Plaza Theatre

Joe Vogel on April 4, 2012 at 9:50 am

The Plaza might be the theater mentioned in this item from the January 2, 1924, issue of The Film Daily: “Independence, Mo. — Work has begun on the new theater on Lexington St. A. E. Elliot is behind the project.”

Although it was published more than a year earlier, this item from the August 3, 1922, issue of Manufacturers Record also might be about the Plaza:

“Mo., Independence—Elliott Theater Corp., A. E. Elliott, Prest., Grand Ave., Kansas City, will erect $65,000 motion-picture theater; 2 stories and basement; 40x164 ft.; brick and terra cotta; stone trim; to seat 1200; R. E. Peden Co., Archt, 945 New York Life Bldg., Kansas City.”

There are no theaters on Lexington Avenue but the Plaza, and satellite views show its building to be about 40x164 feet.

Joe Vogel on October 2, 2012 at 12:27 am

According to a book about Independence which I cited on the Electric Theatre page, the Electric Theatre was at 215 N. Main Street from the 1910s into the 1940s. I’ve been unable to discover any definite AKAs for the Plaza, but if Electric was already in use for the house on Main Street, that wouldn’t have been one of them.

If the two items I cited in my April 4, 2012, comment on this page are indeed about the Plaza, then this house might have been known as the New Elliot Theatre when it opened. A. E. Elliot built the original Elliot Theatre in 1912, and rebuilt the house after it was destroyed by a fire in 1916. I’ve found references to a house called the New Elliot Theatre in the trade journals beginning in the mid-1920s. It seems very likely that the New Elliot became the Plaza. I’ve been unable to discover either the location or the fate of the theater Elliot built in 1916.