Howard Theater

Built in 1903 as a grocery store/general goods store, it had a small bottling operation at the back. It was one large building which was later divided.

In 1939 it was remodeled in an Art Deco style and it opened as the Howard Theater with Myrna Loy in “Lucky Night”. The theatre had a balcony and a long seating area. Part of the K. Lee Williams Theaters Inc. circuit that operated in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

The Howard Theatre was closed in 1953 when the K. Lee Williams Theaters Inc. opened their new Howard Auto Drive-In one and a half miles north of town and the Howard Theatre sign was transferred to the drive-in. In later years the drive-in was given a new sign.

The building is now in use by the Nashville Chamber of Commerce.

Recent comments (view all 2 comments)

Joe Vogel on September 5, 2020 at 3:04 pm

The April 4, 1939 issue of The Film Daily had an article about the recent expansion of the K. Lee Williams Theatres circuit, which had just added seven houses to the chain. This paragraph concerns the theaters in Nashville:

“Also purchased was the New theater at Nashville, Ark., from H. H. Baker of Emerson, Ark. Baker had been operating the house under a lease agreement with R. V. McGinnis. Williams theaters secured a closed town by also purchasing the Liberty and Gem theaters at Nashville, Ark., from R. B. Hardy. The Gem will be closed for complete remodeling. Temporary manager for Nashville is O. P. Peachey.”

It has occurred to me that the “New theater” mentioned in the article could have been the Howard, which actually was a new theater at the time. The house might have actually operated under the name New Theatre for a while before Williams took it over, or maybe Film Daily was just careless with the capitalization and meant only to indicate that it was a new theater. One can never be sure with these hastily-assembled trade journals.

rebeldj on September 12, 2020 at 5:53 pm

@Joe we need to join forces on the Nashville theaters…let me know if I could email you.