Midland Theatre
1228 Main Street,
Kansas City,
MO
64105
1228 Main Street,
Kansas City,
MO
64105
24 people
favorited this theater
This large movie palace was designed by Thomas W. Lamb in 1927. It originally seated over 3,573 patrons and was built for a staggering $4 million — quite an amount for a theater in Kansas City in its day.
Originaly known as Loew’s Midland Theatre, and part of Marcus Loew’s theater empire, the theater briefly became a bowling venue in 1961 when Loew’s left the theater.
In 1966, American Multi-Cinema bought the theater. A company known then for its innovations with smaller, twinned theaters now operated one of the largest movie palaces on earth.
The renamed Midland Theatre was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1977 and stopped showing movies in 1981 when it became a venue for stage shows, concerts, and other peforming arts.
It remains one of the grandest movie palaces ever built in the United States and a testament to the heralded work of Thomas Lamb.
It was closed on May 13, 2006 for a major refurbishment, re-opening on September 9, 2008.
Contributed by
Brooks
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Recent comments (view all 75 comments)
Here is a paragraph from a January 16, 1926, article about the proposed Midland Theatre in The Reel Journal:
As finally built, the theater portion of the project was six floors, rather than four, and the adjacent office tower had twelve floors.It’s noted in the description on this page that the Midland Theatre cost $4,000,000 to build in 1926-27. The theater was indeed large and lavish, but I don’t think it accounted for the entire budget. The twelve story Midland Building at the back end of the theater has about three times the floor space of the theater portion of the project, and probably consumed at least half of that $4,000,000 construction cost.
Here is a 1927 photo showing the office building and theater under construction, taken from the office building end of the project.
It gets barely a mention in this article, but AMC is giving up control of the Midland to the Cordish Company, its former partner in operating both the Midland the Main Street theaters. It had been previously announced that Cordish had signed an agreement with Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas to operate the Main Street Theater.
Get our your handkerchiefs. This 1962 trade article will make you weep:Boxoffice
This page needs the AKA’s Saxon Theatre and Studio Theatre, per the Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to.
“Original Elegance Restored!” in this 1965 trade article: Boxoffice
The Screening Room, a mini-cinema in the Midland building, described in this 1966 trade article: Boxoffice
“Gala Rededication” described in this 1977 trade article: Boxoffice
This 1938 trade article describes the Byam Theatre, which doesn’t seem to be listed at CT under that or any other name. The Byam was located in Fairmount, a suburb of Kansas City: Boxoffice
Can’t find a CT listing for a Southtown Theatre, described in this 1940 article as a “suburban house” in Kansas City, MO: Boxoffice
The Midland no longer shows any movies. It’s main use today is for smaller concerts. They removed all of the seats from the lower level. I remeber seeing The Empire Strikes Back here back in the day.