Midwest Theatre

Boxoffice feature of Cimarron Premiere @ Midwest added to photo section.

Cimaron, yes I was referring to a photo link of the Midwest Theatre auditorium that was posted by Kewpie where he referred that it looked like and organ on the left front stage. It has since been removed.

If you enlarge the photo to 150 it don’t look like an organ console.

Midwest Theater, Oklahoma City, OK. 1930 Grand Opening Film was “The Dawn Patrol” with Richard Barthelmess and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. distributed by Warner’s First National Pictures. Clik photo tab above for Grand Opening ad.

Just posted photo section print ad of Midwest Theater Grand Opening.

Tinseltoes, thanks for the Boxoffice link to the Midwest’s 1960 World Premier of “CIMARRON”. The article and photo’s of the Premier reveals how big of a deal this was for Oklahoma City and Stanley Warner Mgmt. as well as MGM…A really terrific movie 2boot!

Not exactly sure when my Grandfather, R. Lewis Barton, bought the Midwest but it must have been shortly before 1966. I know we raided the old palace of many treasures before it was torn down including a huge square grand piano, lots of plaster statuary, Chinese pots, huge medieval looking chairs,and antique tapestries. I never watched a film there but my dad took me there one day it was closed, I was 13, and I found the upper balcony terrifying because of the very steep slope. We explored the basements and found many old broadsheets that would be worth a fortune today. I had always thought that the Midwest closed in 1966.

Original theater seats were probably much smaller with narrow seating rows than later seating which would provide more comfort with fewer seats and wider seat rows. Your St L Lowes example is a excellent example. Thanks Chuck!

The seat count of 1700 outlined in the above description was not the count of seats at the Midwest in the early 60’s. The box office reports that I submitted nightly to Stanley Warner Corp. reflected a total count of 1476 including main floor, lower and upper balcony. So, if there were 1700 seats when opened in 1930-1931 then there would have been a considerable amount of reconfiguration of seating to account for the difference.

Fandangled, I recall the Midwest ran movies from other companies i.e. MGM, Fox as well as Warner Bros. and seem to recall that their Warner Theater in Okla. City did play mostly Warner films. Interesting history.

Go to the following blog link for additional Midwest photo’s and interesting tid bits http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2006/07/lets-go-downtown-to-movies.html#Midwest

I worked at the Midwest in ‘67-'68. It was a grand old theater, classic in every way. From the huge lobby, to the mezanine overlooking the lobby, to the seven story auditorium, this theater was designed to be spacious and comfortable.

The booth was the finest I ever worked in… just lacked a dumb-waiter for toting heavy film cases up seven stories of stairs, lol. As a sixteen year old kid I put on some muscle toting those film cases that year, heh haha.

The theater itself originally opened as a stage play house. Behind the screen was another old screen built on a massive stage fronted by an orchestra pit. Behind the stage and down a set of stairs were dressing and costume rooms.

In the booth one wall was covered in lighting controls. One could adjust the lights of the auditorium to suit any mood, or spot-light any location. Though at the time I worked there the spots were long gone and we used only one set of the controls to of course light and dim the auditorium.

The screen had massive curtains across it. At times the motor that opened and closed the curtains would kick a breaker, located front and center of the screen on the floor behind the curtains. I would have to run down seven stories, through the auditorium, part the curtains and reset the breaker… then dash back up stairs and open the curtains. It was as a result of this action that I discovered the old screen, stage, orchestra pit and dressing rooms.

One additional feature that I marveled at was the star display in the ceiling of the auditorium. There were some 750 holes drilled randomly in the ceiling. An electrical system distributed power to each of the holes where a simple metal funnel, like one would add oil to your car with, acted as a lamp shade for each light bulb. Each socket had a simple bimetallic flasher, about the size of a nickle, in it and the light bulb screwed into the socket. The assembly then sat over one of the holes and from the auditorium, looking up, they appeared to be stars twinkling in the “darkened sky”.

Looking at the light controls in the booth I had noticed one was labeled “STARS” so I flipped it and as one would I looked out of the booth and low and behold there were maybe fifty stars blinking. Crawling up in the attic (okay, I admit, I am somewhat akin to a cat when it comes to curiosity) I discovered there were hundreds of fixtures, most of which the bulb was burned out. I volunteered to provide the labor, volunteering my pal and best friend who also worked there, and the Bartons agreed to buy the bulbs and new flashers (as some of the lights that were burning were not flashing), and we replaced all of the bulbs and flashers. It took us about a month to replace them all but it was well woth the trouble. I tell you it was a magnificent display to behold.