Campus Theater

Listed in the 1945 Film Daily Yearbook as open, as the Sosna Theatre, seating 774.

Actually, the Campus Theater is NOT also known as the Varsity Theater. The Campus Theater building is located on Moro east of Manhattan Ave. The Varsity Theater was an entirely different building, located at the T-junction of Moro and Manhattan Ave. Both are closed...not sure what the Campus Theater is any more, but the Varsity Theater was purchased by Varney's bookstore and turned into more retail space.

I was the projectionist at the Campus Theatre from 1968-1978 (less a 2-year stint in the Army). The theatre was originally called the Sausnaw (sp) Theatre and owned by a local family in Manhattan. It was part of the Commonwealth Theatre chain of Kansas City, Mo.

Actually, the Campus Theatre was located at the junction of Manhattan Ave. and Moro St. Varney's bookstore bought it a few years ago, gutted it, and enlarged their existing store into the theatre building. The Varsity was about two blocks further east on Moro. I worked at both of them.

1984 photo of the Campus Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c16%2c3%2c-1&ProductID=27541

1984 night photo of the Campus Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c16%2c3%2c-1&ProductID=27546

I never saw this CT page before tonight, so I don't know what information might have been in Lost Memory's original introduction and later removed, but sarakali might have been mistaken about the Campus/Sosna never having been called the Varsity Theatre. There was an earlier Varsity Theatre in Manhattan, unrelated to the house that opened in the 1960s. The earlier Varsity Theatre was listed in the April 14, 1932, issue of New England Film News as one of the theaters that had recently installed RCA sound equipment.

An obituary of Sam L. Sosna in the February 8, 1960, issue of Boxoffice said that he had operated the Sosna Theatre at Manhattan from 1931 until his retirement in 1946, at which time he sold the house to the Griffith circuit. While this might indicate that the theater had been renamed the Sosna before the 1932 mention of the Varsity was published, it's possible that Sam Sosna didn't rename the theater immediately, or perhaps he was just thrifty and ordered the sound equipment using a remaining Varsity Theatre letterhead soon after acquiring the house in 1931.

This is a fairly tenuous surmise, though, so I wouldn't add Varsity as an aka without confirmation from some other source.

This theater was added over four years ago and I have no idea what the original information was. I must have included an aka name of Varsity and it was removed because of sarakali's comment. It's possible that sarakali was talking about the later Varsity Theater. A Varsity Theater is listed in 1935 with 774 seats. In 1940 the Varsity is no longer listed but the 774 seat Sosna Theater is listed. What a coincidence. The name could have been changed from Varsity to Sosna in the late 1930s.

Identical seat counts of a non-round number, coupled with the other information I dug up, seems good enough to me. I think the aka of Varsity Theatre should be restored. As the theater opened in 1926 and is in a college town, it's likely that Varsity was its opening name. It was a very popular name for movie theaters in the 1920s. It probably saw its fair share of raccoon coats, hip flasks, and co-eds in cloche hats sneaking smokes in the ladies room.

I wish I could remember where I originally found the information for this theater. The source must have mentioned that the Varsity, Sosna and Campus were one in the same theater or I wouldn't have given Varsity as an aka. I agree that Varsity should be added as an aka name again.