Idle Hour Theatre
208 N. Main Street,
De Soto,
MO
63020
208 N. Main Street,
De Soto,
MO
63020
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Gem Theatre
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Located in the Kempe Building which was constructed in 1899. The 168-seat Gem Theatre was opened on September 30, 1910. In May 1911 an Airdome opened (it has its own page on Cinema Treasures). On May 30 1911 it was renamed Idle Hour Theatre. The Idle Hour Theatre was closed 1918.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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The Gem Theatre opened in the 1899-built “new” Kempe Building with “high class” motion pictures on September 30, 1910. (And not to be confused with an earlier 1876-built Kempe Building on Clement Street.) The Gem Airdome was built in May of 1911 to get theater out of the stuffy theater. Later that month, Harry E. Miller, C. Earl Miller and Steven Sepp took on the theater and Airdome on May 30, 1911 changing the hardtop theater to the Idle Hour Theatre. Harry Miller was the son of C. Earl Miller who, along with Stephen Hug, had opened De Soto’s Opera House in 1890.
The 168-seat Idle Hour Theater remained in this location until 1918. The Gem Airdome was renamed as the Idle Hour Airdome and was in use until 1915. The town would get one more airdome, the Arlington in 1931.