Gillis Opera House
500 Walnut Street,
Kansas City,
MO
64106
500 Walnut Street,
Kansas City,
MO
64106
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The New Gillis Theatre in Kansas City is listed in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. Lester M. Crawford was Mgr., and ticket prices ranged from 15 cents to 50 cents. The house had both gas and electric illumination, and was on the second floor. The proscenium opening was 44 feet wide X 46 feet high, and the stage was 40 feet deep. There were 8 in the house orchestra. The seating capacity is listed as 2,059 but the breakdown is smaller: Orchestra- 575, Balcony- 314, Gallery- 500; total: 1,389 plus box seats. Possibly, the 2,059 figure was reached by adding standee spaces, as large numbers of standees were allowed in these 19th Century theatres.
THEATRE WRECKED, SOME DIE IN RUINS; Explosion in Kansas City Burlesque House Blows Off Roof and Fire Follows. POSSIBLY TWENTY VICTIMS Patrons of Restaurant on the Ground Floor Believed to Have Been Trapped.
NY Times June 26, 1925
KANSAS CITY, Mo., June 25 (AP). — Several persons are believed to have been killed and more than a score were injured, some perhaps fatally when an explosion and fire that followed destroyed the Gillis Theatre, a low-priced burlesque house, here tonight, while a show was in progress.
The Gillis Opera House seated up to 1,700 patrons when the theatre opened in 1883. Source: Mrs. Sam Ray Postcard Collection, Kansas City Public Library.
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