On the day of the Apollo 15 moon landing, AMC opened the Midland 3 (combining the Midland with The Screening Room and the Studio Theatres under one name literally overnight) on Friday, July 30, 1971, with Sean Connery in THE ANDERSON TAPES (the ‘old’ Midland) while adding in their respective ‘new’ auditoriums Debbie Reynolds in Curtis Harrington’s WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH HELEN? (prev. Screening Room) and Woody Allen in BANANAS (prev. Studio). There was no explanation for this new iteration.
The Midland 3 and the Empire 4 on 14th & Main were suddenly combined without explanation by AMC to create the Midland-Empire 7 on Wednesday, September 11, 1974. The Midland itself would be listed first as Auditorium 1 in the new designation. It was showing Rollin Binzer’s 1973 documentary LADIES & GENTLEMEN, THE ROLLING STONES.
AMC closed the Midland/Midland 3 permanently on Thursday, September 24, 1981 while leaving the previous Empire 4 open. The Midland was showing Tony Anthony’s 3D import COMIN' AT YA! (the features changed the next day so much at the remaining Empire that it’s impossible to tell what the Midland’s other two auditoriums were showing at closing, perhaps THE ELEPHANT MAN & ORDINARY PEOPLE going by descending listed order).
The manager here during the early 80s used to have an 8X10 color picture of himself on his office wall at the Universal Studios/E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL tour attraction riding the ‘floating’ bicycle with ET in the milk-crate basket.
Mann Theatres turned this to an “Any Seat/50c/Anytime” house (as they had with the Uptown before its closing) on Wednesday, April 10, 1974, with a double feature of BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES and the 1971 Charles Bronson/Toshiro Mifune co-starrer RED SUN. Within half a year the bargain programming netted double features like THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN with THE TRAIN ROBBERS or Disney’s HERBIE RIDES AGAIN! with the independently-made 1972 family film GEORGE!
Admission goes up to 75c-any-seat on Wednesday, November 27, 1974 with a double feature of Robert Redford in THE GREAT GATSBY and Woody Allen in PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM.
Adult admission lifted AGAIN to $1 starting Wednesday, April 2, 1975 with Marlon Brando in Bertolucci’s LAST TANGO IN PARIS and Woody Allen’s film of EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK (This marquee was sandwiched in-between family double-features on either week. Children’s tickets were 50c afterward).
A deafening public outcry must certainly have frightened Mann into reducing the uniform ticket price back down to 75c on Wednesday, May 14, 1975 for THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK and the 1972 rattlesnake terror of STANLEY.
Began alternating bargain with special programming on Sunday, August 24, 1975 with the 70mm presentation of the X-rated PANORAMA BLUE. HELLO, DOLLY! in 70mm followed in September. By late December, the bargain emphasis was eliminated. By Spring 1976, it was back again. On Friday, October 1, they advertised a “New Fall Policy of 1st Run Engagements” starting with Lina Wertmuller’s ALL SCREWED UP and showed artistic films until around Christmas…
On Wednesday, December 8, 1976, the Brookside unexplainedly went from their usual program of foreign and high-art films (typified by the previous week’s showing of the short films “Jimi Plays Berkeley” from 1971 and the Beatles' 1967 TV film “Magical Mystery Tour”) to the 1974 XXX stag film HAPPY DAYS (not to be confused with the then-current ABC/Garry Marshall TV show with Ron Howard and Henry Winkler; up to three other KC theaters were showing it and the weekday ad just suddenly states “HAPPY DAYS (X)” with its showtimes.) This was its ignominious final marquee when it closed for good on Tuesday, December 14, 1976. [Kansas City Star]
Whoever owned the Mary Lue before Tuesday, May 31, 1949 gave up ownership that day showing John Wayne in WAKE OF THE RED WITCH and Brian Donlevy & Maria Montez in 1941’s SOUTH OF TAHITI. Copy in next day’s space-saver ad: “Closed For Remodeling! Watch For Opening Date”. Re-opened under the same name (“Opens Tonite-6:30-Under New Management!”) on Friday, July 15, 1949, with a cartoon, newsreel, a 3 Stooges short, and double-feature of Esther Williams in TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME and Abbott & Costello in 1942’s PARDON MY SARONG. There were two closed but unannounced days on Saturday-Sunday December 15-16, 1951. On Monday, December 17, 1951 the new ad for the Comet simply states, “Formerly Mary Lue” while presenting William Holden in FORCE OF ARMS and Jeanne Crain in TAKE MY LITTLE GIRL. The final triple bill plus cartoons as the Comet on Sunday, May 4, 1952, was: Abbott & Costello in 1946’s LITTLE GIANT, the East Side Kids in 1944’s BLOCK BUSTERS, and 1949’s RED STALLION OF THE ROCKIES (sic). The next-day’s space-saver ad optimistically states, “Closed Temporarily!,” but the Beaufort/Mary Lue/Comet Theatre had shut down for good.
