As a twin this originally was a Commonwealth House, Dickinson acquired it from Wallace Theatres a couple of years ago and then announced plans to build a new state of the art mega plex somewhere in the area, but that has never developed. Junction City, Kansas is home to a large army base, Ft. Riley and is close to Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, where Carmike has a 12 screen complex.
Junction City has a population of 20,100.
Does anyone know why the sign on the front of the building was changed. From pictures I have seen of this theater it originally had an upright sign and then was changed to a flat sign on the front. It seems that the upright was not there that long. Just curious! Thanks!
Was this originally a Dickinson Theatre? When I worked for them back in the 1970’s, Dickinson operated a twin in Quincy. Does anyone know if this would happen to be that theatre which would have been added onto at a later date?
I was at this drive in back in August of 2009 and it has been closed for some time. There were a lot of weeds growing on the lot. I did not walk through because the gates were still pad locked. It is my understanding the the current owners have a huge asking price for the drive in, but that information may also be in error.
At one time this venue was as neat as a pin. There were no weeds on the lot and a very well run establishment. A lot of theatre owners could take a lesson from the pride on display here, but unfortunately like so many of the theatres on this web site, I am fear full that the Kanopolis Drive In is now apart of our memories.
I worked in the district office for Mann which included this theatre. The theatre was located in the Westroads shopping center. Unfortunately someone in the Los Angeles office did not sign an exclusive lease at the time this theatre was built and AMC later went in the mall, literally around the corner and opened a six screen complex. When Dickinson purchased Manns' interests in the midwest they operated the Fox Westroads only for a short time before selling it to AMC.
The photo taken by Don Lewis is not the Mainstreet Theatre Building. I am not sure of the original use for this particular building, but sometime in the past it was sub divided and sold to two different owners. The Mainstreet theatre was located in the 100 block of west Main, the building in the picture is in the 100 block of east Main.
If the owner would get ahold of Shelby screens I am sure that they would be eager to take on this challenge. Shelby has probably on more than one occasion built screens that are larger than the one used at the Admiral and even though it is tough to find insurance coverage for a drive in screen having one constructed by Shelby makes it a little easier.
Whats going on with the Dickinson circuit anyway. They haven’t added any new theatres for some time. Their IMAX project in Wichita ,Oklahoma City and Springfield never materialized and more and more newspaper articles are showing up about the sad shape of their theaters due to lack of maintenance. Even to the point of getting the city commissions attention. When you cant use as many as two auditoriams because the sound doesn’t work thats sad! The Dickinson circuit once prided their theatres as luxury and now the ones that I have been in are dirty and dusty. I know I worked there in the late 70’s but something is definately wrong here!
“For some reason it seems once Lewis got out of the theatre business a lot of this theatres,to me, seem to go strickly X- rated.” (That would be an interesting study sometime to see if you are right.)
The theatres in Columbia Missouri, Topeka and Salina Kansas were all taken over by another chain and did quite well. The one in Wichita, Kansas eventually closed and was converted to retail.
I wish to complement Jeff Arellano on the excellent photography of the Beverly Center 13 that has been uploaded onto Cinema Tour. There are approximately 225 images on the site and I think that this a very polite reminder to all of us that we Do need to document theatres through the medium of photography. There is a calling here fellow cinema fans that we need to make a concentrated effort to document all aspects of a theatre, the booth included for preservation sake. We cannot control corporate Americas decisions to keep theatres open, however we can photograph them and utilizing sites such as this one and Cinema Tour preserve their existence! WIth showmanship a dying art and computer designed megaplexes insulting our intelligence we need to take the time and ask permission and then go to work. Again hats off to Jeff Arellano!
As a twin this originally was a Commonwealth House, Dickinson acquired it from Wallace Theatres a couple of years ago and then announced plans to build a new state of the art mega plex somewhere in the area, but that has never developed. Junction City, Kansas is home to a large army base, Ft. Riley and is close to Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, where Carmike has a 12 screen complex.
Junction City has a population of 20,100.
Just following comments. Thanks!
Just following comments. Thanks!
Renewing Link
Renewing Link.
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Does anyone know why the sign on the front of the building was changed. From pictures I have seen of this theater it originally had an upright sign and then was changed to a flat sign on the front. It seems that the upright was not there that long. Just curious! Thanks!
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Was this originally a Dickinson Theatre? When I worked for them back in the 1970’s, Dickinson operated a twin in Quincy. Does anyone know if this would happen to be that theatre which would have been added onto at a later date?
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I was at this drive in back in August of 2009 and it has been closed for some time. There were a lot of weeds growing on the lot. I did not walk through because the gates were still pad locked. It is my understanding the the current owners have a huge asking price for the drive in, but that information may also be in error.
At one time this venue was as neat as a pin. There were no weeds on the lot and a very well run establishment. A lot of theatre owners could take a lesson from the pride on display here, but unfortunately like so many of the theatres on this web site, I am fear full that the Kanopolis Drive In is now apart of our memories.
I worked in the district office for Mann which included this theatre. The theatre was located in the Westroads shopping center. Unfortunately someone in the Los Angeles office did not sign an exclusive lease at the time this theatre was built and AMC later went in the mall, literally around the corner and opened a six screen complex. When Dickinson purchased Manns' interests in the midwest they operated the Fox Westroads only for a short time before selling it to AMC.
The photo taken by Don Lewis is not the Mainstreet Theatre Building. I am not sure of the original use for this particular building, but sometime in the past it was sub divided and sold to two different owners. The Mainstreet theatre was located in the 100 block of west Main, the building in the picture is in the 100 block of east Main.
Restoring link. Thank You!
If the owner would get ahold of Shelby screens I am sure that they would be eager to take on this challenge. Shelby has probably on more than one occasion built screens that are larger than the one used at the Admiral and even though it is tough to find insurance coverage for a drive in screen having one constructed by Shelby makes it a little easier.
The auditorium design is boring and bland, wheres the creativity, the showmanship! Must have been computer generated.
Whats going on with the Dickinson circuit anyway. They haven’t added any new theatres for some time. Their IMAX project in Wichita ,Oklahoma City and Springfield never materialized and more and more newspaper articles are showing up about the sad shape of their theaters due to lack of maintenance. Even to the point of getting the city commissions attention. When you cant use as many as two auditoriams because the sound doesn’t work thats sad! The Dickinson circuit once prided their theatres as luxury and now the ones that I have been in are dirty and dusty. I know I worked there in the late 70’s but something is definately wrong here!
I once worked for the Mann chain and enjoy keeping up on what happened to their theatres. I am just adding the link.
I once worked for the Mann chain and enjoy keeping up on what happened to their theatres. I am just adding the link.
“For some reason it seems once Lewis got out of the theatre business a lot of this theatres,to me, seem to go strickly X- rated.” (That would be an interesting study sometime to see if you are right.)
The theatres in Columbia Missouri, Topeka and Salina Kansas were all taken over by another chain and did quite well. The one in Wichita, Kansas eventually closed and was converted to retail.
I wish to complement Jeff Arellano on the excellent photography of the Beverly Center 13 that has been uploaded onto Cinema Tour. There are approximately 225 images on the site and I think that this a very polite reminder to all of us that we Do need to document theatres through the medium of photography. There is a calling here fellow cinema fans that we need to make a concentrated effort to document all aspects of a theatre, the booth included for preservation sake. We cannot control corporate Americas decisions to keep theatres open, however we can photograph them and utilizing sites such as this one and Cinema Tour preserve their existence! WIth showmanship a dying art and computer designed megaplexes insulting our intelligence we need to take the time and ask permission and then go to work. Again hats off to Jeff Arellano!