Higbee Theatre

The Gem Theatre was listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. An Opera House was also listed. Higbee was misspelled as Highbee in the 1926 FDY, but in 1927 it was back to Higbee. The May 4, 1935 issue of Motion Picture Herald said that “HARLE AND ROBB have opened the Star Theatre at Higbee, Mo.” If this was a name change it was temporary, as the 1936 FDY lists the Gem again, as do editions through 1941, though in those I’ve checked the house is always listed as closed. The town of Higbee is last listed in the 1941 edition, at least through 1951, which is as late as I can go. If the long-closed Gem became the Higbee Theatre it must have been in the 1950s.

The last mention of Higbee I’ve found in the trade journals is in the August 19, 1950 issue of Boxoffice, which says that a Sterling Bagby, who had been showing movies in Higbee on Friday nights, had opened an outdoor theater in mid-July on a vacant lot behind a filling station, and provided folding chairs for patrons who wished to leave their cars. It might be that Mr. Bagby had been running his shows in the old theater, though itinerant showmen of his sort commonly used community centers, lodge halls, school auditoriums, or even friendly churches for their operations. In any case, it appears that by 1950 Higbee had no full-time movie theater. It could be that the theater was listed as closed for so long because it was used only by traveling exhibitors such as Mr. Bagby for many years.