The (Fox) Madrid’s final day as a movie theater—with 10c admission—was Friday, January 16, 1942 (the day of Carole Lombard’s plane crash), with a one-day-only-marquee of Janet Gaynor & Fredric March in the 1937 version of A STAR IS BORN, and Randolph Scott & former silent-film star Hope Hampton (in her last-ever screen role) in 1938’s THE ROAD TO RENO. There are no listings for it as an active movie theater in the city newspaper after that. [Kansas City Star]
National General had reduced the Uptown’s admission price to 50 cents (their other KC theaters were sold to Mann Theaters by summer; its sister theatre, the Brookside, then took over as a 50-cent-house by summer) before what appears to be its final day as an all-out movie theater on Sunday, April 15, 1973, with a Disney double feature of SNOWBALL EXPRESS and $1,000,000 DUCK.
According to a story in the Kansas City Star on Friday, August 1, 1975, pp.6A (“Council Rejects Ban On X-Rated Theater”), the owners were planning to open another adult theater on the same block called the New Brighton. They’d spent $200,000 on purchase of a building but the city council announced a moratorium on any new amusement-/liquor-business proposals for the River Quay (now the River Market) district, and the New Brighton was never completed. The local Market Area Businessmen’s Association had tried to block its opening before the moratorium.
Listed as the Fox Warwick, last day as a movie theater was Sunday, May 24, 1953 with CALL ME MADAME (sic) starring Ethel Merman, and Van Johnson & Janet Leigh in CONFIDENTIALLY CONNIE. [Kansas City Star]
Closed for good by Commonwealth on the evening of Tuesday, November 7, 1972/Election Day, with 50-cent admission to Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER (Kansas City Star)
Saw WAIT UNTIL DARK here one Saturday afternoon around 1971, they allowed the young viewers at an separately-programmed morning matinee to stay over and watch it. At the climax when Alan Arkin leaped out of the shadows to grab Audrey Hepburn about 300 kids & teenagers screamed and literally jumped out of their chairs.
On Wednesday, November 3, 1971, the Oklahoma Journal ad began stating: “FAREWELL PROGRAM! Sooner Closes Tuesday & Moves to Redskin with 1st Run Adult Films.” The final program for this theater was EXECUTIVE WIVES, directed by (according to IMDB) Albert Dinglehoofer, and “4 daring featurettes” re-printing the ad to its final day, Tuesday the 9th. (For some reason the Redskin began calling itself the “Sooner at Redskin,” although neither the theater’s size nor the number of films increased at all.)
Caporal closed this theater for good on Sunday, December 17, 1961 with an eight-year old Paramount classic, SHANE, Bert I Gordon’s TORMENTED from Allied Artists, and Universal’s dubbed import THE PHARAOH’S WOMAN.
