Glenwood Theatre

Although it was a sad ending to see the demolition of the original theatre, a new Glenwood Theatre has reopened a couple of blocks away, inside Metcalf South Mall.

This new fine arts theater is elegant and ornate and has many of the original furnishings from the old theater. In addition, there is also an upscale coffee shop. Also, the theater's decor is reminiscent of old movie houses which were known for their classic atmospheres.

The above address is incorrect, the correct address for the Glenwood Theatre is 9578 Metcalf, Overland Park, Ks.

Thanks for viewing my submission, Charles. The 9578 Metcalf address is incorrect. You are thinking of the Glenwood Arts Theatre in the Metcalf South Mall. The original Glenwood Theatre and the current Glenwood Arts Theatre are not one and the same. I am the person who contributed this page and picture, and this submission is a tribute to the original Glenwood Theatre that sat at 9100 Metcalf from 1966-2000. During it's demolition, the sign, seats, and other items were bought by the Fine Arts Group and put into storage. Shortly after that, the Fine Arts Group signed a lease occupying the space of the former Metcalf Theatre at the Metcalf South Shopping Mall at 95th and Metcalf. They did a wonderful restoration and integrated some artifacts from the original Glenwood which included the seats and the 40+ feet tall sign. One of the owners told me that he gets quite a few phone calls from people who think that the original Glenwood closed and then moved just a few blocks down the street. The original Glenwood was owned by Dickinson Theatres from 1966-1999 and by Goodrich Quality Theaters from 1999-2000. After it's demolition, the artifacts, not the theater or company itself, moved a few blocks down the street to be integrated into the Glewood Arts Theatre. The Fine Arts Group is not affiliated with Dickinson or Goodrich. It is common for them to use fixtures from closed and demolished theaters in the theaters that they remodel and operate. Some of the original Glenwood seats were recently installed in the Englewood Theatre on Winner Road. I can understand the confusion, and if I hadn't followed the demolition of the Glenwood as closely as I did, I would have thought the same thing that you and many other people have. Once again, Charles, thanks for viewing my submission, and if you have any memories of the old Glenwood that you would like to post, I would be interested in reading them.

Donald Philo is the architect of Glenwood Theatres I&II

I just found the website and was sorry to hear about the demolition of the Glenwood Theaters a few years ago. I moved away from Overland Park in 1972 when I was 8 years old, but remember the theater fondly... the plush red seats, the red carper with the black mesh design, and the huge lobby with the chandelier. Not only did we see all of our movies there, but we also had our church services at the theater for a couple of years before our regular church was built. I enjoyed seeing the picture of the outside. Does anyone have any other pictures of the lobby or the theater itself? I'd love to see them. Great memories, and sorry to hear it was razed.

John, I have a few that I can email to you. They aren't the best quality, but they are satisfactory. They are on a disk in a storage room that I am cleaning out, so it will probably be a couple of weeks before I can get them to you. If you don't want to post your email here, just let me know and I will link you to mine.

Hi John, I have two postcard views of this theatre taken soon after opening. One is in the auditorium and the other is in the lobby. Post your email or send me an email & I'll send them to you.

Claydoh77 there is no email address listed for you under your member profile.

Claydoh77, I would appreciate it if you could send me those postcard views you are talking about. I have plenty of pics of the Glenwood during it's final days, but none of the theatre's early days. My email is klebrun@kc.rr.com Thank you.

Thanks for the note Charles, I forgot that it wasn't listed & have updated my profile.

klebrun, I'll scan the postcard and send it to you.

Thanks, klebrun, Claydoh77, sorry I didn't respond earlier, as I've been out of town for the past few weeks. Feel free to send any pix you have of the Glenwood Theaters.. I'd love to re-live some of those old memories! My e-mail address is john@raylucia.com Thanks again for your help!

Recently, Dickinson has been advertising a new Theatre and are comparing it as being reminiscent of the Glenwood Theatre in their commercials. I am waiting to see if their advertising is true, it opens this Friday. Info & showtimes are at their website:
http://www.dtmovies.com/showtimes.aspx?tid=150

Here is the text from the press release about the groundbreaking.

