Regal Theatre
W. Hudson Street,
Wellsville,
MO
63384
W. Hudson Street,
Wellsville,
MO
63384
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The Regal Theatre was opened by 1919. Mr. J.C. Hewitt opened the Regal Theatre in 1927. The theatre seated 375 and was still listed as open in the late-1950’s.
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Chris1982
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
One J. F. Rees was operating a theater called the Regal in Wellsville, Missouri, in 1922. He had a few capsule movie reviews published in issues of Exhibitors Herald in April and July. J. F. Rees of Wellsville was mentioned in the Herald in 1920, though the name of his theater wasn’t given at that time. Then in March, 1924, the magazine published several reviews by John F. Rees of the Regal in Wellsville. John Rees of Wellsville is mentioned in The Reel Journal in 1926, but again without the name of his theater.
J. C. Hewitt probably took over the Regal from Rees in 1927, though I haven’t found anything about it in the trades. However, there’s an interesting connection between Hewitt and Rees indicating that they knew each other. The July 4, 1931, issue of Motion Picture Herald has a letter from the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of St. Louis, Eastern Missouri, and Southern Illinois, and the letterhead lists both J. C. Hewitt of Robinson, Illinois, and John F. Rees of Wellsville, Missouri as Vice Presidents of the organization. Apparently Rees was back in control at Wellsville by that time.
Wellsville is a bit tedious to research because there were towns called Wellsville in New York, Ohio, Illinois, and Kansas as well as Missouri. I suppose I should just be grateful that Wellsvilles are not as common as Springfields, but I wish the founders of American cities had shown a bit more originality in naming them (thank you, George Willis Pack, for Bad Axe, Michigan.)
I’ve now found the Regal Theatre at Wellsville mentioned by name in a February, 1920, medical journal (the Montgomery County Medical Society had held a meeting in the theater on December 17, 1919.)
John F. Rees ran the Regal Theatre for a long time. I’ve found him mentioned as the manager of the house in an item in the October 26, 1950, issue of the Mexico Ledger.
An article in the November 22, 1974, Ledger said that the late John Rees had “.. .willed a downtown building in Lot 12, Block 2 of Wellsville to the Martha Washington Chapter, Eastern Star, and the Wellsville Lodge 194 of Masons.” I wonder if that could have been the Regal Theatre’s building?