The last ever active listing for this theater was Tuesday, September 7, 1971, when it was showing MGM’s screen adaptation of John Herbert’s prison-set play FORTUNE AND MEN’S EYES. The next two day’s ads state “Temporarily Closed due to Storm Damage—OPEN SOON.” It never reopened. [Oklahoma Journal]
Closed for good on Tuesday, June 13, 1972 with the Warner Bros. documentary MALCOLM X. But even after the closing the owners kept a Criterion space-saver ad going in the Oklahoma Journal for another two days emphasizing the Willard sequel BEN would soon show at the Centre and Edmond Plaza Theaters.
Gulf States commenced their succeeding ownership of this theater on May 3, 1972 with Dimension Pictures' new film TWILIGHT PEOPLE, 1968’s MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND, and 1969’s THE WITCHMAKER. And for what its worth, the exact day of permanent closing was Tuesday, September 2, 1975 featuring $1 admission for adults. (Oklahoma Journal for both sources)
Not sure where the page creator got their information about a 1980 closing. The last ad ever for this theater (with an “Ends Tonite!” by-line) in either OKC newspaper was Friday, April 30, 1976, with a double feature of Ossie Davis' film COUNTDOWN AT KUSINI (aka COOL RED) and Yul Brynner in THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR.
Closed for good on Tuesday, September 2, 1975 (ad states “Ends Today!”) with a new film that hadn’t even entered general US release yet, Fred Williamson and Lee Van Cleef in TAKE A HARD RIDE (Opened in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, August 27 here and also the Tower and South Park Theaters. Official 20th Century Fox release according to IMDB was over two months later on October 29.) and the 2nd feature GORDON’S WAR (1973). [Source: Oklahoma Journal]
The last marquee under this theater’s original Oklahoma Cinema Theaters/Farris Shanbour ownership was Thursday, August 2, 1979, featuring Philip Kaufman’s film THE WANDERERS and Bill Murray in MEATBALLS in either auditorium, transferring to its new owners the next day with identical programming. It was able to survive as a full-price house until the mid-80s, becoming a dollar theater. The West Park closed for good on Sunday, June 29, 1986 showing Arnold Schwarzenegger in RAW DEAL and the debut feature of Jean-Claude Van Damme, NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER.
I’ve posted some on this theater and was finally able to view its presence in the local newspapers of the time.
In searching through the Kimo’s ads during the 1980s in the Kansas City Star, you can see the evaporation not only of adult theaters themselves but also any individually owned single screen houses. KCS movie ad pages of the late 1970s can not only take over 3 entire pages (on an average non-premiere weekday with dozens of films) but there’s perhaps only 1 chain in control of 15-20 total screens out of perhaps 80 to 90 total theaters and a couple mini-chains taking another 10-15 screens combined of their own, dozens of individual businesses and their film product wrestling for attention. At the bottom of barrel by then was of course the Kimo.
But starting in 1981 the picture changes drastically. Not only did the Star itself shrink for several years but the 500-lb gorillas literally take over the page —Dickinson, AMC, Commonwealth—the effect is ominously startling. By the mid 80s on a weekday the entire Kansas City range of movie marquees has dropped to a martially-designed, corporate-banner-controlled single page, with plenty of room at the top for some page filler. (There’s some recovery later in the decade.)
I write this to explain what happened to the Kimo’s advertising. The latest I can see this theater still labeled the Kimo was October 1972 when they were showing Bill Diehl’s THE SECRETARY, then they stop advertising for at least two months. I’m guessing this is when they take a rest break before becoming an X-rated operation called the Dove but wasn’t able to get to the next issues advertising it.
The Dove alternated porn with live shows through 1990. Originally in the early 1980s they advertised every day, and their ads include pictures and graphics . Then as the Star began losing pages the adult theater ads become simple tiny squarish paid blurbs each, scrunched into the bottom of the movie page, banished by themselves a couple pages away from the conventional ads around 1984, and by 1985 relegated to the sports section or a Friday entertainment supplement. By the late 80s the remaining three adult theaters including the Dove advertise only on weekends—you had to buy the paper four separate times to catch any of them—and somewhere around 1990 the Dove admits surrender to the VHS/home-video revolution and ceases even mentioning movies, only live porn vixen performances.
