Midwest Theatre

16 N. Harvey Avenue,
Oklahoma City, OK 73102

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Showing 26 - 50 of 67 comments

Cimarron
Cimarron on August 15, 2012 at 10:58 pm

Just posted photo section print ad of Midwest Theater Grand Opening.

Cimarron
Cimarron on August 11, 2012 at 11:15 pm

Oklahoma City’s Midwest Theater was the host of two World Premier’s; 1947 Black Gold & 1960 Cimarron. See Photos section above.

Cimarron
Cimarron on July 20, 2012 at 11:38 pm

Tinseltoes, thanks for the Boxoffice link to the Midwest’s 1960 World Premier of “CIMARRON”. The article and photo’s of the Premier reveals how big of a deal this was for Oklahoma City and Stanley Warner Mgmt. as well as MGM…A really terrific movie 2boot!

hcombs
hcombs on June 27, 2012 at 12:34 pm

Not exactly sure when my Grandfather, R. Lewis Barton, bought the Midwest but it must have been shortly before 1966. I know we raided the old palace of many treasures before it was torn down including a huge square grand piano, lots of plaster statuary, Chinese pots, huge medieval looking chairs,and antique tapestries. I never watched a film there but my dad took me there one day it was closed, I was 13, and I found the upper balcony terrifying because of the very steep slope. We explored the basements and found many old broadsheets that would be worth a fortune today. I had always thought that the Midwest closed in 1966.

Cimarron
Cimarron on April 15, 2012 at 4:29 pm

Fandangled, I recall the Midwest ran movies from other companies i.e. MGM, Fox as well as Warner Bros. and seem to recall that their Warner Theater in Okla. City did play mostly Warner films. Interesting history.

fandangled
fandangled on March 12, 2012 at 9:48 pm

While the Midwest was operated under the ownership of Warner Bros., as were other Warner owned theater’s, they enjoyed playing Warner Bros. Movies…In the late 50’s, the fed’s said no, no and forced Warner to divest ownership of there theaters..So, what did they do, they created a solely separated operating Company named Stanley Warner Management Corp. that continued operating the chain separate from Warner Bros. through 1960’s. They were pretty smart operators but, didnot keep up with the move of suburban movie houses from main stay down town locations…So Sad!! Resulted in loss of many, many wonderful, beautiful and artistic grand ole theaters through out the U.S.

Cimarron
Cimarron on March 1, 2012 at 12:15 am

Go to the following blog link for additional Midwest photo’s and interesting tid bits http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2006/07/lets-go-downtown-to-movies.html#Midwest

Cimarron
Cimarron on February 10, 2012 at 10:18 pm

The Midwest was as you said, magnificient! You probably noticed that those heavenly stars in the ceiling revealed the Little and Big Dipper. Interesting story and experience. Thanks

Gridleak
Gridleak on February 5, 2012 at 12:27 pm

I worked at the Midwest in ‘67-'68. It was a grand old theater, classic in every way. From the huge lobby, to the mezanine overlooking the lobby, to the seven story auditorium, this theater was designed to be spacious and comfortable.

The booth was the finest I ever worked in… just lacked a dumb-waiter for toting heavy film cases up seven stories of stairs, lol. As a sixteen year old kid I put on some muscle toting those film cases that year, heh haha.

The theater itself originally opened as a stage play house. Behind the screen was another old screen built on a massive stage fronted by an orchestra pit. Behind the stage and down a set of stairs were dressing and costume rooms.

In the booth one wall was covered in lighting controls. One could adjust the lights of the auditorium to suit any mood, or spot-light any location. Though at the time I worked there the spots were long gone and we used only one set of the controls to of course light and dim the auditorium.

The screen had massive curtains across it. At times the motor that opened and closed the curtains would kick a breaker, located front and center of the screen on the floor behind the curtains. I would have to run down seven stories, through the auditorium, part the curtains and reset the breaker… then dash back up stairs and open the curtains. It was as a result of this action that I discovered the old screen, stage, orchestra pit and dressing rooms.

One additional feature that I marveled at was the star display in the ceiling of the auditorium. There were some 750 holes drilled randomly in the ceiling. An electrical system distributed power to each of the holes where a simple metal funnel, like one would add oil to your car with, acted as a lamp shade for each light bulb. Each socket had a simple bimetallic flasher, about the size of a nickle, in it and the light bulb screwed into the socket. The assembly then sat over one of the holes and from the auditorium, looking up, they appeared to be stars twinkling in the “darkened sky”.

