Clay Center Theatre
Clay Center,
KS
67432
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Sunbeam Theatre, Sunbeams Theatre, Clay Theatre
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The Sunbeams Theatre was opened by Beams and W. “Cres” Swails on August 2, 1926. The opening program featured Aileen Pringle in “The Wilderness Woman” supported by Pathé’s two-reel documentary, “With Lieutenant Commander Richard E. Byrd, U.S.N., in America’s Polar Triumph”, and a two-reel Educational Comedy short. The theatre’s name appears to be a doff of the cap to the long-running column in the local paper written for decades by Fred Howard called, “Sunbeams”.
Big news occurred on April 24, 1929 when Jimmy Atkins took on the venue wiring it for sound. Talkies were heard in Clay County at the Sunbeams Theatre for the first time with George Jessel in “Lucky Boy” supported by the Metro Movietone Revue short, “On the Road to Mandalay” with George Washington Dewey.
One operator change seems to have led to a brief run as the Sunbeam Theatre. The theatre was sold back to Swails twice and he appears to have closed the venue in 1932. It became a house of worship in 1935.
On October 16, 1935, the theatre opened for another run as the Clay Theatre with Joe. E. Brown in “Bright Lights”. In 1951, it appears to have tweaked its name to the Clay Center Theatre. The Clay Center Theatre appears to have fulfilled a 30-year lease closing on February 26, 1956.
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dallasmovietheaters
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Recent comments (view all 1 comments)
Is it just a coincidence that one of the partners in the theatre was named “Beams” and the venue was called “Sunbeams”?