Band Box Theatre
116 S. Wood Street,
Neosho,
MO
64850
116 S. Wood Street,
Neosho,
MO
64850
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The permit to build a new theater in Neosho in 1944 was probably expedited by the fact that there was a large military training facility, Camp Crowder, nearby. Towns with bases nearby were usually given priority. Camp Crowder had its own theater, but the Army was undoubtedly mindful of the impact that large numbers of soldiers on passes had on theaters in nearby towns. In most places even a permit to remodel an existing building into a theater was hard to come by.
CC: Good question. The local paper reported that John T. Graham of Kansas City got permission from the War Production Board to transform an existing retail building owned by F.P Zbranek to what would become the Band Box Theatre. The short-lived Plaza Theatre was actually opened April 10, 1936 in the Odd Fellows Building on the East Side of the Square. The theatre looks to have gone out of business in 1937 and the building was severely damaged by a fire April 21, 1938.
Grand opening as the Band Box Theatre was July 26, 1944. Closed again briefly reopening in 1948. When the Edgewood Drive-In opened, the Band Box was reduced to Winter usage only with its bookings at the ozoner. Appears to have closed April 3, 1954 perhaps at the end of a ten-year lease. After three years of inactivity, it became the new home to W.J. Hux Clothing Store in 1957. Proper name is “Band Box Theatre”
In 1944, the Bandbox Theatre was advertising for cashiers and an “…elderly man for door work….” in the September 17 and 18 issues of the Neosho Daily Democrat, so the theater was probably preparing to open soon.