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NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — The Fox Theatre, now the Neville Center for the Performing Arts in North Platte, turns 80 years old this week.
Opening only a few weeks after the stock market crash of 1929, the Fox Theatre was hailed as the “Wonder House of the West.”
According to the North Platte Evening Telegraph, the new theater compared favorably with any theater in Nebraska, not excluding Lincoln and Omaha.
The newspaper article said that the Fox Theatre was an “acoustic masterpiece” with special plaster and velour seats. The Fox had the largest projection room in Nebraska, with two movie projectors and sound equipment to accommodate sound pictures.
The Fox Theatre was built to accommodate vaudeville acts and live entertainment. As a result, the Fox had a stage with equipment for lighting and scenery changes. Now the stage is used for local play productions.
The Fox was built by Keith Neville, a North Platte businessman who served as Nebraska governor from 1927-1918. The first feature was “Salute,” a show about a football game. Later in the week, Will Rogers starred in “The Perils of Paris.”
For nearly 50 years people in the North Platte area enjoyed going to the movies at the Fox.
In 1980 the Mann Theatre Corporation closed the Fox. Compared to the modern, more austere motion picture theaters, the Fox was expensive to operate.
For a time the run-down old building sat empty, and there was talk of razing the building to make room for a parking lot.
Fortunately the four Neville sisters, daughters of Keith Neville, sold the building to the North Platte Community Playhouse for $1.
Under the leadership of Pat Birge, who was president of the playhouse board, volunteers renovated the building.
A successful fund drive brought in $265,198.90. In the fall of 1982, “Anything Goes” was the first Playhouse show to be presented in the Fox, although renovations were still in progress.
The Fox became “The Neville Center for the Performing Arts” at its grand opening on Dec. 9, 1983, with the Nebraska Sinfonia in concert.
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