A New Day For The Old Englewood
A newly-formed Missouri nonprofit group, Friends of Englewood Theater, is in the process of acquiring the former theater at 10917 E. Winner Road in Independence.
The group is led by Brent Schondelmeyer, a former president of the Jackson County Historical Society and author of this month’s E-Journal.
The movie theater operated for decades, and in more recent years served as a country-western music venue. But it has been closed for almost 20 years. The nonprofit is also purchasing the former Ben Franklin store that stands adjacent to the theater.
Both properties are being acquired from the estate of Wade Williams III, who passed away in 2023.
Williams owned several Kansas City area movie theaters and was well known in the film industry for owning the rights to an extensive collection of vintage sci-fi films.
The pending acquisition is the latest development in the Englewood Arts District, where community residents are today supporting an array of shops, galleries and restaurants located about two miles southwest of Independence Square. In his article, Schondelmeyer details how Independence annexed the Englewood neighborhood in the late 1940s and how community opinion was divided about that idea at the time.
To learn more about the nonprofit, its plan to acquire the buildings and how to donate to its redevelopment efforts, go to englewoodtheater.org.
BY BRENT SCHONDELMEYER
July “started out hot as a firecracker” but the heat did little to cool the excitement and enthusiasm for the gala opening of the new Englewood Theater on July 7, 1949.
This was a major project undertaken by the “aggressive citizens” of Englewood which only the prior year had been annexed into the City of Independence.
The opening was a grand event - an afternoon open house followed by an evening showing of the feature film “Colorado Territory” with Joel McCrea and Virginia Mayo.
“The community is complimented by the fact that the investors have such confidence in its future,” remarked Independence mayor Roger T. Sermon during a brief ceremony marking the occasion.
And it was quite a night.
Police officers who directed traffic estimated that 4,000 people showed up.
Those attending received a “suede-covered souvenir program” that included a reprint of the June 25, 1949 cover of Boxoffice magazine “I Am A Movie Fan” - an “anonymous” homage to the movie industry.
“I Am A Movie Fan” program; a reprint of the June 25, 1949 article.
The tribute begins:
“I have traveled everywhere. Samarkand and the Barbary Coast. On the camel trails of the Sahara and through the Khyber Pass. I have followed the seaways and the airways to familiar places and to the strange ports of call all around the world. I am a 20th century Marco Polo.
“I am a movie fan.”
A surprise of the evening was the appearance of Ted Malone, a Kansas City radio personality best known for his popular CBS radio show “Between Bookends.”
The Theater
The Englewood Theater was large - 1,000 seats, modern and architecturally distinctive.
Seating in the Englewood Theater, 1949. Photo courtesy of Jackson County Historical Society. Photo No. PHS 22726 C.
“We have done everything in our power to make this the most luxurious motion picture in these parts,” the owners shared in an ad announcing the “gala opening” lauding features of the the new theater:
“Over a thousand cool, comfortable seats have been especially placed for perfect vision by every patron. Carpeting is thick and provides a quiet atmosphere. The entire building is cooled by refrigeration.”
To underscore the latter point, the ad included an image of a polar bear immersed in water.
They lauded the theater’s projection system as the movie equipment.
“We believe that the clarity and brilliance of the picture that hits the screen is the real test of a fine theater.”
The reported cost was in excess of $150,000 - $1.9 million in current dollars.
The building owner was Englewood Enterprises; the theater operator Associated Theatres secured a 10-year lease.
Kansas City architect Luther Orville Willis designed the theater in the Modern Movement International Style.
A 2000 historic resources survey stated the theater would be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places because of its architectural significance. Currently the theater is not listed.
Here’s a 1949 description of the new theater in the trade publication Boxoffice:
“Modern in design, the front of the new theatre features a streamlined marquee which is topped by the word Englewood in neon letters. The modern theme is emphasized in interior decoration. Indirect cold cathode lighting has been employed to enhance red, chartreuse and other colors in draperies, carpeting and other appointments.”
The theater included a 16-seat “cry room” for parents and their babies.
The new theater also included “a refreshment bar.” Selling concessions was an important source of revenue for theater operators. A new movie was shown each week in the single-screen theater.
It would be years before the multi-screen movie would be developed. Its origins are a Kansas City story when Stanley Durwood in 1963 opened side-by-side movie screens in the Parkway Twin Theatre located in the Ward Parkway shopping center..
His small movie house chain came to dominate the United States movie theater business American Multi-Cinema or AMC. The company went public in 1983 and currently operates over 900 theaters with 10,000 screens around the world
On Sunday, after the gala opening the Englewood Theater featured “Portrait of Jennie” with Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, and Ethel Barrymore. Then on Friday and Saturday there was a two-day showing of “Champion” with Kirk Douglas and Marilyn Maxwell. Then on Sunday the new movie was “The Red Pony” with Myrna Loy and Robert Mitchum.
The building included some office space which was originally occupied by an osteopath, an optometrist and a dentist.
The Englewood businesses, in a full page ad, welcomed the “swank, new” theater touting: “As a shopping and entertainment center, ENGLEWOOD PLAZA ranks in first place among community shopping centers.”
The Englewood was the latest cinema owned and operated by Associated Theatres. Its other local theaters included the Granada (325 W. Maple), the Maywood (10317 W. Truman Rd.) and the Plaza (119 W. Lexington). The group, at the time, operated five theaters, according to trade publications.
