Picher Theatre

1. 1. Cotter, manager of the Western Film Exchange in Kansas City, built the new Picher Theatre on what was Main Street in November of 1917. Cotter would also shoot silent films in the Eagle-Picher Mining and Smelting Company whose fortunes during World War I lead mining drove the incorporation of the city in 1918. The Picher Theatre began as a motion picture theatre but became a live theatre as the city saw its population double between 1918 and 1926 to around 15,000.

In 1919, fire to the nearby Main Street Theatre led to both theatre’s expansion and a brick façade to provide better fire protection. Also added were a women’s powder room, increased and new, more comfortable seating, as well as improved ventilation. The competing Pittsburg Theatre Circuit purchased the venue in 1921.

In 1923, the Picher Theatre closed for a refresh and a reduction of seat count to 1,200. Just prior to the onset of the Depression, Picher’s population dropped by half and Picher’s overbuilt theatre district was a victim. The Picher Theatre did not convert to sound film.

The theatre sold at a bankruptcy auction in 1933 for just $800. It was split into two properties. It was later bulldozed as the city’s fortunes crumbled as the mine operations began to fizzle while making the city uninhabitable. Virtually the entire city was bulldozed in 2010/1.

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