1929 Movie Palace Now North Platte's Community Playhouse
401 N Jeffers St, North Platte, NE 69101
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Ticket prices vary by production. Check the North Platte Community Playhouse website for the current season schedule.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved sidewalks; interior with stairs to balcony
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1929 · National Register of Historic Places · 1929 Fox Theater Chain · First Nebraska Sound-Era Theater · Keith Neville Building
The Fox Theater was built in 1929 by the North Platte Realty Company, a partnership between Alex Beck and Keith Neville. Neville had served as Nebraska's 18th governor from 1917 to 1919. The building was designed by Omaha architect F. A. Henninger and opened to the public on November 24, 1929. North Platte's Fox was the first theater in Nebraska built from the outset to the Fox studio's specifications for the recently-introduced talkies.
The building is a prominent regional example of the 1920s American picture palace. The decorative program mixes Egyptian Revival, Georgian, Moorish, and Roman motifs in the lobby and auditorium. The proscenium and balcony detailing reflect the late silent-era ambition to provide a theater experience as elaborate as the films themselves.
The Fox operated as a movie theater for five decades. In December 1980, Keith Neville's four daughters donated the building to the North Platte Community Playhouse, the city's volunteer-led community theater organization founded in 1925. Following a public-donation and volunteer-labor renovation, the venue reopened in 1983 and was renamed the Neville Center for the Performing Arts in honor of Keith Neville. The Fox Theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The Neville Center continues to host plays, concerts, lectures, and community events year-round.
Sources
Like many American movie palaces, the Fox/Neville Center carries an in-house ghost tradition passed down among performers, ushers, and stage crew. The most consistent reports cluster in the balcony, specifically in and around the lighting booth, and describe a sudden drop in temperature followed sometimes by the brief sensation of a hand on the shoulder or back.
The character, when described, is treated as a longtime resident of the theater and is regarded as harmless. Performers preparing for productions occasionally reference him in pre-show rituals. The phenomena have not escalated into the more aggressive category of theater-ghost lore, and the Community Playhouse organization has not formally documented or commercialized the reports.
Other phenomena reported less frequently include small objects shifting position in the dressing rooms between rehearsals and an occasional figure glimpsed near the proscenium during empty-house walk-throughs. Like much theater folklore, the lore is part of the building's working culture rather than a curated paranormal attraction.
Watch a stage production, concert, or lecture at the restored 1929 Fox Theater, now the Neville Center for the Performing Arts. The venue's mixed Egyptian, Georgian, Moorish, and Roman decorative motifs are visible throughout the lobby and auditorium.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Joliet, IL
The Rialto Square Theatre opened May 24, 1926, designed by Chicago firm Rapp & Rapp for the six Rubens brothers. Its Neo-Baroque interior — modeled in part on the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles — earned it a place on the American Institute of Architects's '150 Great Places in Illinois' and a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
St. Louis, MO
The Fabulous Fox Theatre opened in January 1929 as one of five 'Fox' picture palaces commissioned by film magnate William Fox. Designed by C. Howard Crane in a 'Siamese Byzantine' style, the 4,500-seat auditorium was the second-largest in the United States at its opening. After decades of decline the theatre closed in 1978 and was restored by the Fox Associates beginning in 1981, reopening in 1982 as the centerpiece of Grand Center.
Ashland, KY
The Paramount Arts Center opened September 5, 1931 in Ashland, Kentucky as one of the first movie palaces purpose-built for sound film. Designed by Rapp and Rapp, the theater closed in 1971 and was rescued from demolition by the Greater Ashland Foundation, reopening as a performing-arts center in 1972.