Cozy Theater
213 N. Broadway Street,
Pittsburg,
KS
66762
213 N. Broadway Street,
Pittsburg,
KS
66762
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A biographical note in the finding aid for the Lenski family papers at Pittsburg State College has this information about the Cozy’s origin:
“Joe Lenski owned and operated the Cozy Theatre, Lenski’s Tire Company, the Green Lantern Inn, and Modern Electric Company. The Cozy Inn was originally a shooting gallery theater. In 1929, he had the original building demolished and built the Cozy Theater in a Spanish style with room for 860 people. The theater played movies, news reels, radio shows, dance recitals, and vaudevillian-style stage shows. The Heyburn Dane [Dance?] Academy, run by Virginia Heyburn, often had their shows in the Cozy Theater. Regina Lenski, Joe’s older sister, was one the instructors.”
The papers include some photos and other material pertaining to the Cozy, but they are not available online. They are in the Special Collections of the Leonard H. Axe Library, and the collection is open for access, the finding aid says, in case anyone visiting Pittsburg wants to check them out.
The Cozy Theatre is first listed in the 1932 FDY, with 700 seats.
Dickinson actually purchased the theatre in 1966. I remember the first movie that played there was Elvis Presley in PARADISE HAWAIIAN STYLE.
The theatres page of the Pittsburg, Kansas Memories web site says that the Cozy Theatre opened in 1930, and operated as the Cinema Theatre from 1969 until closing in 1983 (the page says that the building “burned down” in spring, 1983, though the American Classic Images photo that lostmemory linked to in an earlier comment, showing the burned-out theater, is dated August, 1982. ACI also has this photo of the Cozy dated March, 1985.)
And the address they give in the “Moved due to fire” is 407 N. Broadway, the address of the Colonial / Fox Theater, also in Pittsburg, KS.
Comparing the American Classics Image, and Google, the theater is long gone. Consider it demolished. The building to it’s left is still there.
You’ll also notice the building says in the photo that they’ve relocated due to a fire in the theater.