Star Theatre

North Bend, Nebraska, residents first enjoyed motion pictures at their local opera house. Getting live event patronage was a struggle for the opera house so it became a full-time movie theatre in 1908. But due to its size and its construction as a live venue, motion picture presentation was substandard despite brisk business.

In 1912, two new theatres opened in existing retail buildings. The first was the Star Theatre and it was followed by the first location of the Lyric Theatre. Both showed silent films. In 1916, the Lyric Theatre moved to a new-build facility. That year, the Star Theatre and Lyric Theatre were re-joined by the North Bend Opera House turned Empress Theatre. The remodeling of the facility was designed to better present motion pictures. And the town also had an Airdome for the first time in the summer of 1916. Money was thinly divided between the four venues due to the town’s diminutive size.

The Empress Theatre burned down just six months after its name change. The Airdome did not reopen for a second season. This left just the two theatres which competed under different ownership until 1927. On December 17, 1927, Star Theatre owner Fred Mehaffey bought the Lyric Theatre from A. Herman to reduce North Bend to a more manageable one-theatre town. Mehaffey was likely worried about the conversion to sound - a battle that both theatres would likely lose due to technology costs.

Within a year, Mahaffey sold both North Bend movie venues to Anna Moss and her son. (The Mosses also ran the Liberty Theatre in nearby Morse Bluff.) Details are a little sparse but the Mosses reportedly fixed up the newer-build Lyric Theatre while running just the Star Theatre as the only movie house briefly from March 29, 1928, until the beginning of May of 1928. They then appear to have moved the Star’s nameplate to the refreshed Lyric Theatre which ran under the moniker of the New Star Theatre beginning on May 5, 1928. It would be converted to sound and dropped the “New” from its name.

North Bend would then operate with a single theatre (the former Lyric Theatre turned former New Star Theatre, turned Star Theatre, turned Bend Theatre, turned Nor-Bend Theatre, turned Joy Theatre which has its own page on Cinema Treasures) until 1961. If correct, the Star Theatre appears to have operated from 1912 to closure in May of 1928 with its nameplate still in use when moved to its new location from 1928 until 1935. The “Star” name was discontinued locally following a new operator whose third refresh of the venue led to its name change to “The Bend” or Bend Theatre.

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