James Theater

Downtown Newport News, by William A. Fox (Google Books preview), gives a brief history of this house. It was in operation as the Olympic Theatre prior to 1931, when it was taken over by Publix, remodeled, and renamed the James Theatre. Publix operated the house only until 1934, when it was taken over by the local chain Dominion Theatres. At some point it was renamed the Downtown Theatre. In its last days it showed adult movies, and was closed in 1978. The roof of the theater collapsed on January 12, 1983, leading to its demolition.

The caption of this historic photo from the Newport News Public Library says that the Olympic Theatre was built in 1911. I found a period source indicating that the house was in operation by December of that year.

The Library of Virginia’s weblog, Out of the Box, has an interesting item about a performance that took place at the Olympic Theatre in 1912, leading to the arrest of the theater manager and a dance troupe. That younger generation! What was the world coming to?

The James Theatre opened in the mid-1930’s and was part of the Paramount Circuit, during the 1940’s it was operated by Dominion Theatres and from 1950 thru closing in 1964 it was operated by Neighborhood Theatres.