5/3/04
Dickinson Theatres Breaks Ground on Johnson County’s Most Extravagant Movie Theatre

Overland Park, Kans. – Wednesday, March 3, 2004 – Dickinson Theatres, in cooperation with Midwest Cinema Group, broke ground on what is expected to be Johnson County’s most luxurious movie theatre… the Palazzo 16.

Dickinson cut ground early on March 3, 2004 at the SW corner of 135th and 69 Highway in the Village Pointe Shopping Center in Overland Park, Kans. for what will be the gem of Johnson County’s movie-going options.

A plush 16-screen theatre lavished in Italian villa decor, the Palazzo is expected to be Dickinson’s newest and most premiere movie venture. A concept in creation with Dickinson Theatres since the luxurious Glenwood theatre opening in the 1960’s—the Palazzo hopes to exceed Johnson County movie-goers’ expectations for quality, comfort and experience.

The architectural plans include towering white columns, rich colors and greenery, Italian-imported working fountains and detailed marble furnishings.

“It’s been a dream of mine for a while now, to build a beautiful building that services our guests with quality presentations, above-quality service in an awe-inspiring environment,” says John Hartley, president and CEO of Dickinson Theatres. “We’ve taken the concerns of our customers from the last 40 years and we’ve applied them to the Palazzo. From bathrooms to parking, we plan on building a theatre that becomes more to the customer than just a movie-viewing, it’ll be a one of a kind movie-going experience…where elegance and fun meet the magic of movies.”

The Palazzo – envisioned by Dickinson Theatres, concepted by Darrin Ingram of Gould Evans architectural design firm and constructed by Luke Draily – is expected to open to the public in November 2004.

Dickinson Theatres owns and operates 39 movie theatres in the Midwest with 357 screens in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas. A privately owned organization, Dickinson Theatres is headquartered in Overland Park, Kans. and employs over 885 staff members including 22 full-time corporate office employees.

Thanks for posting that article Claydoh. You're right, Dickinson Theatres is comparing the Palazzo 16 with the Glenwood Theatre. I drove by yesterday and took a peek inside the Palazzo and it is very impressive. In my opinion, it is definately the most luxurious theatre in the Kansas City area since the Glenwood. Another article...

Posted on Thu, Dec. 02, 2004

Cinema Paradiso

Overland Park's new movie megaplex is modeled after an Italian village

By ROBERT W. BUTLER

The Kansas City Star


M oviegoers will realize something is different the moment they step into Dickinson's new Palazzo 16 megaplex in south Overland Park.

The lobby, for instance. Only it's not called the lobby. It's “The Village,” and it's been designed to look like the town square of an Italian burg.

A fountain burbles in the middle of the terra-cotta plaza. The left- and right-hand walls look like the facades of two-story buildings with wrought-iron trim and red-tile roofs. In the windows are potted plants trailing vines. Two huge murals composed of hundreds of 4-inch ceramic tiles depict Italian scenes. A dome overhead is painted to look like a summer sky.

And what's that sound …? Oh, yeah, it's mandolin music. No screaming guitars or hip-hop shouting for the Palazzo. Here Vivaldi rules.

“We want to provide a calm, sedate experience,” Dickinson president John Hartley said during a recent walk-through of the new complex, which opens for business Friday.

“This is by far the most elaborate theater we've built. But we knew this is what we'd have to do to compete in Johnson County.”

Set on the southeast corner of 135th and Antioch in the Village Pointe Shopping Center, the Palazzo (it's pronounced pah-laht-zo) is now Johnson County's southernmost movie house and Overland Park's first megaplex since the closing of the famed Glenwood several years ago.

The Palazzo's location is intended to attract residents of neighborhoods that every year creep closer to the Miami County line, while providing some competition for rival AMC's Leawood Town Center 20 (119th and Nall) and Olathe Studio 30 (119th and I-35).

