Joyo Theatre

The town’s second Orpheum Theatre launched on May 23, 1912 after the first Orpheum outgrew the town’s needs. Charles J. Harris' new Orpheum Theatre lasted over 25 years in downtown Fairfield converting to sound and closing in 1940.

During World War I, the theatre began showing 5 and 6 reel features instead of only shorts while charging higher admission prices. The theatre experimented with free Sunday shows with help from local merchants and coupon tickets in 1926. Those proved popular especially when the Depression hit. In 1934, free merchant night screenings were ruled “unfair competition” by a governing body and discontinued. George K. Werner was then in charge and the court upheld that ban.

Werner sold the Orpheum Theatre to Fred W. Anderson not long after the demise of merchant night screenings. Anderson changed the theatre’s name to the Joyo Theatre late in the Summer of 1935. He closed the theatre in 1938 and gave it one more shot in 1939. Lloyd Selby took on the Joyo Theatre in 1939 but closed it a year later and took the projectors with him to the existing Clay Theatre in Clay Center reopening that theatre after a refresh.

According to the trade press, the theatre was briefly reopened as the Modern Theatre in 1947 by J.K. Varney but closed quickly. Free movie screenings would make a comeback on D Street in the 21st Century when the Community Auditorium provided sporadic free films for citizens.

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