium, footsteps running down empty aisles, and seats that appear to move on their own. In an October 2019 interview with the Panhandle Post, then-owner Gerald Bullard downplayed the reputation rather than lean into it, calling whatever is there "just a friendly ghost." Patron reactions are split -- one moviegoer who has watched films at the Alliance for 40 years says they've never felt anything, while another says the sense of being watched is easy to chalk up to whatever's playing on screen.
Mary has no surname and no documented death in the historical record available. Treat her as a long-running local legend attached to a real, still-operating small-town movie house, not a verified event.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Alliance Theatre family-friendly?
A functioning small-town movie theater; content depends on whatever film is playing. The ghost story is low-key -- even the theater's own owner has called it friendly. Overall family fit: High.
How much does it cost to visit Alliance Theatre?
Standard movie-ticket pricing; varies by film and showtime.
Do I need to book in advance?
No advance booking is required, but checking availability is recommended.
Is Alliance Theatre wheelchair accessible?
Yes, Alliance Theatre is wheelchair accessible. Terrain: Paved downtown sidewalk; level multiplex interior..