Beckley Theatre
411-417 Neville Street,
Beckley,
WV
25801
411-417 Neville Street,
Beckley,
WV
25801
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Was there a Sights ‘N Sounds record store next to this theater? My father owned a Sights 'N Sounds in Beckley and there was a theater next to it. I believe I saw Flashdance there. Been so long ago.
The Beckley Theatre opened on May 14th, 1936 with “The Voice of Bugle Ann”. Grand opening ad and picture posted.
I grew up in Beckley when this theater was still operating. We moved there in 1977 and the first movie I saw here was STAR WARS. Even then it was a decrepit theater falling apart. We used to joke about what bad shape it was in. I wish I had paid more attention to the details so I could have appreciated more about what it must have been like in its heyday. In the early 80s it showed a lot of horror films, which I always saw. The last thing I saw here was in 1982 when it was running a double feature of AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN and FLASHDANCE. I paid once and stayed all day, sitting through both films a couple of times. That’s a fond memory. It was always poorly attended in those last days. Too bad.
An inventory of historic buildings in Beckley prepared for the NRHP in 1994 gives the address of the Beckley Theatre as 411-417 W. Neville Street. It was built in 1935, and was designed by the Huntington, West Virginia, architectural firm Meanor & Handloser.
The Arcadia Publishing Company book Beckley, by Fran Klaus, says that the Beckley Theatre closed in 1982, and was demolished in 1997. The site is now part of a parking lot.
The 1921 edition of Julius Cahn’s guide lists a Beckley Theatre in Beckley, so this house must have been at least the second to have the name.