Courtesy Photo/Image Neville Center & Fox Theater

On Tuesday, Nov. 24, the Fox Theatre, now the Neville Center for the Performing Arts, turned 80 years young.

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The Fox Theatre opened a few weeks after the stock market crash of 1929 and was hailed as the “Wonder House of the West.”

According to the North Platte Evening Telegraph newspaper, the new theatre compared favorably with any theatre in Nebraska, including those in Lincoln and Omaha.

The newspaper said the thatre was an “acoustic masterpiece” with special plaster and velour seats.

The Fox had the largest projection room in Nebraska, with two movie projectors with sound equipment to accommodate sound pictures.

The first commercially successful sound picture was The Jazz Singer, which opened in 1927.

Also the Fox Theatre was built to accommodate vaudeville acts and live entertainment. The Fox had a stage with equipment for lighting and scenery changes.

Now the stage is used for community playhouse productions.

The Fox was built by Keith Neville, a North Platte businessman who was the Nebraska governor from 1917-18. Neville was the second youngest man ever to serve the State of Nebraska as its chief executive. He was 32 when elected in 1916.

At the Fox, the first feature movie presented was Salute, a show about a great football game. Later that week, Will Rogers starred in The Perils of Paris.

For nearly 50 years, people in the North Platte area enjoyed going to the movies at the Fox. In 1980, the Mann Theatre Corporation decided to close the Fox movie showings. Compared to more modern, austere motion picture theatres, the Fox was expensive to operate.

For a time the theater sat empty. there was talk of razing the building to make room for a parking lot. Fortunately, the four Neville sisters, daughters of Keith Neville, sold the building to the North Platte Community Playhouse for a dollar. The sisters -- Mrs. Irene Bystrom, Mrs. Frances Newberry, Mrs. Virginia Robertson and Mrs. Mary Nel Sieman -- earned the lasting gratitude of the North Platte community.

Under the leadership of Mrs. Pat Birge, who was president of the Playhouse bard at the time, volunteers made plans to renovate the building.

A successful fund drive generated $265,198.90. James Seacrest was chairman of the fund drive, with Mrs. Pauline Dye and Mrs. Barbara Rounsborg as co-chairs. For this effort, the North Platte Community Playhouse was honored in 1983 with a Governor’s Arts Award presented by Gov. Bob Kerrey.

In the fall of 1982, Anything Goes became the first Playhouse show to be presented in the Fox, although the building was not yet fully renovated.

The Fox became “The Neville Center for the Performing Arts” at a grand opening Dec. 9, 1983, with the Nebraska Sinfonia in concert.

The Neville Center for the Performing Arts has since been expanded to include a reception room, a make-up room, a kitchen, a work room, a costume room, a prop room and other storage areas. Other improvements include restoration of the lighted sign and marquee; new rest rooms and air conditioning.

The renovation of the Fox and subsequent improvements are due to the generosity of the community and to the efforts of dedicated volunteers who spent many hours cleaning, painting, and restoring the building to its grandeur. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Neville Center for the Performing Arts is a community treasure, the venue for all the productions of the North Platte Community Playhouse, for Town Hall Lectures, for concerts and many other community events.

Phyllis Swigart is a member of the board of directors of the North Platte Community Playhouse.