Varsity Theater
1125 Moro Street,
Manhattan,
KS
66502
1125 Moro Street,
Manhattan,
KS
66502
1 person
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Commonwealth Amusement Corp., Dickinson Theatres, First International Theatres
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Located in the college town on Manhattan, Kansas in Aggieville. Probably built in the late-1960’s and closed in the 1980’s. A small long narrow theater with old Brenkert reel to reel projectors. Operated by the Commonwealth Amusement Co., it played special midnight showings like “Rocky Horror Picture Show” for years. It was last operated by Dickinson Theatres.
Contributed by
D. W.
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
The Varsity opened on February 26, 1969, according to the March 17 issue of Boxoffice. The opening feature was “Romeo and Juliet.” Like most Commonwealth circuit theaters of the period, it was designed by Milton Costlow & Associates of Overland Park, Kansas.
CinemaTour gives the address of the Varsity Theatre as 1125 Moro Street. The structure on that lot is a typical old commercial building, so the theater was probably converted from retail space when it opened in 1969. The current use of the building appears to be offices for the publishers of a university-related sports magazine called Powercat Illustrated.
Reopening ad from February 26th, 1969
This is not to be confused with the Varsity theatre at 615 N. Manhattan Avenue that opened on August 26th, 1930 and renamed Sosna in 1936.
This theater was not demolished, merely dismantled. 1125 Moro Street is currently occupied by offices for Powercat Illustrated, a magazine about Kansas State athletics.
The aluminum false front seen in the vintage photo uploaded by aggieville_archives has been stripped off, but the building to the left with its distinctive transom consisting of of five rows of translucent glass blocks is still there, though the bottom two rows of blocks are covered by an awning reading “The Goose Aggieville” in the current Google street view.
Since Google has chosen to send us another unfixable dislocated street view, here’s the street view at Google Maps itself.
I was the projectionist at the Varsity during the mid-late 70’s. The theater was known for showing some “artsy” films of the era. I remember running the X-rated, full-length movie of Fritz the Cat. I left Manhattan in 1978 and I believe we were showing Saturday Night Fever at the time. The Exorcist played at the Varsity and caused a bit of a stir in Manhattan. During the late 60’s and up until I left Manhattan, I was a projectionist at various times at all the Manhattan Theaters (Wareham, Campus, Sky-Vue, Varsity, and Westloop twin.
Once operated by First International Theatres.
This is not demolished. The ugly sheet metal facade for the theater has been removed. The building first appears on the 1923 map, although it might be older since the south side of the street does not appear on the 1912 map. It was auto repair at least through 1947. It’s now the offices of a chamber of commerce type organization for Aggieville.