Lyric Theatre
622 Main Street,
Kansas City,
MO
64105
622 Main Street,
Kansas City,
MO
64105
No one has favorited this theater yet
Additional Info
Nearby Theaters
The 250-seat nickelodeon theatre opened in 1907. In 1911 it was named Lyric Theatre and had expanded to 350-seats. By 1921 it was operating as an African-American theatre. The Lyric Theatre was closed following a police raid on March 6, 1933. It was listed in the 1935 Film Daily Yearbook as (Closed) with 350 seats.
Contributed by
Ridgewood Ken
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
The Lyric Theatre is listed at 622 Main Street in the 1914-1915 edition of The American Motion Picture Directory.
Orlando P. Rose opened a “continuous show” movie theater with a projector in 1907. This occurred not long after his company made news with a 700 pound coin deposit in 1907. That was likely what triggered his decision to move from nickelodeon presentation to a 250-seat theater at this address. It was advertised as the Lyric beginning in 1911 expanding to 350 seats.
As new theaters challenged the Lyric, Rose and his son sold the operation in 1920 to get into neighborhood theaters including the Warwick and Apollo. The Lyric soldiered on and at least three times was fined for indecent attractions.
On March 6, 1933, a midnight show led to a police raid in which police shook down operator Joe P. Deo and all of the attendees. Each of the 34 attendees who didn’t flee was fined $5 on the spot and each performer was ordered to pay $100 to avoid a trip to jail. None of the performers paid and were all placed in jail denying the charges along with the patrons who couldn’t raise the $5. Deo was fined $250. This was likely the end of the venue’s run.
This building was a three story commercial building that occupied the narrow end of a wedge shaped block. Originally constructed sometime before 1896, it had a stone facade on the Main St side, and was one story taller on the Delaware St side. The 1896 map shows it with a store at either end, and offices and a hall above.
The 1909 map shows the theater facing Main with a store facing Delaware. The Yale Film Co. occupies the second floor. This may have been an early movie studio, or simply offices for the small chain. The 1914-15 AMPD lists the Crystal, Princess, and Wonderland as ‘Yale’s x’, but the Lyric is not so listed.
The 1939 map shows this building and the one to the north used as a factory for ‘store equipment’. This block was destroyed when the freeway was built, and is now dead ground and a Delaware St overpass.
I’ve added a 1909 view, which shows that the stone facade was apparently removed at some point.