Dan Theatre

The Dan Theater was a conversion of The Register newspaper building. The conversion happened in 1939 according to blueprints filed with the City of Danville by H.F. Kincey. The Dan Theater had two box offices one for whites and one for blacks. Each had their own lobby. The lobby for the blacks was located on the balcony level. According to the blueprints for the Dan Theater the capacity for the Dan was around 725 people and the theater was decorated in an art-deco style. The auditorium was very plain looking much like the North Theater auditorium (1947). The Dan Theater was famous for it hold-overs from the Capitol Theater and the “bottom of the barrel” westerns; meaning you could see the same chase scene in 3 different movies. The theater seems to have closed by the late 1950’s and was taken over by Kresge Co. Today the building is used for storage and was once the office of the Commonwealth Attorney. The theater floor is still there and the front portion of the colored lobby upstairs but little else remains.

The 702-Capacity (540 for main auditorium and 162 for balcony) Dan Theatre opened its doors on December 19, 1939 with Arthur Lake in “Blondie Takes A Vacation” with no extra subjects. When the theater opened its doors, the nearby 690-capacity Broadway Theatre immediately closed permanently until being bought by R. Lea, and the Broadway Theatre changed its name to the Lea Theatre named after the operator.

The Dan was last owned by Wilby-Kincey and last managed by W.S. Shepherd Jr., and closed for the final time on March 27, 1954 with John Wayne in “Fort Apache” and Ann Sheridan in “Take Me To Town” with no extras. A S.S. Kresge store would later sit in the theater’s spot including extra expansion of floor space.