It would literally take at least a week poring through the Star’s archives to get a much better idea about the Kimo’s final years—including about its reported raid by authorities—but wanted to try to get a better idea of what happened to it.
Announced for several months, but didn’t see it on CT yet—2nd annual THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW screening here this month, benefiting additional restoration work: http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/Rocky-Horror-Picture-Show-event-at-Jayhawk-Theater-330125471.html; official re-opening was supposed to be this year but don’t see indications confirming it.
There’s been so much redevelopment in the area of the Kimo that hardly any very old businesses from that time operate there now. But I’m hearing from locals the Kimo is where the Verizon Wireless is in the street view, that it was a pretty big theater taking up most of the block, couldn’t have been open later than 1981, and it was raided for pornography immediately before demolishing.
It appears the newly-released DEEP THROAT was the opening feature when this theater went hard-core as the Dove around 1972, and Kansas City press were invited to the premiere.
Closing date was Monday, September 1, 1997 with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage in John Woo’s FACE-OFF. Owner Hollywood Theaters also locally closed the Cinema Twin (currently unlisted on CT) that day at 3110 Iowa, which had become a dollar house and was featuring George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger in BATMAN & ROBIN and Nicolas Cage in CON-AIR. Info courtesy that day’s Lawrence KS Journal-World, pp 6B.
Last day of operation as a movie theater was Thursday, November 16, 1989—a week before Thanksgiving—showing Woody Allen’s CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS. There had been major property tax hikes just before the closing—as much as 100% local increases on businesses—which probably didn’t help. Granada’s Lawrence KS Journal-World final ads were listed under a United Artists Theaters banner (and beforehand the previous year as Commonwealth and then UA-Commonwealth).
On the day of the Apollo 15 moon landing, AMC opened the Midland 3 (combining the Midland with The Screening Room and the Studio Theatres under one name literally overnight) on Friday, July 30, 1971, with Sean Connery in THE ANDERSON TAPES (the ‘old’ Midland) while adding in their respective ‘new’ auditoriums Debbie Reynolds in Curtis Harrington’s WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH HELEN? (prev. Screening Room) and Woody Allen in BANANAS (prev. Studio). There was no explanation for this new iteration.
The Midland 3 and the Empire 4 on 14th & Main were suddenly combined without explanation by AMC to create the Midland-Empire 7 on Wednesday, September 11, 1974. The Midland itself would be listed first as Auditorium 1 in the new designation. It was showing Rollin Binzer’s 1973 documentary LADIES & GENTLEMEN, THE ROLLING STONES.
AMC closed the Midland/Midland 3 permanently on Thursday, September 24, 1981 while leaving the previous Empire 4 open. The Midland was showing Tony Anthony’s 3D import COMIN' AT YA! (the features changed the next day so much at the remaining Empire that it’s impossible to tell what the Midland’s other two auditoriums were showing at closing, perhaps THE ELEPHANT MAN & ORDINARY PEOPLE going by descending listed order).
The manager here during the early 80s used to have an 8X10 color picture of himself on his office wall at the Universal Studios/E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL tour attraction riding the ‘floating’ bicycle with ET in the milk-crate basket.
Mann Theatres turned this to an “Any Seat/50c/Anytime” house (as they had with the Uptown before its closing) on Wednesday, April 10, 1974, with a double feature of BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES and the 1971 Charles Bronson/Toshiro Mifune co-starrer RED SUN. Within half a year the bargain programming netted double features like THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN with THE TRAIN ROBBERS or Disney’s HERBIE RIDES AGAIN! with the independently-made 1972 family film GEORGE!
Admission goes up to 75c-any-seat on Wednesday, November 27, 1974 with a double feature of Robert Redford in THE GREAT GATSBY and Woody Allen in PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM.
