Boulevard Theatre

If you should happen to have a link to the article you are writing about please post it as I would like to read it.

I worked at one time in the district office for Mann out of the former Mall Cinema on East Harry street. There were numerous discussions about twinning many of the theatres in our district. In the discussions about the Boulevard it was decided that it would not be practical because the auditoriums would be very long and narrow, much more than the Fox Garvey in downtown Wichita. Adding an additional auditorium would not work because of the shops on either side of the theatre, not enough space. There was discussion about adding an auditorium at the back of the building, but that would cut into the parking lot. So if this theatre was actually twinned I am not aware of it, it was discussed at length, but as far as I not followed through with.

Based on the ‘flickr’ picture above they really butchered the place. It kind of had an old english look.
The two ‘towers’ in front held the attraction signage, you can see where the sign was bolted to them. The building was made of red brick which has been painted. The smaller boarded up part would have been the boxoffice. The stores on the George Washington Blvd. side all had glass fronts. That would be the extent of the ‘shopping center.’ Parking was behind the theatre and you would walk through the breeze way between the stores and the theatre to get to the front of the theatre. A huge Sears store was directly across the street.

When I worked for Mann in Wichita this theatre was where the ads were created. In the upper left corner of the building was the ad room, and the manager, Buddy Brown, who was very creative, drew up the ads for all the Wichita Mann theatres. He would take a black pen that was dipped in ink and draw out the borders, some borders would be cut from the Mann borders and I would go in with rubber cement and cut and paste the title art of the movie to the page. In that office was an extensive library of probably 1950 to 1975 (when I worked there) newspaper ad slicks.

2010 photo of the former Boulevard Theatre courtesy Keith Wondra.
View link

The Boulevard Theater is listed in 1955 with 972 seats. Address given is 900 George Washington Blvd.

is this closed