KCRag Forum

ComandanteCero wrote: what's the timeline on this?

I can't speak to the Empire - but when I went to a show at the Midland a couple of months ago they indicated that they planned to be shut for 18 months.  I would think that just like the arena, they would have a relativley firm timeline since they will need to start booking acts well in advance. 

tat2kc wrote: I was wondering the same thing.  I'd think, since this is a renovation rather than new construction, that something would be happening already.  I can't wait to see what the Midland condos (or are they apts.?) look like. It would be a cool building to live in.

I think stuff has been happening already for a while... as the rear doors have been seen open, there is wood over a big door in the front, and those plastic window tubes have been seen.

The definitive sign of progress at the Empire will be the removal of the trees!

Just a bit of drivel/gossip about AMC.

Several (3 to 4) new execs (not replacing anyone) have been moved to the KC area. They are living in the Northland. Living in the affluent areas.

Has to do with world hq/expansion.

Empire to transform from eyesore to eye-catcher

The one-time vaudeville venue will be a modern movie house.

By KEVIN COLLISON - The Kansas City Star

For 20 years, the shuttered Empire Theater has rotted at the corner of 14th and Main streets, trees sprouting from its roof, a poignant symbol of downtown neglect.

On Friday, for the first time in a generation, Kansas City got a peek inside the former vaudeville palace where crowds once plopped 50 cents —a dime if you were a kid—during the Roaring ’20s to be entertained by the likes of Charlie Chaplin, and George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen.

The rest : http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/15043738.htm

sounds awesome.

does anyone on here remember going to the Empire?  it closed in 1985.

Thanks, Diggety!

This is all great news to me! I don't remember the exact name of the wonderful theater downtown where the grandest movies were shown in the late 50s. I think it was called The Lowe's Midland. I wish, wish, wish you could have seen it in its last breath of glory back then. It was the perfect place for Cecil B. DeMille's finest works. It may have been where I saw The Ten Commandments, A Man Called Peter, Peter Cushing's Dracula and Frankenstein movies (Curse of, I think), Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in Silk Stockings (I think that was the name of the Ninotchka story). My schoolmate's older sister had a crush on one of the ushers. (He was good looking.)

I can hardly wait for the completed renovations! Kudos to those folks who have the time, money, drive, and inspiration to pull it off! All I can do is applaud.

leaf wrote: sounds awesome.

does anyone on here remember going to the Empire?  it closed in 1985.

Leaf~

I'm certain I did. But I confuse it with the other, big theater just down the street. I didn't pay much attention to things like that when I was a teenager, and now I'm suffering for it. I was born and raised near 63rd and Paseo, yet I didn't know how to get to the Plaza when I turned 16 and climbed into my mother's powder-blue, 54 Chevy convertible! (Boy, I wish I had that car now. But I digress...)

leaf wrote: sounds awesome.

does anyone on here remember going to the Empire?  it closed in 1985.

yeah, i got to go to it in the eighties, it was in total neglect. i commented earlier in a thread about the prez, going there towards the very end, it is sad how we lost a lot of our treasures due to plain neglect ( hotel prez, union station, empire, fairyland ) and i understand that over time anything needs rehabbed and overhauled, but it was really sad how bad they let it go.

i can tell you going in there to catch a show circa 1984, the ceiling was covered in mold and stains from the rain, the carpeting that actually covered the ornate floor was full of holes, snags, rips, and stains, the lighting on the outside of the building was no longer even used, it was a real wreck, i imagine there is not too much left that can be saved, judging by what i saw then, and what the pictures on another thread in the forum show as being left. real sad, but, i only say that because there was so much more that could have been saved.

Sounds like it will no longer be known as the Empire, but the Mainstreet Theatre, its original name.

I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey there on the big curved Cinerama screen.  Guess that enormous screen won't be coming back

I love looking at these pics..  I know Stabio posted them on here somewhere.





www.kcurbex.org

I saw Star Wars their in 76 when I was 5. i still remember it vividly. The line was around the building. When the Star Destroyer came flying in at the begining I thought I was going to die from fear and giddy glee.

Can't wait to be five again.

A couple pictures from today

Although I am excited about this project and think the exterior of the theatre will be beautifully preserved, am I the only one who is a bet trepidatious about chopping the interior space into 6 seperate theatres?  My only concern is the sterilization, or "suburbanization" if you will, of the interior space, making it just like any other multiplex out there...

...this will be a very interesting project to follow.

49r wrote: Although I am excited about this project and think the exterior of the theatre will be beautifully preserved, am I the only one who is a bet trepidatious about chopping the interior space into 6 seperate theatres?  My only concern is the sterilization, or "suburbanization" if you will, of the interior space, making it just like any other multiplex out there...

...this will be a very interesting project to follow.

wouldn't be too worried 49r, they chopped the shit out of the place in the 70's and 80's, so, the history is long gone. the real history that remains is the exterior, and the lobby, which, was a real elegant 3 story thing of beauty way back when, got walled off and all screwed up in the 70's, and from what i am reading, they will restore that.

any fears of them making it into a 6 theater type of thing, dont worry, the damage was done long ago.

i hope they devote one or two of the screens to independent/foreign films. 

if not, i guess we still have Screenland downtown...but still.

I'm not worried about the interior at all. Helix, the local firm doing the interior design work, is the same firm that restored the Phillips, and they did Blossom House in Quality Hill, and some other historic renovations around the city. They'll turn out a fine product.

i'll quote these for posterity's sake (i.e when the original article is no longer available and the details start getting fuzzy again).

Now, the theater is poised to be reborn as a six-screen, digital movie complex where patrons will be able to dine before enjoying their film with wine. It is also getting back its original name, the Mainstreet Theatre.

Kansas City-based AMC Entertainment and The Cordish Co. of Baltimore are reviving the theater’s role as a cornerstone of downtown entertainment. It is scheduled to reopen in early 2008, following a $25 million renovation.

The plan calls for two larger auditoriums seating roughly 300 people in each, and four smaller screening rooms with 50 to 100 seats. The main entrance and ticket booth will be under the signature dome. Developers hope to remove floors to reveal the full three-level interior of the rotunda.

The restaurant will occupy the former lobby of the old theater. The idea is to create a place where people can watch movies and discuss them.

Developers expect to have the building’s exterior completed as soon as possible so it complements the expected opening of the rest of the Power & Light District next summer.

Sounds pretty exciting (especially the three level interior of the rotunday part), now we have a set date to look forward to (two years from now).

That sucks that they are going to rename the building to mainstreet theater. I like the Empire name but w/e.