Looking at the light controls in the booth I had noticed one was labeled “STARS” so I flipped it and as one would I looked out of the booth and low and behold there were maybe fifty stars blinking. Crawling up in the attic (okay, I admit, I am somewhat akin to a cat when it comes to curiosity) I discovered there were hundreds of fixtures, most of which the bulb was burned out. I volunteered to provide the labor, volunteering my pal and best friend who also worked there, and the Bartons agreed to buy the bulbs and new flashers (as some of the lights that were burning were not flashing), and we replaced all of the bulbs and flashers. It took us about a month to replace them all but it was well woth the trouble. I tell you it was a magnificent display to behold.

Cimarron
Cimarron on May 6, 2011 at 11:33 pm

Thanks All for the above Midwest photo sites. Really great!

missmelbatoast
missmelbatoast on April 30, 2011 at 8:32 pm

This unusual view of the Midwest Theatre comes courtesy of the Hales Collection,
View link%20-%20The%20Hales%20Collection.jpg)

seymourcox
seymourcox on April 4, 2011 at 6:54 pm

Oklahoma City downtown map & photos
View link

missmelbatoast
missmelbatoast on April 3, 2011 at 1:37 am

Midwest Theatre 1930’s picture
View link

raybradley
raybradley on March 30, 2011 at 3:45 pm

A slick 1947 photo of the Midwest Theatre can be viewed by going up to 10-08-07 post and type in “View looking northeast at corner of W. Grand Ave & Harvey Ave.”

raybradley
raybradley on March 28, 2011 at 8:02 pm

You’re welcome, LonestDay. The YWCA also had a lovely auditorium, but vintage images show it was not too ornate.

raybradley
raybradley on March 28, 2011 at 1:59 am

John Eberson designed this theatre, and I strongly suspect he also designed the ten story YWCA Bldg, 320 NW 1st. Both the Midwest Theatre and YWCA opened in 1930. If you’re a John Eberson fan, such as I, and want to take a look at the YWCA’s lovely atmospheric cafeteria go up to 10-08-07 link and type in “ywca food services” and you’ll see what I mean.

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on March 25, 2011 at 1:59 pm

Nice photo Cosmic.

raybradley
raybradley on March 25, 2011 at 12:29 pm

Here’s a nice snapshot of the Midwest Theatre taken shortly before it was razed.
(Doug Loudenback’s site, a Jeff Chapman photo)
View link

Cimarron
Cimarron on December 20, 2010 at 4:51 pm

During the 50’s and early 60’s, several buildings having large basements in the downtown OKC area were used as Civil Defense Shelters. The Midwest Theatre was one of the buildings and was
identified as so with a bright yellow Civil Defense sign on the outside of the theatre. In the basement were several large drum barrels filled with survival necessities e.g. food, water and medical
supplies. Each of the barrels were also identified with the same bright yellow Civil Defense logo as on the outside sign…Civil Defense shelters were common during the cold war nucular threat era and several movie theatres through out the U.S. were natural shelter
sites for the Civil Defense Department.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on March 23, 2010 at 9:09 pm

The proposed sale of the Midwest and two other OKC houses was announced in Boxoffice in June 1964:
http://tinyurl.com/ykjowbg

seymourcox
seymourcox on November 19, 2009 at 12:33 am

Though the Midwest Theatre opened as a “talkie” movie house, it still included a full stage, orchestra pit, and Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ a lot like the one played here –
View link

Cimarron
Cimarron on June 16, 2009 at 10:39 pm

Wonder if the old grand style of the Theatres will ever return. The
modern multi screen theatres are nice with all the latest technolgy but, they really do lack in the charm and grace of the Theatres as the Midwest, Warner, Centre were during there day…Progress! Oh Well!

Cimarron
Cimarron on June 16, 2009 at 10:34 pm

Miss Melba Toast..Your right on! The Plaza was a class act. I didnot work at that Theatre but, knew the owner who operated it during it’s hay days in the early 60’s. I worked at Midwest / Warner during that fun time of my teens and enjoyed the many many films that played during those days!

missmelbatoast
missmelbatoast on April 6, 2009 at 6:55 pm

One good reason ‘DILLINGER’ didn’t premier here at the Midwest was because by then it had become a porn house. American International was trying to ease into big budget productions and didn’t want any association with porn.
Another reason, at that time the Plaza was still a very classy movie house.

Cimarron
Cimarron on February 22, 2009 at 8:18 pm

While the Midwest was still open during the premier of Dillinger, it had really run down and was only playing second runs and grade b films otherwise, it would have been perfect for one more final premier.