Arcade Theatre

720 Main Street,
Kansas City, MO 64105

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Additional Info

Previous Names: Yale's Electric Exposition, Yale's Arcade, Mutoscope Parlor

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The first theater explicitly showing movies in Kansas City. First opened as a mutoscope/penny arcade parlor in 1898. Became a movie theater in 1902 or 1903. The owner, Carl Mensing, under the name Bruce Yale, converted 2nd floor of his business into a peep show movie experience for patrons. It was a makeshift screen on the back wall with a partition in the room with holes cut out of it for customers to peek through to watch flickers cast by a dim lantern.

Contributed by Sarah
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