Palace Theatre

The Clearwater Opera House opened November 7, 1901 with a lecture. The first presentation of film there was on January 2, 1902 when Freeman Bros. brought a traveling show that had several Edison films including President McKinley’s funeral.

The 200-seat venue became home to regular motion pictures in 1916 under the name of the Palace Theatre. The Palace Theatre had the minor distinction of being the smallest town in Nebraska (fewer than 500 residents) to have a theatre convert to sound in the decade of the 1920’s. Operators Murrel P. Simpson and Bill Asmussen did just that beginning on November 8, 1929 with the film, “Syncopation" starring Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians.

The Palace Theatre was remodeled in 1931. It suffered a minor fire in 1933. In 1944, a theatre fire in nearby Neligh led to its bookings being moved to the Palace Theatre by Moon Theatre operator Walter Bradley. He would suffer a second fire within a year when on June 14, 1945 the theatre was heavily damaged by a fire that closed the venue.

In January of 1946, the theatre was repaired becoming a temporary skating rink for three months as post-war shortages hampered the theatre’s completion. The Palace Theatre resumed operations as a theatre on November 1, 1946 with Evelyn Keyes in “Renegades". It closed on June 1, 1955 with Tony Curtis in “6 Bridges to Cross". Local residents would have to travel to the New Moon Theatre for films less than ten miles away in Neligh.

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