In many ways, this is a tale of two theaters that opened only one year apart, and the differing histories they have experienced. On the evening of October 28, 1927, Loew’s Midland Theater opened to 4,000 patrons and one of the longest runs for any Kansas City theater…ever! Not quite one year later, on October 9, 1928, the Plaza Theater opened to a somewhat smaller, but still grand set of patrons some 36 blocks directly south of the Midland.

As it happened, a momentous movie opening occurred in New York City on October 6, 1927, when “The Jazz Singer” debuted to rave reviews as Hollywood’s first “talkie.” Of course, “The Jazz Singer” was really a silent movie with sound sequences—songs by Al Jolson and a bit of spoken dialogue leading into the musical numbers. Nevertheless, the public immediately demanded more “talking” pictures.

Even though its own opening night was a few weeks hence, Loew’s Midland Theater was essentially complete by the time “The Jazz Singer” erupted half-way across the continent. Ultimately, there was nothing for it but to retrofit the grand movie palace for sound. Meanwhile, at the Country Club Plaza, entrepreneur and land developer Jesse Clyde Nichols, better known as “J. C.,” used the extra time before opening his movie extravaganza to accommodate sound pictures before it opened in October 1928.

In reality, both theaters featured grand organs to flood the auditoriums with music for silent films as well as featuring the finest sound reproduction available in that pioneering period. The slight advantage had to go to Edward Tanner’s Plaza Theater design however, because they could accommodate the needed accoustical components into the original design where the sound equipment at the Midland had to be installed on the walls of the auditorium.

The subsequent histories of the two theaters have varied widely. When the Midland closed as a perofrmance venue in the late 1950s and was converted to a performance bowling alley, it looked to be doomed to destruction along with most of the surrounding structures. Indeed , in the succeeding five decades most of its neighbors have in fact fallen to the wrecking ball. However, in June 2009, the Midland Theater survives as a live performance venue in Kansas City’s new Power and Light District.

Meanwhile, its not-so-near neighbor to the south survives, but not so’s you’d notice. The Plaza Theater is also more or less intact in its interior, but its lobby and interior hallways now are taken up as part of Restoration Hardware in the still-thriving shopping district. While the Plaza Theater has actually had a longer movie career than the Midland by some 40 years, it is now mothballed behind an upscale retailer with only its façade in place. Sic Transit Gloria. Thus passes fame.

Dr. Bill Worley, Instructor in History, MCC-Blue River