Sandra Theatre

The Sandra Theatre opened on July 23, 1939. A few months later a photo of its front appeared in the November 11 issue of Boxoffice. The theater was designed by one of Wichita’s leading architects of the period, Lorentz Schmidt, who was better known for designing many schools throughout Kansas. The Sandra was probably his only commercial theater design, though he undoubtedly had much practice with school auditoriums.

The Sandra Theatre was built for husband and wife T.H. and Merta Slothower, who operated it until 1942 and then leased it to Fox, according to and article about the Slothowers in Boxoffice of March 29, 1952. The April 1, 1950, issue of Boxoffice called this the Fox Sandra Theatre, and said that it was switching to an art film policy. It was seldom mentioned in Boxoffice after that, though the Slothowers were mentioned frequently, operating several theaters in the region into the 1970s.

Here is a photo of the Sandra.

Mr. and Mrs. T.H. Slothower’s Sandra Theatre launched July 23, 1939 with Barbara Hunt in “Wings of the Navy” supported by three selected shorts. Midwest Theatres took on the operation moving it to “move-over” status taking older product from the Orpheum or Miller theaters. The circuit closed it on February 3, 1954 citing an inability to properly convert to widescreen to show CinemaScope films. It closed with “The Greatest Show on Earth.” The local newspaper moved into the former theatre after some remodeling in 1954.