Astro Theater

Theatre lovers were overjoyed when the non-profit Circle Theatre was established in the increasingly underused Union Station in downtown Kansas City. Union Station was built in 1914 when passenger train service was prevalent and a necessity as airplane travel wasn’t yet possible and automobiles were in the possession of very few. But by the 1960’s, train traffic was down and Union Station had to diversify. A live playhouse space was carved out just north of the main waiting area, apparently near Gate 16.

The Circle Theatre was a live playhouse that began with “The Threepenny Opera” staged on March 28, 1962. After some 850 performances, the Circle Theatre went into bankruptcy in January of 1968 showing liabilities at $123,000 dollars and assets at a paltry $1,050 ending the Circle Theatre’s run.

That should have been the end of the story as Union Station had devolved from a bustling passenger station with 226 daily passenger trains in its heyday to a mere six as the 1970’s began. But the era offered two alternative cinema routes for failed live theaters: art/repertory film fare and porno chic movies. The Circle Theatre’s space was sublet to The Movie Theater, an art/repertory programming concept by Terry Boyle, a Dickinson Theater veteran. It began August 23, 1968 with Jean Luc Godard’s “A Choinoise”.

Bathed in gold, white, and blue, the theater seating was a mix of amber, gold, and red. It was, after all, a product of the late-1960’s and looked the part. That situation lasted far longer than imagined - four months - closing December 26, 1968 with “The Queen” a documentary about drag queens. The more famous Westport Room in the terminal closed five days later as the Union Station was in big time retreat. And that should have been that. But there was another, final option - find a porno chic operator. And that’s exactly what happened.

The Movie Theater space was taken on by S.S. & W. Inc. as of February 1, 1969 on a five year lease. The fun began under the name of the Astro Theatre on May 2, 1969 operating as a true grind house operating from 9am until all the customers came and went. With “movies from out of this world”, it began with continuous showings of “The Divorcee” starring Marsha Jordan and Bunny Glaser in “The Bachelor’s Dreams”. The theater’s five-year lease had a fairly predictable path.

First - and as mentioned - with just six daily trains coming into the station daily, Kansas City Terminal Railway Co. decided to terminate its ghost town main passenger waiting area and consolidate to the South waiting area - a comparatively long trek from the theater.

Adult movie lovers had to figure out the labyrinthian path through the midways on the east or west to then briskly move to the south part where the theater was. After all, there would be very few customers to run into. And when KC Railway announced plans to create a 16-foot high cement partition really challenging patrons to get to the Astro Theater, tempers flared. This situation led to the first lawsuit involving the Astro Theater as the owner sued the KC Railway.

Next was the many raids of the theater - likely not helping the image of the Union Station. The first was in October of 1970 with “Catch 69” (and “Vibrations) being seized for alleged obscenity. That led to an injunction against the Astro Theater in December of 1970 with the theater continuing the next month. Seizure of films, arrest of owner, and dancers then occurred at the Astro Theater in 1972 on a further crackdown.

Though the last advertised showtimes were for “Maid in Sweden” and “Maids to Order” on July 31, 1973, the theater booked on more film that ended the venue. The coup de gras happened when “Deep Throat” was seized in August of 1973 at the Astro Theater despite advertising as “closed temporarily”. Judge William Collinson viewed the film repeatedly before finding it obscene. An advertisement in January of 1974 offered “theater goodies” including the Astro’s projectors, concession equipment, seating, and poster frames. Union Station had reached the point where it couldn’t even host a grind house.

The station would effectively close during a period from 1983 when the Kansas City Railway closed the station to Amtrak moving out in 1985 to new temporary-looking digs nearby. And despite all of this, movies would return to Union Station thanks to a 1992 decision to create a science place at the venue. That venue opened in 1999 and allowed Amtrak to return to the facility and the Science City sported the Regnier Extreme Screen playing movies daily. On the 100th Anniversary of Union Station on October 30, 2014, you could even watch “Rocky Mountain Express” about steam train travel.

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