“This location is on the leading edge of growth in the city,” Hartley said. “Housing developments now stretch out to 179th Street. And the demographics are phenomenal … the average family income in this area is around $135,000.”

So impressed is Hartley with the education and disposable incomes of the Palazzo's target audience that he's considering using a couple of his 16 screens to show popular art movies. The current hit “Sideways” is a good example.

Mediterranean motifs

The Italian theme was Hartley's idea, inspired in part by visits to the Bellagio and Venice hotel/casinos in Las Vegas. Everywhere you look in the new building there are decorative columns, murals, inlaid tile, recessed lighting. The two long hallways that provide access to the auditoriums are topped off by vaulted ceilings.

The interior was designed by Justin Heigele.

“This Mediterranean design will stand the test of time,” Hartley said. “It's been good for hundreds of years. It never looks dated.”

In fact, the Palazzo's interior is elaborate enough to compare favorably with that of the ultra-luxurious Warren theaters in Wichita. The same KC cinephiles who were heartbroken when Warren backed out of a plan to build a megaplex near the Kansas Speedway will no doubt find many of their movie-going dreams fulfilled by Dickinson's latest effort.

Even from the outside you can tell that the Palazzo is different.

Many suburban megaplexes radiate institutional austerity with tall, unadorned brick walls that rise forebodingly from the parking lot. But the Palazzo's designers have peppered the building's façade with ornamentation, especially faux windows and doorways that seem to invite the passer-by rather than push him away.

Out in front, set in a wide cobblestone piazza, is a large fountain with marble stallions spewing water from their mouths. The fountain was custom-ordered in Italy and shipped in pieces to the United States.

“This was a great project to work on, to get to play with all these design elements,” said architect Darrin Ingram, vice president of design and construction for Midwest Cinema Group, a Dickinson subsidiary. Dickinson is a regional entertainment corporation with headquarters in Overland Park.

Ingram, who also designed AMC's Town Center 20 complex, said his goal was “simple elegance.”

Comfort and service

A few of the Palazzo's amenities:

• Individual auditoriums seat 150 to 500 patrons. The two biggest feature the “Gem” design introduced a year ago at Dickinson's NorthGlen theater. The Gem auditoriums divide their seating between the floor and a large balcony. To ensure perfect sound no matter where you sit, technicians have custom-designed a speaker system with separate tweeters for the floor and balcony areas.

All auditoriums feature rocker seats with cup-holder arm rests, 18-inch risers in the stadium seating areas and enough legroom that this 6-foot-2 reporter could stretch out in comfort.

• Concession workers are stationed in one of five “pods” designed so that they never have to take more than a few steps to fill a customer's order. The result, Hartley said, will be faster service and shorter lines.

• On busy days the Palazzo will have a staff of 40, many of whom have been training since September.

Most employees will wear tuxedoes. Doormen will greet patrons. “Floor ambassadors” will be stationed inside auditoriums to check on projection and sound quality and to remove disruptive customers. Employees will be assigned to clean and restock each restroom four times an hour.

Creating a buzz

While not Dickinson's biggest facility (the chain operates a 20-plex in Tulsa), the Palazzo is certainly its most elaborate and becomes the chain's flagship theater. It's already created a buzz in the national theater community.

Hartley said that after a walk-through of the Palazzo, an Arizona financier has agreed to back two similar theaters in the Phoenix area. They would be operated by Dickinson.

And plans are being drawn up for a Palazzo-type facility in Jacksonville, Fla.

Hartley said he wants to bring back some of the glamour of movie-going he recalled from the long-gone Glenwood Theatre.

“Back when we had the Glenwood, customers actually treated the facility better,” he said. “A date at the Glenwood wasn't just going to see a movie. It was an event.

“And I believe the Palazzo, like the Glenwood, will become a destination location.”

I wonder if this is a signal that developers might begin returning to elaborately-designed movie theaters?

It was the only good thing in all of Kansas City's suburbs. That it is now a strip mall is just sad.

