New Moon Theater
318 Main Street,
Neligh,
NE
68753
318 Main Street,
Neligh,
NE
68753
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Opened in 1944, the New Moon Theater is a single screen theater showing first run movies. It is operated by J & J Theatres. The owner of this theater also owns the Starlite Drive-In located in Neligh, NE.
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Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
I listed this theater as open, but after some further checking, I’m not real sure if thats the case. This theaters website lists no current movies playing there and yet it doesn’t say that it is closed either. I did read a message on another website saying that this theater was being renovated. There was no date on that message so I don’t know when or if the renovation took place. I saw a recent photo of this theater and the marquee reads “See You at the Starlite”. It is possible that it is under renovation and people are being diverted to the Starlite to see a movie. Does anyone know the current status of this theater?
The 1945 Film Daily Yearbook lists the Moon Theater as open and seating 300, but no address.
I found the website again that has photos of this theater and a caption that reads “The New Moon Theatre is being remodeled while the Starlite Drive-In is in operation for the summer”. Here is that website.
the same people own the new moon as the starlight. So in the summer they close the new moon and operate the starlight drivein.
In 1955 the New Moon Theater had 552 seats.
The New Moon was a wartime theater, featured in an article published in the December 2, 1944, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. It was designed in a simplified Art Moderne style by Omaha architect H.A. Raapke, a member of the Modern Theatre Planning Institute’s board of architectural advisors.
Materials used in construction were confined largely to those not restricted by the War Production Board. Raapke chose to use a stone base surmounted by glazed brick in black and cream for the facade, and the entrance lobby was floored with asphalt tile in a herringbone pattern.
Pre-war carpet was found for the inner lobby and the auditorium’s aisles, and both inner and outer lobbies received wallboard paneling with an imitation walnut finish. The ceiling of the 552-seat auditorium featured three offsets concealing indirect lighting from fluorescent tubes, and the walls were paneled in an acoustic material. The auditorium’s decoration was mostly stenciled, some of it using the crescent moon shape which was the theater’s signature. The theater’s facade had a small central tower surmounted by a neon crescent moon.
The original owner-operator of the new Moon was Mr. W.B. Bradley. The town of Neligh had a population of 1,649 at the time the theater was built.
The New Moon is open with the Pink Panther showing as of today. I guess as matth said it is open during the winter and the drive-in is open during the summer.
Great Name.
In the architect field above, the surname Raapke is currently missing the “e” at the end.
A recent photo by David Hunnicutt depicting the New Moon’s tower and the upper edge of its facade can be seen this web page.
The December 2, 1944, Boxoffice article with photos of the New Moon as it originally looked is now available from the magazine’s online archive. The article begins on this page. More photos are on the subsequent page, and additional text is on this page.