110 North 4th Street, Moberly · 660-833-4408
info@4thsttheatre.org · 4thsttheatre.org
Note that address. Three wrong ones are circulating: the visitors bureau says 112 North 4th, a ticket reseller repeats it, and some listings give 211 W. Reed — which is the Chamber’s building. It is 110 North 4th Street.
It is also, by a distance, the busiest venue in Randolph County — a monthly classic movie night, live music, and the 4th St Players.
Built 1913, opened February 8, 1914
Some sources say 1912. They are wrong. The building went up in 1913, put up by the O’Keefe Brothers Grocery, which owned the land, and opened on February 8, 1914.
The architect was Ludwig Abt, the German emigrant who studied reinforced concrete at home, worked in Kansas City and settled in Moberly. His advertising motto was "Ludwig Abt, Architect, Ideas Furnished." The theatre project holds his original drawings.
Opening night was the vaudeville act The Three Elliotts, "a high-class musical act of famous harpists and soloists," followed by the three-reel photoplay An Hour Before Dawn starring Laura Sawyer.
It seated 1,000, and the paper reported more than 2,000 people came through the doors that first day. Heavy mahogany swinging doors, white marble wainscoting, terra cotta trim in green and old ivory, dark red brick outside and a copper-covered porte cochère lit by rows of electric lights. Two projectors, and a large Wurlitzer electric piano that imitated an eighteen-piece orchestra.
Tickets were ten cents for adults, five cents for children under 10.
Two details worth keeping. Because entertainment was barred in Moberly on Sunday afternoons, the theatre served as a youth centre for the local Catholic parishes. And Bobby Carlton played here before he became famous for the song JaDa.
Before the war, Moberly had four opera houses and four movie houses. This is what is left.
How it survived
The O’Keefes owned it until 1963. It was leased and run by a succession of managers until 1956, then sat closed for several years.
In 1963 it sold to B&B Movie Company, owned by Elmer Bills of Salisbury, which ran it until 1997 — when the Bills family built a new theatre on Highway 63 and donated the old one to the Randolph County Historical Society.
It had been a movie house for eighty-three years.
Today it is owned and run by Moberly Community 4th Street Theatre, a non-profit with a governing board that committed to restoring the building with no debt, paid for by community and corporate fundraising. The restoration ran to roughly a million dollars. Board member Bobby Riley credits Carolee Hazlet, "who had a dream and saw the possibilities."
What is in there now
299 seats theatre-style, or table layouts. A 26-foot screen, concert-quality sound, intelligent LED stage lighting and digital projection.
Regular programming: classic movie nights, live concerts, theatrical performances, weddings, corporate events, and monthly blues jam nights for local musicians.
Nothing is published about wheelchair access or accessible seating. If you need it, call 660-833-4408 and ask before you buy a ticket.
Getting tickets
Ticketing is through Etix: etix.com/ticket/v/32312/4th-street-theatre. That is the authoritative schedule.
Be careful where else you look. The theatre’s own events page is currently empty, and the visitors bureau’s page for the theatre is about two years out of date and carries the wrong address. Resale sites list events at marked-up prices. Go to Etix, or the theatre’s Facebook page.
No ticket prices are published anywhere on the theatre’s own site.
The Classic Movie Night series runs roughly the first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. Recent and upcoming titles have included The Birds, The Monuments Men, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and Holiday Inn, alongside touring acts like the Malpass Brothers and Elwood and the Blues Masters.
The 4th St Players
The theatre’s community theatre arm. They stage real productions — Dracula: A Radio Play and A Christmas Story are both on the county calendar.
But if you want to audition or help backstage, there is nothing online to tell you how. The theatre’s community theatre page reads, in its entirety, "Performance info and audition details coming soon." No season, no audition dates, no rehearsal schedule, no director named.
Call 660-833-4408, or watch the Facebook page. It is a volunteer company and that is how it runs.
Renting it
Up to 299 theatre-style, or tables. Marketed for class reunions, customer appreciation events, weddings, corporate events and life celebrations.
The theatre publishes a list of recommended local vendors: videographers James Smith Films, Byler Media, Bussen Productions; photographers Creations by Nola, Catherine Rhodes Photography, Rebecca Allen Photography; catering from Black Market BBQ and The Brick.
No rental rates are published. Call.
Who runs it
President Howard Miedler · Vice President Bob Riley · Secretary Marsha Bain · Treasurer Linda Reynolds · Administrator Mark Fischer
Board members: David Byland, Dustin Pollard, Darrell Lampkins, Jennifer Ortman, Hazel Kinder, Bobby Riley, Brian Skaggs, Betty Hunt, Camille Blanford.
Project design and construction was managed by Joe Snodgrass, who also sits on the Omar Bradley Foundation board — the kind of overlap that is normal in a town this size and worth knowing when you are trying to get something done.
History and details from the 4th Street Theatre’s own pages, September 2026. Where the theatre publishes nothing — prices, accessibility, auditions — we have said so rather than repeating a resale site. Call 660-833-4408.