Adult admission lifted AGAIN to $1 starting Wednesday, April 2, 1975 with Marlon Brando in Bertolucci’s LAST TANGO IN PARIS and Woody Allen’s film of EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK (This marquee was sandwiched in-between family double-features on either week. Children’s tickets were 50c afterward).
A deafening public outcry must certainly have frightened Mann into reducing the uniform ticket price back down to 75c on Wednesday, May 14, 1975 for THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK and the 1972 rattlesnake terror of STANLEY.
Began alternating bargain with special programming on Sunday, August 24, 1975 with the 70mm presentation of the X-rated PANORAMA BLUE. HELLO, DOLLY! in 70mm followed in September. By late December, the bargain emphasis was eliminated. By Spring 1976, it was back again. On Friday, October 1, they advertised a “New Fall Policy of 1st Run Engagements” starting with Lina Wertmuller’s ALL SCREWED UP and showed artistic films until around Christmas…
On Wednesday, December 8, 1976, the Brookside unexplainedly went from their usual program of foreign and high-art films (typified by the previous week’s showing of the short films “Jimi Plays Berkeley” from 1971 and the Beatles' 1967 TV film “Magical Mystery Tour”) to the 1974 XXX stag film HAPPY DAYS (not to be confused with the then-current ABC/Garry Marshall TV show with Ron Howard and Henry Winkler; up to three other KC theaters were showing it and the weekday ad just suddenly states “HAPPY DAYS (X)” with its showtimes.) This was its ignominious final marquee when it closed for good on Tuesday, December 14, 1976. [Kansas City Star]
Whoever owned the Mary Lue before Tuesday, May 31, 1949 gave up ownership that day showing John Wayne in WAKE OF THE RED WITCH and Brian Donlevy & Maria Montez in 1941’s SOUTH OF TAHITI. Copy in next day’s space-saver ad: “Closed For Remodeling! Watch For Opening Date”. Re-opened under the same name (“Opens Tonite-6:30-Under New Management!”) on Friday, July 15, 1949, with a cartoon, newsreel, a 3 Stooges short, and double-feature of Esther Williams in TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME and Abbott & Costello in 1942’s PARDON MY SARONG. There were two closed but unannounced days on Saturday-Sunday December 15-16, 1951. On Monday, December 17, 1951 the new ad for the Comet simply states, “Formerly Mary Lue” while presenting William Holden in FORCE OF ARMS and Jeanne Crain in TAKE MY LITTLE GIRL. The final triple bill plus cartoons as the Comet on Sunday, May 4, 1952, was: Abbott & Costello in 1946’s LITTLE GIANT, the East Side Kids in 1944’s BLOCK BUSTERS, and 1949’s RED STALLION OF THE ROCKIES (sic). The next-day’s space-saver ad optimistically states, “Closed Temporarily!,” but the Beaufort/Mary Lue/Comet Theatre had shut down for good.
The (Fox) Madrid’s final day as a movie theater—with 10c admission—was Friday, January 16, 1942 (the day of Carole Lombard’s plane crash), with a one-day-only-marquee of Janet Gaynor & Fredric March in the 1937 version of A STAR IS BORN, and Randolph Scott & former silent-film star Hope Hampton (in her last-ever screen role) in 1938’s THE ROAD TO RENO. There are no listings for it as an active movie theater in the city newspaper after that. [Kansas City Star]
National General had reduced the Uptown’s admission price to 50 cents (their other KC theaters were sold to Mann Theaters by summer; its sister theatre, the Brookside, then took over as a 50-cent-house by summer) before what appears to be its final day as an all-out movie theater on Sunday, April 15, 1973, with a Disney double feature of SNOWBALL EXPRESS and $1,000,000 DUCK.
