Neon Theater

The below 8/01/22 news report footage begins with the former Neon Theatre at :05 in the video. Based on a more accurate street view search, the address is 911 Highway 317, currently home to Busy B’s Country Gift Shop, which previously was next door at 909 Highway 317, now home to Ingnite Church pictured in the video. Though Busy B’s still uses the 909 address next door.

https://www.courier-journal.com/videos/news/local/2022/08/01/neon-church-cleans-up-after-historic-eastern-kentucky-flooding/10205575002/

I’ve come upon a source that indicates that Neon had three theatres over the years. From the comment above there was a Neon in 1925. I came upon an ad for a Bentley in 1938. Perhaps the Neon had been renamed as an earlier comment suggests. My source said the Bentley, which often played westerns, was destroyed by fire in 1944. Also confirmed by an earlier comment.

Then a new theatre was built. My contention is it was called the Neon because I have come upon a headline in The Mountain Eagle from February 1947 which indicates that there was a disastrous fire that wiped out an entire block which contained the Neon Theatre. The Neon which appears in the images above is, therefore, the final one which opened approximately in 1949.

lonely looking theatre in a lonely town, nice shot.

http://www.landmarkhunter.com/197399-neon-theater/

You can give them credit, but you would be guessing. I think Francis of Assisi would have stuck in my mind. If guessing is OK, feel free.

A theater doesn’t get added to the database without going through the webmasters, so if they include the picture link as an official website they must approve of the practice.

There was a Neon Theatre at Neon, Kentucky, as far back as 1925, when it was listed in the July 11 issue of The Reel Journal. Later, there was a Bentley Theatre, the town’s only movie house, which was reported to have been recently destroyed by fire in the March 11, 1944, issue of Boxoffice. The Bentley might have been the first Neon Theatre renamed.

The Bentley was apparently rebuilt, as it was mentioned in a July 2, 1949, Boxoffice item which said that its operators, the Virginia Amusement Company, were building a second theater in Neon. The Bentley would show only westerns and second run movies when the new theater opened. Judging from the look of the building in the photos above, the new theater was probably the Neon.

I’ve done that quite a few times when there is a photo of the theater to go along with the new addition. The “related websites” criteria is not too demanding.

No, the related sites photo was from a website. It would have been larger if I took it off Google.