I saw a lot of movies during some of the summers when I was a kid. The Fox theater in North Platte, Nebraska had weekly matinees that were packed with youngsters. As I recall, they were double features. Tickets for the summer were sold by the sheet. Each week, you would tear one off for admission to the shows.
Intersection of 5th and Baily – Paramount Theater, Pawnee Hotel, and Fox Theater – circa 1940s
In those days – the late 50s and early 60s – it was quite safe for kids to walk or ride their bikes just about anywhere. The Fox was around a mile from where we lived on the north side of the tracks, just a 15-minute walk, quicker on a bike. Easy peasy.
There were 3 other theaters in operation during the years I lived in North Platte.
Saturday morning movie crowd, October 1938,
John Vachon, Farm Security Administration (Library of Congress image)
One, the Paramount, was diagonally across the street from the Fox. I don’t specifically remember going to anything there. The building was converted into a department store that housed J.C. Penny, as I recall. It had the first elevator I can remember riding in.
Another, the State Theater, was on North Jeffers, just down from the viaduct over the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. I only remember going there once. One of the ubiquitous Dollar General stores sits on that location now.
The last theater was the Pawnee Drive-in. While I remember going there, the main thing I seem to remember was that there was a small playground below the screen, though I could be mistaken. It was out near the county fairgrounds and there is still a visible vestige imprint on the land in satellite views.
The last summer I might have gone tp the Saturday matinees would have been 1964, when I was 12 years old. I spent the summer of ‘65 in Houston, Texas. When I returned to North Platte, we had moved to the south side of town about a mile and a quarter west of the Fox. I know I didn’t go to any matinees in the summer of ‘66 and after the school year ended in ‘67, I moved away from North Platte permanently.
Things have changed a lot since then. I-80 ended at North Platte coming from the east. Little of the construction south of the South Platte River had even been started. Shopping was still mostly done downtown. As far as I know, there was no thought of a mall. (I visited a mall for the first time the summer of ‘67 after leaving North Platte) The library was still in the old Carnegie library across from the courthouse. I had estimated at the time that it was 1 mile to the library, which I visited very often after we moved to the south side. According to Google Maps, it’s 1.1 miles.