Closed for good as a movie theater on Sunday, July 20, 1975, with three showings that day of Peter Bogdanovich’s WHAT’S UP, DOC. [Kansas City Star]
According to a story in the Kansas City Star on Friday, August 1, 1975, pp.6A (“Council Rejects Ban On X-Rated Theater”), the owners were planning to open another adult theater on the same block called the New Brighton. They’d spent $200,000 on purchase of a building but the city council announced a moratorium on any new amusement-/liquor-business proposals for the River Quay (now the River Market) district, and the New Brighton was never completed. The local Market Area Businessmen’s Association had tried to block its opening before the moratorium.
Listed as the Fox Warwick, last day as a movie theater was Sunday, May 24, 1953 with CALL ME MADAME (sic) starring Ethel Merman, and Van Johnson & Janet Leigh in CONFIDENTIALLY CONNIE. [Kansas City Star]
Closed for good by Commonwealth on the evening of Tuesday, November 7, 1972/Election Day, with 50-cent admission to Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER (Kansas City Star)
Saw WAIT UNTIL DARK here one Saturday afternoon around 1971, they allowed the young viewers at an separately-programmed morning matinee to stay over and watch it. At the climax when Alan Arkin leaped out of the shadows to grab Audrey Hepburn about 300 kids & teenagers screamed and literally jumped out of their chairs.
On Wednesday, November 3, 1971, the Oklahoma Journal ad began stating: “FAREWELL PROGRAM! Sooner Closes Tuesday & Moves to Redskin with 1st Run Adult Films.” The final program for this theater was EXECUTIVE WIVES, directed by (according to IMDB) Albert Dinglehoofer, and “4 daring featurettes” re-printing the ad to its final day, Tuesday the 9th. (For some reason the Redskin began calling itself the “Sooner at Redskin,” although neither the theater’s size nor the number of films increased at all.)
Caporal closed this theater for good on Sunday, December 17, 1961 with an eight-year old Paramount classic, SHANE, Bert I Gordon’s TORMENTED from Allied Artists, and Universal’s dubbed import THE PHARAOH’S WOMAN.
The last ever active listing for this theater was Tuesday, September 7, 1971, when it was showing MGM’s screen adaptation of John Herbert’s prison-set play FORTUNE AND MEN’S EYES. The next two day’s ads state “Temporarily Closed due to Storm Damage—OPEN SOON.” It never reopened. [Oklahoma Journal]
Closed for good on Tuesday, June 13, 1972 with the Warner Bros. documentary MALCOLM X. But even after the closing the owners kept a Criterion space-saver ad going in the Oklahoma Journal for another two days emphasizing the Willard sequel BEN would soon show at the Centre and Edmond Plaza Theaters.
Gulf States commenced their succeeding ownership of this theater on May 3, 1972 with Dimension Pictures' new film TWILIGHT PEOPLE, 1968’s MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND, and 1969’s THE WITCHMAKER. And for what its worth, the exact day of permanent closing was Tuesday, September 2, 1975 featuring $1 admission for adults. (Oklahoma Journal for both sources)
Not sure where the page creator got their information about a 1980 closing. The last ad ever for this theater (with an “Ends Tonite!” by-line) in either OKC newspaper was Friday, April 30, 1976, with a double feature of Ossie Davis' film COUNTDOWN AT KUSINI (aka COOL RED) and Yul Brynner in THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR.
Closed for good on Tuesday, September 2, 1975 (ad states “Ends Today!”) with a new film that hadn’t even entered general US release yet, Fred Williamson and Lee Van Cleef in TAKE A HARD RIDE (Opened in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, August 27 here and also the Tower and South Park Theaters. Official 20th Century Fox release according to IMDB was over two months later on October 29.) and the 2nd feature GORDON’S WAR (1973). [Source: Oklahoma Journal]
The last marquee under this theater’s original Oklahoma Cinema Theaters/Farris Shanbour ownership was Thursday, August 2, 1979, featuring Philip Kaufman’s film THE WANDERERS and Bill Murray in MEATBALLS in either auditorium, transferring to its new owners the next day with identical programming. It was able to survive as a full-price house until the mid-80s, becoming a dollar theater. The West Park closed for good on Sunday, June 29, 1986 showing Arnold Schwarzenegger in RAW DEAL and the debut feature of Jean-Claude Van Damme, NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER.