When I was much younger - in the 1960s and 1970s - I would visit my grandparents in Kansas City and we would attend roadshows here. What a spectacular theater for seeing those event movies. I'll never forget the huge curved screen and the beautiful draperies opening just as the overture ended and the house lights dimmed. I saw 70mm reserved seat engagements of "Gone with the Wind", "Star!", "Oliver!", and "Hello, Dolly!" here. Later, when I was in college, I would drive my grandma to Overland Park to see "The Great Gatsby" and "Mame". Even the second theater was beautiful, but not as spectacular as the first house. What a shame such theaters are gone. I have so many great memories of these houses!

Hello all, we have listed some old theatre seats from the Glenwood in Overland Park, Kansas. Here is a link to them on eBay :

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7523401562&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

Really enjoy your site, thank you.

"The Glenwood quickly became the most popular theater in the Kansas City area, setting the world record for 'Star Wars' after making $1 million the first year of its release." (Keith LeBrun)
*****************************************

May I ask your source for this information? I ask because the information I have is that the Astor Plaza in New York City had the world record gross for the original run of "Star Wars," where in its 61-week engagement it sold nearly $4 million in tickets.

If the Coronet in San Francisco hadn't been forced (no pun intended) to end its engagement early it might have held the top-gross record for "Star Wars" as it had the top U.S. gross as of Dec. 1977 when the run expired.

And speaking of the "Star Wars" series, the Glenwood made the news in 1983 when it was reported that their 70mm print of "Return Of The Jedi" was stolen at gunpoint. Any of you from the Kansas City area remember this? (I'll try to locate the newspaper article about this incident if anyone desires more info.)

It's been some time since I researched this, and I threw away my notes years ago. My main research was conducted at the Johnson County and Olathe Libraries going through countless rolls of microfilm of local newspapers for several months, mainly the Kansas City Star.

I also did a brief internet search, but to this day there is still not much info out there about the Glenwood.

If my information is incorrect, it's either because my tired eyes deceived me after hours of looking at microfilm, or a reporter got their info wrong. Either way, there is a possibility that my submission should read that Glenwood's first run of the original Star Wars back in 1977 set a local "Kansas City" record at that time. It would make more sense that a theater in New York City would gross more with regards to Star Wars than a theater in Kansas.

I do remember that not many theaters originally played Star Wars because they thought it wouldn't do well. So those that did snag it made a ton of money.

I do appreciate you bringing this up, as I want this submission to be as accurate as possible.

I would also be interested in reading the article about the 1983 incident you described, or any other info that you may have on the Glenwood.

Thanks Michael.

I ran across a link that ophusa has kindly provided in his ebay auction that was interesting reading. It also has a nice interior shot of the lobby and chandelier.

http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arc_news/022702.htm

Here are some more links.

This one shows pictures of the Glenwood on it's last day of operation.
http://www.film-tech.com/warehouse/pics/glenwood/glenwood.html

This one is the link to the Fine Arts Group, who bought many artifacts from the Glenwood and incorporated them into the Glenwood Arts Theatre. There is a picture of the renovated 43 ft tall sign/marquee. It's my understanding that the neon "Glenwood" lettering that was used on the outside of the original building was installed on the sign.
http://www.fineartsgroup.com/

It is good to read all of your memories of the Glenwood. I loved the Glenwood and am very sad that it is no longer there. It was such an integral part of the entire Kansas City metropolitan area for so long. For about 8 years I have lived in a neighborhood near where the Glenwood stood. Very often I find myself relating to people where I live. I always say, "Do you know where the Glenwood Theatre used to be?" and people ALWAYS know precisely where it was. I have not found one who didn't know of it.
I have mixed feelings about the Palazo. I don't understand why Dickinson needs to create what it had in the Glenwood but didn't retain. I am sick of theatre owners thinking that the public wants all of these multiplexes over large theatres. I LOVED watching a movie along with about 500 other people. An important part of the experience for me was being a part of the crowd, laughing together, crying, and all being spellbound by the art of film TOGETHER. I hate these multiplex 16 and 30 screens. The Glenwood is still the standard by which I compare all others. They had those soft velvety seats in that rich claret color with cup holders. The seats had plenty of leg room and the theatre was graded so that you could easily see over a tall person. There was plenty of space between rows that you could move past a person without putting your behind in their face as you passed. And how about that carpet with the monogrammed G's, the chandelier, and luxurious bathrooms. In the Glenwood's dying days people said it failed because the public no longer wanted theatres like that. It failed because that last owners did not keep it up it was a dingy dirty experience in the end.

