Arcade Theatre
720 Main Street,
Kansas City,
MO
64105
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.
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
Still open in 1914-15, when it was listed in the AMPD. Closed before 1926. This was another building that fronted both Main and Delaware, and was one story taller on the Delaware side due to the slope. This building was constructed sometime before 1895, when the map shows it used as a trunk factory. The buildings still existed in 1950, but this entire set of wedge shaped blocks were destroyed, likely in the dark days of urban ‘renewal’. Delaware St now exists only north of 70, Main runs through the area where the structures were, and the neighborhood is a bleak wasteland of enormous surface lots and some hideous modern buildings.
Note that this was a second floor theater.