Lyon Theatre

W. Main Street and Mayfield Avenue,
Waverly, VA 23890

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Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on February 28, 2023 at 5:49 am

An article about theater owner Hal J. Lyon in the December 3, 1955 issue of <em<Boxoffice said that he opened the Lyon Theatre in Waverly on August 9, 1940. It was the fourth house in his small circuit, which began with the Franklin Theatre in Franklin, which he took over in 1929. It expanded with the Boykins Theatre at Boykins in 1935 and Lyon’s State Theatre at Franklin in 1937.

jhuber1111
jhuber1111 on January 15, 2013 at 12:43 am

Yes, I’ve look for a photo of it but no luck thus far. The manager you mentioned was Miss Wilma or Wilmer or something like that. Wish I could recall her full name. Some of us unruly teenagers gave her a fit back in the 60s. Wish she was still around so I could apologize. I’m not exactly sure when it closed, 1967 could be right. It was still open in 1966 when I finished High School at Waverly. The building was vacant for years but was torn down a long time ago. There is a public parking lot on the site.

bufffilmbuff
bufffilmbuff on November 16, 2012 at 8:40 pm

I grew up seven miles down the road in Wakefield. The theatre there closed before I was old enough to go. But my first movie (Disney’s CINDERELLA)was at the Lyon. Saw lots of movies there from the late 50’s until about 1967 when it finally closed. An old gray haired woman ran the theatre and once she died, they more or less had to close the theatre, especially since a new shopping center theatre near Petersburg also took away some business. A friend looked into running the theatre in the early 70’s and got a tour. Apparently the theatre was equipped for Cinemascope 4 channel magnetic sound… not something you’d expect for a small town theatre. Too bad there are no pictures of the old place.

jhuber1111
jhuber1111 on September 17, 2012 at 7:29 pm

I can’t figure out how to edit my original post of the Lyon Theater. The location was about half a block southwest of what shows in the photo, across Mayfield Ave. from the drug store. The seating capacity is just a guess. But it was a small theater with a balcony for African American patrons.