Plaza Theater
4700-08 Wyandotte Street,
Kansas City,
MO
64112
4700-08 Wyandotte Street,
Kansas City,
MO
64112
6 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 32 comments found
never got to see this as a single screen. By the time I got to Kansas City it had been divided up. I do recall seeing “S.O.B.” “Rhinestone Cowboy”,“Blow-Out” and “Hardcore”. Visually the theatre was a stunning sight as you entered the Country Club Plaza area
I was the person who came in to replace the Manager in 1979. I was there for 12-18 months (stayed til after the Dickinson take over). It was a great theatre. as RT says, the theatre was more a victim of it’s time than the fact of the multiplexes. There was nothing really that could compete with the picture except the Big Glenwood or the Midland downtown.
This site has photos of the Plaza Theatre, along with other KC theatres -
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My late father, Breck Fagin, was the Plaza Theatre’s first manager. I have a black and white photograph of him from about 1930 standing in front of the theatre aside a big birthday cake that says “Plaza Theatre’s 2nd Anniversary”. I will post it on this website when the site is again able to accept photos.
Looks like this theater was a triplex in this 1985 photo.
1984 Photo of the Plaza Theatre.
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Renewing link.
The manager from 1979 was arrested in a sting operation for re-selling tickets around 1981 and he had been there quite a long time. I won’t name names but I doubt it was any poster in here since that manager was quite old back then. The plaza theater was a Mann Theater before it became part of the Dickinson chain. Other interesting facts about this theater was that it had tunnels that ran underneath the theater and it also housed upstairs dressing rooms on the south side that were accessed by stairs behind the stage. The stage itself was quite large and remnants of the pulleys and stage props existed at least into the late 70s.
The flood that the entire Plaza experienced in 1977 also affected the theater to some degree. About 2 feet of water was in the lobby and the entire basement was flooded. Through the foyer were steps up to the second theater (the old balcony) but underneath the foyer were steps leading down to the restrooms so there were some areas that patrons used which were completely underwater but not destroyed by the flood.
The Plaza was one of the last theaters around to use carbon arcs in the projectors. I believe they still used those in the upstairs projectors until the early 80s.
Steve Martin visited this theater unannounced when the movie the Jerk was playing.
I seem to remember the downstairs as having around 960 seats. I believe the last sell out for the larger theater was the Goodbye Girl on opening week-end,
It was not only the multiplexes that buried this theater but the change in business model away from exclusive rights to a movie for just one theater in all of the kc area. Once you had movie openings in multiple locations, sell outs in the larger theaters like the Plaza or the Glenwood were gone.
That picture from 1979 was when I managed that place. I couldn’t say for certain, but I can’t imagine that theatre having 1950. Those seats seemed to have been there forever and i’m thinking it was like 1650 between the 2 auditoriums and when they built the downstairs projections booth, they only lost like 100 seats.
Saw “White Witch Doctor” here in the summer of 1953. A memorably beautiful theater. – Ed Blank
Here’s a new link to a 1940 image described above on 3/20/07:
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Here’s a picture from 1997. From the book The Plaza First And Always by William S. Worley.
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According to the 1936 Americal Film review annual, the Plaza had 1,950 seats.
There is a boring multi-plex on the Plaza now.
Yes, thanks! We have Restoration Hardware in New York as well. I thought that the Plaza’s premises were too large for just an ordinary hardware store.
Restoration Hardware occupies the site. If you’re not familiar with it, they sell home decorating items, not screwdrivers or saws.
I’m surprised that the introduction lists no seating capacity. Various Film Daily Year Books claim 1.950. If the threatre presently houses a hardware store, it could be a large one, such as Home Depot.
Here’s a picture of the marquee from 1979. From the book Great American Movie Theaters by David Naylor.
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In 1940, the Plaza created a political furor with this marquee display. The title of the feature movie, “The Man Who Talked Too Much,” was interpreted as criticism of Presidential candidate Wendell Willkie, who was the topic of the “Information Please” short subject:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/kcmo40.jpg
Edward Tanner was employed by the Boller Brothers before he left to work for the J.C. Nichols Development Company, which built the Plaza Theater, and the Country Club Plaza District where the Plaza Theater is located. Tanner was working for J.C. Nichols as lead architect of the Plaza Theater, but the Boller Brothers were contributing designers.
I visited the theater recently and visited with Restoration Hardware employees. The only plaster damage that happend during renovation was the removal of the stairs to the balconey and removal of the fountain. However, if restoration is to happen at somepoint in the future, the stairs were nearly identical to the ones in the Granadas of both KC and Emporia. I could not gain access to the auditorium and had to take their word for it that they had not further altered the auditorium. From a visit previously when it was still a theater, I talked to the theater management. They said that when the balcony was partitioned that the plasterwork was preserved and just enclosed in the walls that were constructed and that restoratioin at a future date would be fairly easily done.
Restoration Hardware completely renovated the space. Nothing of the interior of the theater remains. But, Dickinson had butchered it in the ensuing years anyway. The Palace was not open at the same time as the Plaza, so it wasn’t directly responsible for its demise, by the way.
A Wurlitzer organ Opus 1949 Style 220SP was installed in the Plaza Theater on 8/31/1928.
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That’s a great photo of the Plaza Theater Charles. Do any interior remnants remain of the theater auditorium? Did Restoration Hardware renovate/destroy the auditorium space, or does it only occupy what was the old Spanish courtyard portion and lobby space?