Joyo Theatre

dallasmovietheaters on November 29, 2021 at 5:55 pm

W.J. Vallery opened this O Street theatre namelessly on June 4, 1912 with a naming contest, motion pictures, and Webster’s Orchestra furnishing the music. Frank McCoy was the lucky naming contest winner earning $5 for the clever Joy-O or Joy Theatre on O Street while second place winner Stanley Webster suggested the Evergood Theatre receiving $2. The theatre would lose the hyphen over time going by Joyo Theatre and The Joyo. The only other dedicated Havelock movie theatre was the Happy Hour Theatre on N Street. But there was no more joy when the Happy Hour Theatre closed just prior to Christmas on 1912 after just under two years of operation.

Roy Headrick took on the Joyo and would buy out the Jewell Theatre in 1926 which had launched on June 4, 1923. Charles Clarence “C.C” / “Slim” Frasier purchased the theatre in 1926 and would move the venue across the street to the 1928-built Lyric Theatre. He would give the Joyo one last overhaul including improved ventilation and Largen sound in 1936. Slim Frasier closed the Joyo on January 18, 1937 following showings of Bette Davis in “Satan Met a Lady” supported by a cartoon and an oddity.

He then transitioned the theatre across the street relaunching at the new Joyo Theatre on January 20, 1937 with “Three Cheers for Love.” Frasier would go on to add widescreen there to present CinemaScope titles beginning on February 12, 1954.