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Two years after the legendary Black Monday stock market crash,
the economic situation was grim in Kansas City and throughout
the United States. Americans were struggling financially as factories
cut production and drought dried up farmers’ fields. Without
disposable income to spend on entertainment, legitimate and vaudeville
theaters alike were forced to close.
The advent of the talkie in 1927 and five movie-showings daily
had seriously impacted the popularity of live theater in the
last years of the roaring twenties. Movie houses grew grander
in scale and were stealing audiences from more traditional forms
of entertainment. By the early 1930s, theaters could no longer
afford to keep the doors open. The Sam S. Shubert, the Missouri,
the Garden Theater (originally the Hippodrome), the Mainstreet
Theater, and the Globe Theater all were forced to close their
doors. Fate would have it that only the Missouri would be spared
the wrecking ball.
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The name of the theater on the northwest corner of 12th and
Central had been sanded off the south façade as it stood
empty. Nameless, the building was used four or five times throughout
the Depression for the occasional road show, including at one
time, the Barnum and Bailey Circus. In 1938, a California woman
holding a bond on the property contacted other bondholders and
made a command decision to sell the property, not realizing the
property had already been auctioned for back taxes. She still
owned 1/11th of the corner of 12th and Central and was advised
that “the land would have greater value with the theater
off than with it on, and no doubt could be used for parking purposes
to advantage as the location is desirable for this purpose.” (Albert
Schoenberg) In the end the theater was saved, but it was a desperate
situation “The Grand Lady of Twelfth Street” would
face again.
It would take new management, a new format, and the entrance of American soldiers
into another World War to reopen the doors.
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–> Next Folly Era
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