Junior Theatre

This is a tale of two theatres at the same address 21, S. Main Street (Main Street was previously known as S.Allen Street). Although earlier address’s are mentioned:-

At 118 N. Allen Street W.H. Van Etten opened an airdome in 1905. Later that year it was moved to the Middle West Block which today would be 1 S. Main Street. During subsequent summers he moved the airdome to 21 S. Main Street and it operated as the Orpheum Theatre Park. In 1907 it was moved again when he contacted architect Captain Silvan to convert the Southwest Machinery Company on E. Main Street to a theatre (That Main Street was renamed Broadway in 1920 when Allen Street was renamed Main Street). By March 1908, new managers J.G. Sutton & Associates were already so far behind with their rent that the local constable had the theatres' equipment seized. Van Etten continued to run an airdome at the corner of Main and Austin until at least 1910.

In a June 1909 article about benefit performances, the Register newspaper noted that J.D. Wineland was the new manager of the Mystic Theatre on S. Allen (later Main) which was “on the site of the Orpheum Theatre” In October 1909 Wineland announced that he was building a permanent theatre “on the site of the Old Mystic Airdome”. This may sound confusing, but this is what possibly happened: The Orpheum on E. Main that defaulted on its rent might have never reopened, and the site of ‘the Orpheum Theatre’ referred to was the site of the Orpheum Airdome which at some point had been renamed Mystic, and was still an outdoor theatre. Therefore, Wineland was building an indoor theatre at 21-23 S. Main Street on the site of his Mystic Airdome, which was previously the Orpheum Airdome/Orpheum Theatre Park.

So we arrive at 21 S. Main Street, where the new Mystic Theatre opened on December 18, 1909. By Spring 1927 it had been re-named A-Mus-U Theatre, but the name reverted back to Mystic Theatre by 1933. December 28, 1933 was the last mention of the Mystic Theatre by name in the local papers.

L.P. Larsen reopened the theatre as the Junior Theatre on September 6, 1936. He also operated the Civic Theatre at this time, and sometimes the Junior Theatre was referred to as the Civic Junior Theatre. The last advertisement for the Junior Theatre ran in the Webb City Sentinel newspaper on December 25, 1948 For a couple of years Webb City had three movie theatres, as the rival Dickinson Theatre had opened in 1946. That was probably one too many, and Larson closed the Junior Theatre as a movie theatre, but leased it out for special events in the 1950’s (Around this time the Larsen family bought the Dickinson Theatre while still running the the Civic Theatre, therefore restoring their monopoly).

At the Chamber of Commerce meeting in September 1962, it was reported that “the old Junior Theatre sign had been taken off and that the building had been repainted”. As of 2026, the Webb City Cafe occupies the former theatre.

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