The Granada served as the offices for Associated Theatres. That theater opened in 1932 and operated until 1952.
One other local theater was by the Byam located at 10223 Independence Ave. in the Fairmount neighborhood.
The Englewood Theater opened during the “Golden Age” of cinema when movies were a major form of entertainment.
Average weekly movie attendance was over 70 million in the United States in 1949; less than the post-World War II peak of 90 million each year between 1946 and 1948.
Television was in its infancy. In 1947, there were 14,000 television sets in the US, but exploded to five million sets just three years later.
“Together, the radio and the movies during the first half of the twentieth century assumed the role of the dominant shapers of mass culture, providing Americans of all classes with similar information, ideas, and interests,” historic preservationist Sally Schwenk, who grew up in Englewood, noted in an historic survey of Iowa movie theaters.
Annexation
Annexation approval.
The Englewood Theater was the first major building project following the annexation of Englewood and other neighborhoods in January 1948.
The annexation literally changed Independence.
The annexation doubled the size and population of Independence making the city the state’s fifth largest city - a fact that has continued to the present.
The annexation vote was 2,059 in favor of annexation to 1,314. It lost in only 4 of 23 precincts within Independence.
Annexation was favored by Independence Mayor Roger T. Sermon, a Democrat who controlled a local machine, but faced opposition from the areas to be annexed and the local Republican party.
“There is no bitterness on our part toward those who opposed the proposition and we hope they have none toward us,” Sermon told the Kansas City Times after the election results. “The administration will move rapidly to provide municipal facilities to the newly acquired areas, first on a temporary basis and later on a permanent basis.”
W.H. Seay, an opponent, shared his chagrin but acceptance of the outcome: “It was their legal right to make the decision, though we still think we should have had a voice in the election,” he was quoted as saying in the Inter-City News, a community-minded newspaper that focused on the unincorporated neighborhoods and business districts west of Independence.
Residents in the annexed area had conducted an informal election on the annexation question. Ballots were accepted over a 10-day period. The outcome, which had no legal bearing on the annexation, was: 2,554 against and 1,048 for the annexation.
Opponents in the run up to the election had characterized the vote as “forcible annexation,” given residents in the proposed annexation areas could not vote on the question.
Many of the annexed neighborhoods were loosely affiliated through the Greater Inter-City Association which took its name as the unincorporated area between Kansas City and Independence.
The Englewood Theater opened in 1949 with a showing of the new film “Colorado Territory.” Photo courtesy of Jackson County Historical Society. Photo No. PHS 22726 A.
The area even had its own newspaper The Inter-City News - published from 1931 to 1976.
“We want to thank the residents of Independence who responded to our appeals,” said W.B. Seay, president of the Greater Inter-City Association. “We have no bitterness toward the citizens of Independence. It was their decision to make, even though we feel we should have had a voice in the election.”
In 1946 Inter-city residents petitioned to be annexed by Independence, concerned that the area might be annexed by Kansas City.
The Inter-City News offered this commentary - “Is the Cow Really Gone?” in its Nov., 21 1947 edition:
“Annexation seems to be the question of the day. Kansas City is and has been annexing; Sugar Creek tried it and now Independence is stepping out and picking up a mighty sweet sugarloaf out of the Inter-City district.”
The annexation area included the Beverly Hills and Golden Acres subdivisions, Englewood, Maywood and other areas, but specifically left out Fairmont because of strong opposition to annexation.
The Kansas City Star the week after the election had a lengthy Sunday story about Independence recounting its early history to the present with the headline: “Independence 121 Years Old, Develops Growing Pain, and Grows.”
The article started with an analogy.
In 1954 the Englewood theater hosted a promotional showing of the new film, “The Long, Long Trailer,” starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.” Photo courtesy of Jackson County Historical Society. Photo No. PHS 22726 B.
“Annexation of Intercity settlements by Independence is a miracle of city growth. It is as if an oak tree, which has been growing slowly for 120 years, doubled its height between sunrise and sunset in a single day.”
Just a few months after the annexation, construction of the new Englewood Theater had begun. Plans were not contingent on the annexation.
“I have waited two years to see this night,” Homer Vaughn, president of Englewood Enterprises commented during the theater opening.
Vaughn was scheduled to speak on the night of the opening program. He told the Inter-City News his comments would be four words: “We’re glad it's done.”
The energy and enthusiasm did not go without comment.
“Independence acquired Englewood in the recent annexation of territory,” Frank Rucker, wrote in The Examiner on July 8, 1949. “It recognizes the valuable contributions to civic betterment made by the people of this district. It will follow with interest, pride and profit the plans and movements of this group of aggressive citizens.”
Brent Schondelmeyer is past president of the Jackson County Historical Society and president of Friends of Englewood Theater which is acquiring the Englewood Theater and the adjacent Ben Franklin retail store.
If you have stories, photos or memories of the Englewood Theater or the Ben Franklin store please share them by visiting www.englewoodtheater.org/stories
Sources
The Independence Examiner
BoxOffice
City Directories
Historical Statistics of the United States
Kansas City Star
Cultural Resource Survey: Lexington-Winner Road-Englewood Neighborhoods (2000)
Historic Movie Theaters of Iowa (1992)