B.B. Theatre

The Palm Theatre, was a silent movie house in downtown Ashland located on the main level of the town’s opera house. It operated from 1915 to 1928 not making the conversion to sound. The Isis Theatre on the same block would become the long-running sound movie house in town until fire ended its operation during the Christmas holiday season in 1951.

The Simington Opera House opened in 1883 in downtown Ashland at the corner of Silver Street and 15th Street. The opera house was upstairs and retail was located on the ground floor. In 1903, the location was renamed as the Sear’s Opera House. Local movie pioneer F.B. Honey & Son had purchased the Bijou Theatre in 1911 but decided that the Opera House’s ground floor would provide a better space for a movie theatre in 1915.

The Palm Theatre was opened in the Sear’s Opera House Building after the Farmers Grocery had vacated its main floor. F.B. Honey & Son launched The Palm on November 29, 1915 with “Jane’s Declaration of Independence” with Agnes Vernon and “We Should Worry for Aunty” with Rosemary Thebe.

W.E.C. Becker and Wilmer Birdsall took over The Palm in July of 1925 from Honey. A 1926 refresh brought a Blizzard branded fan to improve air flow for the venue. It also brought a new name as The Palm became the B.B. Theatre. It was not named after Becker and Birdsall but rather Birdsall’s daughter Betty Belle. The B.B. Theatre opening film on July 15, 1926 was Norma Talmadge in “Kiki”. The Sear’s Opera House appears to have gone inactive in 1927.

Two of the final bookings were among the B.B.’s biggest with a four night bookings of Paramount’s Oscar Winning “Wings” and the a four night booking of Cecil B. DeMille’s “The King of Kings.” But the money was in sound film and the B.B. Theatre was closed when the Becker and Birdsall decided that there was only enough money to convert one local theatre to sound. That would be the nearby Isis which began showing talkies in 1929. It later became the Gem Theatre and then, finally, the Neu Theatre until a fire late in 1951.

The B.B. Theatre / former opera house was used for some live political speeches in 1930, became a temporary home to a dry cleaner whose main location had suffered fire damage, and then a pool hall. The building was home to a NAPA Auto Parts Store in the 2020’s.

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