Plaza Theatre
107 West 11th Street,
Lamar,
MO
64759
107 West 11th Street,
Lamar,
MO
64759
4 people
favorited this theater
Located on the south side of historic Lamar Square. The Plaza Theatre opened on October 25, 1934 with great fan fare. Every major studio at that time sent representitives for opening night. Telegrams were sent from Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Mae West, Al Jolson and many others. The Plaza Theatre was designed by architect Larry P. Larsen of Webb City and originally seated 600. It was remodeled in 1945 to the designs of architect Robert O. Boller and had a seating capacity of 587.
Closed in 1986 when a fire at a clothing store next door forced the theatre to shut down. With no funds available and condemation inevitable, a group of local citizens and business owners stepped forward to head a committee to save this historic theatre. After 10 years+ of negotiating and fund raising, the Plaza Theatre reopened on November 5, 1998. Still a single screen, with original hand painted murals on canvas tapestries hanging on side walls. Various designs and decor throughout the building.
Contributed by
scott kelley, Joe Davis
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Recent comments (view all 13 comments)
Showtimes for the Plaza Theater can be found here.
This is one of the nicest theatres out there. It took them 5 years to completely renovate it and they did a magnificent job with it. I don’t go to the movies often anymore but I tend to go to the Plaza the most, mainly because it’s a small town theatre and they’ve done a good job of keeping up the historical look to it while making it more modern as well.
Throughout the theatre are reminders of the threate in it’s early days. There are pictures of the front of the theatre from 50-60 years ago.
This threate has great management running it and should be there for many years to come.
Flicker photo of the Plaza Theatre.
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Night photo of the Plaza Theatre.
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Interior photo of the Plaza Theatre. Not the greatest but visible.
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Hello,
I am in the process of redoing the LamarMovies.com website. I am adding pictures (old and new) as well as history of both the Plaza Theater and Barco Drive-In so stay tuned.
This is what I am working on now, although I am not making it “public” until I am done. But you can have a sneak peek.
www.lamarmo.com/movies
Thank you
The web site looks really great, looks like you don’t need to do much more with it.
Thanks Chuck. It is close to complete. I am not going to clutter it up with a whole bunch of junk but I do want to get my facts straight and POST as many old photos as I can. I love those things.
Take care,
Joe
Couple photos of the Lamar Theatre.
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A two-page article with photos starts here in this 1935 trade journal: boxofficemagazine