Mainstreet KC at the Power & Light District
1400 Main Street,
Kansas City,
MO
64105
1400 Main Street,
Kansas City,
MO
64105
14 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 121 comments
Yes, the new marquee is awesome! Here are a few more photos of the Main Street during renovation at my KC Theaters on Flickr. Hope you enjoy the other theaters too. I will continue to add new theaters as time allows.
View link
Here’s a photo I found of the marquee being installed:
View link
And another taken Saturday, A little blurry but all lit up:
View link
Drove by yesterday on I-70 and the vertical marquee is up, it looks nice, unusual to see this kind of marquee on theatres around here. There are also big red modern AMC signs visible from the highway.
I just drove by the theater about an hour or so ago and I didn’t see any AMC signage although I was driving and didn’t get a great look. I did see the support for the vertical marquee and the lights were on so I got a very quick look at the interior. I’m real excited to see it open.
KC Star had an article about the progress the other day. The Main Street, formerly the Empire will reopen in March. The large AMC signage on the building as well as one of the old fashioned blade marquees are now up. Six screens, all digital projection. I believe a restaurant is being bult next door. The KC Film Festival usually held at an independent cinema in the Westport district will move downtown to the Main Street. Originally a single screen theatre that played many 70 MM and Cinerama reserved seat engagments in the 60’s.
I believe the first reserved seat show here when it was the Empire was Otto Preminger’s EXODUS. The theatre converted to 2 strip Cinerama for THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM and HOW THE WEST WAS WON. For IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD regular 70MM
equipment was installed. In the mid 70’s the theatre balcony was cut up into several smaller auditoriums.
Glad the theatre is coming back! Downtown needs a first class cinema to go along with our Power and Light District, Sprint Center and refusbished Music Hall and Midland (once the Loew’s Theatre) live venues.
Construction is ongoing. The reopening date has been changed to summer of 2009.
Does anyone have any recent information on the progress of the AMC Mainstreet?
I saw many movies at the empire in 70s and early 80s .I remember one huge fancy auditorium and three smaller less detailed ones either upstairs or down, no wall between the main auditorium. it would be a shame to make it like the new multiplexes. I sincerely hope the original grandeur can be preserved or at least recreated.
The most recent word I’ve heard is that the AMC Mainstreet (formerly the Empire) is set to reopen for film screenings in December, 2008.
Here’s another photo I took on August 16. It doesn’t look like they’ve progressed very much.
View link
Here’s a photo of the Empire I took last week. It looks like things are going pretty good with the restoration.
View link
The Empire was a top movie palace longer than it was a vaudeville theatre. Most vaudeville theatres were converted to movie palaces. I noticed that I can’t get a straight answer about the renovation of the Empire Auditorium. I will assume the worst and hopefully I will be surprised. Remember there are not that many movie palaces left to be restored so we should treasure what we have left. The Greatest Geneartion spent many hours in these beautiful theatres to escsape the Depression and help get them through WW11. We will never see there likes ever again. These theatres also represent the heyday of Hollywood and when the movie stars were American Royalty. The preservation of these movie palaces are just as important as the preservation of film. Three of the most successful theatres in the United States are former movie palaces the Fox in Detroit,Fox in St. Louis and the Fox in Atlanta. These theatres are a point of pride in there respective cities. The Midland should have been a huge success story for Kansas City but has not been booked properly under the ownership of AMC so now its going to be a major nightclub/performance space relegated to second place behind the new Performing Arts Center. The Midland was not just any movie palace it was considerered by many inlcuding Maruus Loew himself to be one of the finest ever built. I hope I am proved wrong and both the Empire and the Midland will surprise me.brucec
The Empire was at one time a four-plex theater with screening spaces carved out of additional footage in what was formerly the playroom, lounge area, the upper mezzanine lobby, and the balcony. That with the main auditorium.
There is also additional space in the basement where there were cages for animals and a seal tank, as well as the dressing rooms. There is a also a rather large space behind the original staging area. It was a vaudeville theater originally, not a movie theater.
In addition, a new building. that is reportedly going to be attached, is being constructed to the west of the theater building on a vacant block that takes up half the block.
Apparently, whatever is being done is passing muster with the National Trust, who has already approved the restoration plan since historic tax credits are being used.
Howard they are spending 25 Million on the Empire which is new construction and just not adding additional screens next door to there main theatre as was done with the Grand Lake, Odeon and Rex.I hope I am surprised and part of the main auditorium will be restored. Remember the New Amsterdam in NYC was also in total ruins before it was restored. Plaster can be restored but there has to be a will to restore the theatre. I have read that this will be a specialty theatre and a flagship for AMC who is not known for running specialty theatres.I am glad that the facade will be saved and a new marquee will be added.brucec
I seem to recall reading that the auditorium was in total ruins? It does seem likely this will complete that process. Fortunately, Kansas City has or is restoring at least one movie palace, regardless of whatever is being done to this one.
The Grand Lake added 3 screens in Oakland. London’s Odeon Leicester Square has tiny additional auditoriums which aren’t so relevant to this example. Movies really move over to the twin Odeon West End (until that falls). The last I read the Grand Rex in Paris was in danger because redo plans for the additional screens, etc weren’t being approved.