I worked for the Dickinson Circuit in the 1970's and managed a theatre for them in Salina,Kansas. That was when Norman Neilson and Paul Kelley were officers of the company. I always wanted to be the manager of the Glenwood, but it wasnt to be. It was my understanding that the huge chandelier in the lobby was a duplicate from the movie "Cansio Royale" and was stolen before it made it to Kansas City. Does anyone know if this story is true. And what finally became of this great chandelier?

Also the story concerning the print of "Return of the Jedi" being stolen at gun point is true. It was a 70mm print which the gunman made the projectionist dismantle from the platter and the doorman and the projectionist loaded it into the gunmans car. The gunman was a former employee of the theatre, {a "Star Wars" freek} and the print was later recovered from under the gunman's bed. Needless to say no one in the Dickinson home office saw the humor in the incident.

From what I read in the local papers, the chandalier was supposed to have been donated to the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection at 135th and Roe in Leawood, Kansas to be used in an arboretum on the church grounds.

The Glenwood NEVER had cup holders, as far as I can recall. One thing that modern theaters do better. Like the arm rests that fold up, another plus. I get so tired of people bemoaning the old theaters going away and trashing the new megaplexes. Yet the big auditoriums in the new megaplexes offer plenty of legroom, great sound, and a view that isn't blocked by the person in front of you. I saw "Star Wars" when it was re-released at the Glenwood in 1997 and it was sad how Goodrich had let the place deteriorate. Goodrich bought the Glenwood with the promise of renovating it and adding 10 modern stadium theaters to the complex, but never did. They also briefly operated the SouthGlen 12, another earlier experiment by Dickinson to build a "new" Glenwood, which is now a health club. Typical.

The Glenwood Theatre was famous for it's red coil spring rocket seats which were the most comfortable of any theatre seat. These seats were moved to the Englewood Theatre in 2003 and to the
Glenwood Arts Theatre along with many artifacts from the old Glenwood. The 40' street Marquee was re-designed and retro-fitted
and looks far better than it ever looked when it wa at the old site.

This is a 6/16/1999 article about this theater.

"New Owners Plan Expansion of Overland Park, Kan., Theater.

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Author: Cooper, Brad

The new owner of the Glenwood 4 Theatres in Overland Park is planning an expansion that could mean as many as six new screens in an attempt to improve the profitability of the 30-year-old landmark.

Goodrich Quality Theatres Inc., which bought the Glenwood from Dickinson Theatres in January, has asked Overland Park to approve a 7,800-square-foot expansion for the complex at the corner of Metcalf Avenue and 91st Street.

Overland Park approved a plan in January 1998 that would have allowed a developer to demolish the theater and replace it with a strip mall.

But the project never came about, and Dickinson eventually sold the Glenwood to Goodrich, of Grand Rapids, Mich.

In the latest proposed expansion, Glenwood's two smallest theaters would be demolished to make room for new screens, city officials said.

The theater's two largest screens, including the one thought to be the biggest in the Kansas City area, would be left intact.

Architects, however, have asked Overland Park to delay action on their proposed expansion until August while they work on revisions.

"Originally we were looking at making it a 10-plex, and now we're looking at an eight-plex or so," said Goodrich spokesman Matt Johnson.

City planners say there is enough parking at the complex to accommodate the expansion.

The Glenwood expansion comes amid another flurry of movie theater expansion in the Kansas City area, including complexes in Merriam and the Country Club Plaza.

