Jewel Theatre
235 N. Main Street,
Valentine,
NE
69201
235 N. Main Street,
Valentine,
NE
69201
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The original Jewell Theatre opened in 1911. This page is for the 2nd of three Jewell Theatres to operate in Valentine, NE. This Jewell Theatre was opened on December 18, 1916 with the play “God’s Country”. It later went over to full time cinema use and operated through to its closure in July 1969 as the Jewel Theatre.
In 2009, the building still stands on N. Main Street, but is possibly unused. There is a Jewel II Theatre currently operating in Valentine, located on East C Street.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
From at least early 1938, the Jewell Theatre was owned and operated by a Mr. and Mrs. Harold Dunn (Mrs. Dunn’s name was Hazel.) They are mentioned in several issues of Boxoffice Magazine from that period. The February 26, 1938, issue said that Harold Dunn had begin remodeling the theater, and intended to redecorate the lobby, enlarge the foyer, install a new box office, and build lounges on the lower floor.
The April 2, 1938, issue said that Mrs. Dunn had been in Omaha to pick out some “…snappy blue and black leather and chromium furniture at Quality Theatre Supply for the remodel job on the Jewel Theatre.” (Boxoffice sometimes spelled the name Jewel and sometimes Jewell.)
There are various other mentions of the Dunns into the 1950s, but the December 18, 1961, issue of Boxoffice says that Mrs. Hazel Dunn, owner of the Jewel Theatre, had been visiting old friends in Omaha, so I guess that Harold was gone by then.
Finally, the June 30, 1969, issue of Boxoffice says that Deb Coble, operator of the Jewell Theatre, was closing the house for the summer and would operate only the drive-in. That’s the last mention of the Jewell I’ve found.
A little bit more information turned up in the February 20, 1967, issue of Boxoffice. An item said that Deb Coble, who had recently taken over the Jewell Theatre in Valentine, was also taking over the Valentine Drive-In that had been owned by Roy Metzger of Winner, South Dakota.
The June 11, 1955, issue of Boxoffice said that the Valentine Drive-In had opened for its second year, and that over the winter CinemaScope equipment had been installed. The drive-in was then operated by a Mr. and Mrs. Robert Sharp.
A house called the Jewel Theatre was listed at Valentine in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The Jewell (two L’s) Theatre was mentioned in the April 15, 1916 issue of The Moving Picture World. Another mention appeared in the July 7, 1917 issue of the same journal, noting the management’s replacement of their Saturday children’s matinee with something called the “family program.” The January 9, 1932 issue of Motion Picture Herald said that the Jewel had been remodeled, and new sound equipment had been installed.
This was the second of three Jewell Theatres in town. The Jewell (two Ls) was a group of Nebraska theaters under common ownership until the sound era appears to have wiped out the majority of them. The new-build Jewell replaced a previous location opening with the play, “God’s Country,” on December 18, 1916. It would convert to full-time motion pictures and convert to sound as noted above. At some point the second L was dropped.