Im still in doubt about the interior restoration of the Empire how are they saving the historic Auditorium if six state of the art theatres will be in that space. I have seen this done many times where they say this is a restoration, please give more details on the auditorium, is it being chopped up or is it being restored. The article seems to dance around this issue. Whats the point of building six screens today when almost all theatre construction is at least 14 screens. A better idea would have been to restore the main house and add 14 screens next to it. The Rex in Paris, Arclight in Hollywood and the Odeon in London added screens on to there main house which would have been a nice way to go. The historic Empire could have been more flexible with film and concerts in the main historic auditorium. The need to build another performing arts facility when you have two large capacity historic theatres makes no sense.Look at St Louis they have both the restored Fox and St Louis theatres one for Broadway shows and concerts and the other for Symphony. Look at Cleveland with the restored Allen,State,Ohio,Palace and Hannah theatres which are a huge success story. I feel you should use and restore your historic theatres first and if demand dictates then build a new Performing Arts Center. San Francisco could have saved there Fox Theatre for one Million back in 1963 and then built Davies Symphony Hall which cost 74 Million and has had to correct sound problems a number of times.The City to this day still mourns the loss of the Fox.Please give more details on the Empire is it a restoration or a renovation where the theatre Auditorium no longer exists.brucec
Quote from recent KC STAR article:
“In a related development, Reed Cordish said good progress is being made on renovating the historic Mainstreet Theater, more recently called the Empire Theater, into a six-screen digital movie complex. That project, which will include a two-level restaurant and dessert bar, is part of the joint venture between Cordish and AMC.
“We’re under heavy construction, and full historic approvals have been received,†he said.
Cordish said the Midland is expected to reopen in early spring and the Mainstreet a couple of months later."
View link
The Empire is being restored. It was landmarked and placed on the National Register of Historic Places last February, and will be using historic tax credits to help finance the restoration. Thus, National Trust guidelines must be followed to maintain the historic ambiance and design of the theater. The marquee has to be constructed on the roof so as not to disturb the facade. Many missing elements will simply be recreated from the original plans. Moldings were taken.
Kansas City has a long history of restoring grand old buildings like Union Station, which brought in artisans from Europe who worked for the Vatican and Royal family to restore Windsor Castle.
Blake Cordish made a public commitment to restore the theater and not drastically change the theater building itself.
The Midland Theater is not going to have many changes at all. The renovation there is mostly sprucing up (painting, new carpets, plumbing, modern and more-efficient cooling and heating. The stage is being expanded into the ample back staging area that has gone unused. The Midland has a large lobby, and some old retail space, for the nightclub and restaurant portion of the reconfiguration. The kitchen will most likely go into the large basement.
Kansas City has more theatrical spaces per capita than most large cities. The new Performing Arts Center spaces are not meant to drastically affect the Midland and Mainstreet (Empire) Theater. The Mainstreet/Empire hasn’t been a performance space for more than 57 years anyway. It was a movie theater that has been closed for 22 years. The Midland is going to get more public use after the renovation than it did in the last decade before it. A professional booking company is overtaking the operations portion.
It sounds like the Emprie theatre is gone and they are going to save the facade,dome and lobby and the theares will be six state of the art theatres.Im sad the city didn’t make more of an effort to restore the Empire and Midland and use them as there Performing Art theatres and not build a new Performing Arts Center and AMC could have built a megaplex with 14-16 screens in the district. Cleveland and Chicago have done a better job saving there historic theatres within the revival of an entertainment distiict. I will say the entire project will give a major boost to Downtown Kansas City and will be successful but wished they had made better use of there historic theatres.brucec
I’m reposting the photos since some of the earlier links have gone dead.
A rendering looking down 14th Street through the Power & Light District towards the restored MainStreet Theater.
Before: A recent photo of the former Empire Theater being tranformed into the new AMC MainStreet Theater.
After: A rendering of the exterior of the restored MainStreet Theater.
A rendering looking south down Main Street past the H&R Block tower (left) towards the marquee of the MainStreet Theater.
A photo looking south along Main Street showing locations of the MainStreet and Midland Theaters.
An aerial overview rendering of the Power & Light District with various buildings identified.
Aerial photos of construction activity of the Power & Light District with various buildings identified.
During the recent work on the exterior of the theater, one could see some of the underlying infastructure. The “guts” of the building. It was well-constructed and a solid building. This is probably the reason it endured such deterioration for so long and can still be salvaged.
No. There are going to be residential apartments, and some retail, constructed on the vacant parcels surrounding the Empire. The Empire is part of the much larger Power & Light entertainment district. The nearby Midland Theater, a block north, is also being renovated. A new theater venue, the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, has been constructed across the street to the northeast. The new Sprint Center arena, and the collegiate basketball Hall of Fame, is two blocks away. The new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is being constructed three blocks to the southwest. A new ballroom has been added to the convention center one block from the Empire. An outdoor public amphitheater is being constructed on a plaza nearby with nightclubs and restaurants surrounding it. A new 1000-room convention hotel is being discussed now, but no location has been set. The developer of Power & Light, the Cordish Co., is planning to construct another 200-room W Hotel a block away. The restored Empire is one of the anchor projects in the district. Two nearby historic hotels, the Aladdin and the President, have been restored and reopened recently.
In the Newly renovated Main Street Theathre I noticed there is a taller building behind the movie theathre. Is that a new hotel behind it? What is it?
Here’s a picture of the marquee from 1975. It’s from the book The Front Row: Missouri’s Grand Theaters by Mary Bagley.
View link
The Empire had four screens as early as 1975, as this newspaper ad shows.
View link
I saw Superman The Movie there in 1978 and I know it had four screens, three upstairs and the main auditorium on the main floor as I recall. Here’s the ad for Superman’s release.
View link
I can’t wait to see the new theater when AMC reopens it.