Johnson said the company had already put a lot of work into improving the Glenwood. For example, Glenwood's largest screen has been increased in size.

At one time, the screen was 33 feet high by 66 feet wide. Johnson said his company increased the width 15 feet and increased the height 5 feet.

Johnson said new projectors had been installed to brighten the picture in Glenwood's largest theater. He also said a new sound system was added to accommodate the latest "Star Wars" movie. Eventually, Johnson said, the company plans to add stadium seating.

Currently, the four Glenwood theaters seat 2,079 persons combined. The plans filed with the city call for the same number of seats in the theater, but spread out over more screens.

Johnson said that could be accomplished by adding stadium seating to two of Glenwood's existing theaters. Stadium seating, he said, consumes more space, thereby allowing the number of seats to be reduced in the larger theaters.

Johnson said the expansion was intended to make the Glenwood, once one of the area's most glamorous theaters, more viable and competitive with other area multiscreen complexes.

In recent years, Glenwood's ticket sales have gradually declined. In 1990, the theater recorded gross ticket sales of about $2.2 million. By 1997, gross ticket sales had sagged to about $1.1 million.

"In the modern film distribution system, you really need to have at least six to eight theaters in a building to be viable," Johnson said.

"When you're in a fourplex situation (like the Glenwood), you'd better have a hot movie or you're going to start hurting very fast," Johnson said. "To survive the ups and downs of the popularity of films, you just need to have a bigger base".

I was also a huge Glenwood fan. I saw Star Wars there the night it opened in 1977 and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I was seven at the time and had never seen a movie in such grand surroundings. I became a fairly frequent visitor there in the early '90's and it was still a great moviegoing experience. Granted, the place wasn't maintained as well as in its glory days but it was still a very nice theater with great sound. My friends and I went there the last weekend it was open and I cut out a small piece of the carpet as a souvenier of my favorite theater. I posted some more thoughts on the theater on my friend's blog in honor of Star Wars' 30th Anniversary.

http://neatocoolville.blogspot.com/2007/05/star-wars-at-glenwood-theatre-overland.html

It's a real shame there aren't any theaters like the Glenwood in Kansas City anymore.

Reading Lost Memory's post is the first thing that makes me glad this theatre got torn down. Putting stadium seating in that big auditorium would have been sacriledge and totally destroyed all the charm that auditorium had. Let's face it, the Glenwood was killed by the fact that it was setting on an insanely valuable piece of property. Maybe the Fine Arts Group could have done something with it had they ben around then, but even with their skill at rehabbing old theatres they couldn't have got around the fact that the Glenwood was sitting on frontage property at 91st and Metcalf.

The last manager of the Glenwood told me that Overland Park refused to grant Goodrich any further building permits and essentially forced them to sell. Overland Park wanted the $$$ a different business would generate.

Here are a couple of ads for the Glenwood Manor motel complex, of which the theatre was part of when it first opened.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18822933@N00/1086746298/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18822933@N00/1086746340/

Here's a scan of a bunch of Glenwood ticket stubs from Star Wars in 1977. They were stapled in a book I bought a few years ago.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18822933@N00/2502546269/

And here are some stubs from Superman The Movie which played at the Glenwood in December 1978.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18822933@N00/2502546859/

I forgot to post this scan of a piece of the carpet my buddy and I ripped out after the last movie I saw there in 2000. I feel it's a one little piece of my favorite theater. I also have a piece of rock from one of the rock gardens by screen #2. Sure it's vandalism but we didn't care.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18822933@N00/2500098286/

Here's the KC Star ad for Star Wars' opening on 5/26/77.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18822933@N00/2500098648/in/photostream/

I went to the Glenwood Arts recently and it was a great arthouse with some of the above mentioned Glenwood memories (the auditorium entrances were decorated with lobby cards and posters of old Glenwood engagements). I saw Young@Heart at the theatre and the auditorium I was in (Auditorium 1) also had an original one-sheet of the Star Wars "circus" poster.

I never went to the Glenwood but the Glenwood Arts was the next best thing.

