Apollo Theater
229 W. 6th Street,
Concordia,
KS
66901
229 W. 6th Street,
Concordia,
KS
66901
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Sigma Theater
Nearby Theaters
The Apollo Theater was built by 1979 to replace the Brown Grand when that palace became to expensive to operate. The Apollo Theater was in the next block east of the Brown Grand which is now used for legitmate purposes.
The Apollo Theater closed in August 2002 due to bankruptcy. However, community leaders were looking for ways to reopen and renovate the theater. It was demolished in 2005 and B&B Majestic Theatre now stands on the site.
Contributed by
Joel Weide
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Tour of Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas Theatres in 2004
From June 26 through July 1, 2004 the Theatre Historical Society of America will tour a number of theatres in Kansas City Missouri and surrounding areas, including theatres in Lamar, Joplin, Richmond, St. Joseph and Springfield, MO, as well as Miami, OK, and these cities in Kansas: Leavenworth, Kansas City, Emporia, El Dorado, Augusta, Wichita, Hutchinson, McPherson, Salina, Concordia, and Topeka. More information is contained on their web site: http://www.HistoricTheatres.org and special photos and information concerning the Kansas City theatres: UPTOWN and the MIDLAND is available on this temporary page of their site at: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~angell/thsa/fromarch.html A glossy brochure about this “Heart of America” Conclave is available from the Society’s headquarters listed on their homepage, via E-mail to the Ex. Director, or via snail mail. Membership in the Society is not required to attend the Conclave and tour the theatres, but fees do apply as detailed on their site. Bring your camera and lots of film, for it is usually difficult or impossible to enter these theatres for photos, and some of them will surely not be with us in the years to come.
CinemaTour lists the Apollo at 229 W. Sixth Street, which is now the site of B&B’s Majestic Theatre. The Apollo’s building was demolished in 2005 to make way for the new theater.
What I have not yet been able to discover is whether the Apollo was one of Concorida’s other old theaters reopened and renamed. It could have been the Strand, for which I’ve been unable to find an address. The Strand was in operation prior to 1948, and suffered a major fire in the spring of that year and had to be rebuilt. It was still in operation at least as late as 1951. The Apollo was open at least as early as 1979.
Concordia also had a house called the White Way Theatre, opened in 1914 and operating into the 1950s, but it was on Washington Street. There was also an early house called the Lyric, but I haven’t been able to find much about it. I’ve found even less about a theaater opened in 1916 as the Iris, and possibly later renamed the Isis, though that might have been a typo. There was also an early house called the Photo Play, gone by the mid-1920s.
A comment on a Concordia Facebook page by a former projectionist says that this house was built by Delmar Harris in the late 1940s as the Delharco Theatre, became the Strand in the early 1950s, closed for more than a decade and was reopened in 1968 as the Sigma Theatre. It probably became the Apollo in the 1970s.)
This doesn’t quite jibe with other information about the theaters in Concordia that I’ve found (for example the listing of a “Del Harco” Theatre in the 1930 FDY and the mention of the Strand in the minutes of a 1947 City Council meeting, plus the fact that the Strand might have burned in 1948– there is a photo of a fire at the Strand burning, but it is undated.) Still, I have no doubt that Sigma is definitely and aka for this house, and that Delharco and Strand are definite possibilities.
I did discover that the early Concordia movie house called the Lyric became the Iris in 1916, and that the Lyric was at 6th Street and Broadway. I’ve held off on submitting the Lyric/Iris, which was still in operation in 1929, as, given its location, there is some possibility that it was the same theater that eventually became the Apollo.
The 1917 map shows a theater two doors east of the Elks building on the corner. It was built sometime after 1911. The address is 229-231. My guess is the big auto-CAD lump replaced either that building or a 1940s replacement.
Joe, I just added a theater at 6th and Broadway. That can’t have become the Apollo, which is much closer to State, nearly 2 blocks away. The problem with the Lyric/Iris ID is that it was closed by 1917, and there’s nothing else on either the 1911 or 1917 maps that’s anywhere close to that intersection.
I found an old postcard (1970-ish) showing the Sigma, which seems to be called the Sigma I. Definitely an older theater. I can’t say whether it’s the original or a 1940s replacement. Very bland flat beige plaster facade and a drab little marquee.