I’ve posted some on this theater and was finally able to view its presence in the local newspapers of the time.
In searching through the Kimo’s ads during the 1980s in the Kansas City Star, you can see the evaporation not only of adult theaters themselves but also any individually owned single screen houses. KCS movie ad pages of the late 1970s can not only take over 3 entire pages (on an average non-premiere weekday with dozens of films) but there’s perhaps only 1 chain in control of 15-20 total screens out of perhaps 80 to 90 total theaters and a couple mini-chains taking another 10-15 screens combined of their own, dozens of individual businesses and their film product wrestling for attention. At the bottom of barrel by then was of course the Kimo.
But starting in 1981 the picture changes drastically. Not only did the Star itself shrink for several years but the 500-lb gorillas literally take over the page —Dickinson, AMC, Commonwealth—the effect is ominously startling. By the mid 80s on a weekday the entire Kansas City range of movie marquees has dropped to a martially-designed, corporate-banner-controlled single page, with plenty of room at the top for some page filler. (There’s some recovery later in the decade.)
I write this to explain what happened to the Kimo’s advertising. The latest I can see this theater still labeled the Kimo was October 1972 when they were showing Bill Diehl’s THE SECRETARY, then they stop advertising for at least two months. I’m guessing this is when they take a rest break before becoming an X-rated operation called the Dove but wasn’t able to get to the next issues advertising it.
The Dove alternated porn with live shows through 1990. Originally in the early 1980s they advertised every day, and their ads include pictures and graphics . Then as the Star began losing pages the adult theater ads become simple tiny squarish paid blurbs each, scrunched into the bottom of the movie page, banished by themselves a couple pages away from the conventional ads around 1984, and by 1985 relegated to the sports section or a Friday entertainment supplement. By the late 80s the remaining three adult theaters including the Dove advertise only on weekends—you had to buy the paper four separate times to catch any of them—and somewhere around 1990 the Dove admits surrender to the VHS/home-video revolution and ceases even mentioning movies, only live porn vixen performances.
It would literally take at least a week poring through the Star’s archives to get a much better idea about the Kimo’s final years—including about its reported raid by authorities—but wanted to try to get a better idea of what happened to it.
Announced for several months, but didn’t see it on CT yet—2nd annual THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW screening here this month, benefiting additional restoration work: http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/Rocky-Horror-Picture-Show-event-at-Jayhawk-Theater-330125471.html; official re-opening was supposed to be this year but don’t see indications confirming it.
There’s been so much redevelopment in the area of the Kimo that hardly any very old businesses from that time operate there now. But I’m hearing from locals the Kimo is where the Verizon Wireless is in the street view, that it was a pretty big theater taking up most of the block, couldn’t have been open later than 1981, and it was raided for pornography immediately before demolishing.
It appears the newly-released DEEP THROAT was the opening feature when this theater went hard-core as the Dove around 1972, and Kansas City press were invited to the premiere.
Closing date was Monday, September 1, 1997 with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage in John Woo’s FACE-OFF. Owner Hollywood Theaters also locally closed the Cinema Twin (currently unlisted on CT) that day at 3110 Iowa, which had become a dollar house and was featuring George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger in BATMAN & ROBIN and Nicolas Cage in CON-AIR. Info courtesy that day’s Lawrence KS Journal-World, pp 6B.
Last day of operation as a movie theater was Thursday, November 16, 1989—a week before Thanksgiving—showing Woody Allen’s CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS. There had been major property tax hikes just before the closing—as much as 100% local increases on businesses—which probably didn’t help. Granada’s Lawrence KS Journal-World final ads were listed under a United Artists Theaters banner (and beforehand the previous year as Commonwealth and then UA-Commonwealth).