The reason the Glenwood did so well with Star Wars was that it held exclusive rights to that movie for the entire Kansas City area. Thus, it sold out nearly every show for many months. I doubt any NY theater would be granted an exclusive but I would'nt be surprised if a NY theater outgrossed the Glenwood.

I think we called him Smitty, but the projectionist around the time of Star Wars was an older man that had been there many years when star wars came around. God bless him for allowing employees to once in awhile sit in the theater when he screened new movies around midnight.

Few may remember but the larger theater at the Glenwood had a slightly curved screen.

Just so no one forgets there was a single screen theater in the Metcalf shopping mall up until around 1979. I think it was called the Metcalf Theater. It might have been a Mann Theater and while it was decent sized it was not near as big or nice as the Glenwood.

The theatre in the Metcalf shopping center was originally an NGC theatre and then became a Mann house it was twinned by the Mann Group. If I remember right it was called the Metcalf South.

The curved screen in the Glenwood was the number 1 or original auditoriam and was approximately 90 foot wide, an awesome experience.

1984 photo of the Glenwood Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c25%2c3%2c-1&SortField=ProductName+DESC%2cProductName&ProductID=29165

The claim from a few posts back that the Glenwood had a Kansas City area exclusive for the original "Star Wars" is only partially correct. The fact is the Glenwood played the movie exclusively for only its first ten weeks. Beginning the film's eleventh week, a second booking was added at the Antioch.

In terms of comparing the Kansas City gross with that of New York City, keep in mind that during the second half of the Glenwood's 56-week run of "Star Wars," it played in the smaller #2 auditorium.

Here's some information to clarify the boxoffice performance of "Star Wars" at the Glenwood. Industry trade VARIETY in their July 21, 1978 issue listed the markets where "Star Wars" grossed more than $1 million. Kansas City came in 18th place with a gross of nearly $1.3 million. The top gross was at New York City's Astor Plaza where it topped $3 million.

$3,291,362...New York (Astor Plaza)...59 weeks
$2,499,049...Denver (Cooper + Continental m/o)...54 weeks
$2,490,955...San Diego (Valley Circle)...56 weeks
$2,414,972...Los Angeles (Chinese)...51 weeks
$2,335,941...San Francisco (Coronet)...29 weeks
$2,171,394...Seattle (Cinema 150)...59 weeks
$2,153,790...Phoenix (Cine Capri)...59 weeks
$1,833,710...San Jose (Century 22)...59 weeks
$1,826,060...Dallas (Northpark)...53 weeks
$1,651,372...Portland (Westgate)...59 weeks
$1,608,402...New York (Orpheum)...28 weeks
$1,542,802...Newport Beach (Newport)...53 weeks
$1,344,879...Los Angeles (Century Plaza)...53 weeks
$1,343,736...Sacramento (Century 25)...59 weeks
$1,336,450...Los Angeles (Avco)...23 weeks
$1,310,251...Washington, DC (Uptown)...54 weeks
$1,282,621...Houston (Galleria)...59 weeks
$1,279,771...Kansas City (Glenwood)...55 weeks
$1,253,062...Salt Lake City (Centre)...54 weeks
$1,205,123...Honolulu (Cinerama)...57 weeks
$1,166,741...Boston (Charles)...45 weeks
$1,140,014...Cincinnati (Showcase)...58 weeks
$1,102,741...Louisville (Showcase)...59 weeks
$1,070,998...Dayton (Dayton Mall)...59 weeks

Thank you for the additional info Michael. I had almost forgotten how long that movie played. That would be unheard of now.

Thanks for the link, Chuck. As you stated, the picture dates back to 1984, shortly after screens 3 and 4 were added to the north side of the building in 1983.

I saw Cloak and Dagger here in 1984 or 1985. I only saw this one movie here, but I drove past the theatre many, many times, as my stepmother's folks lived just a short distance north of the building. It was a very eye-catching mid-century building. Sorry that another strip mall in Overland Park was more important than a unique theatre like this one was.