Design
It was built by Marcus Loew, completed in 1927, at a cost of $4 million and is the largest historic theater within 250 miles of the city. The Midland was designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb of New York and the Boller Brothers of Kansas City, and Boaz-Kiel Construction of St. Louis erected the structure. The theatre, built in French and Italian Baroque, was representative of Lamb's work in the late 1920s.
The exterior of the theatre was constructed in a Renaissance Revival style in cream glazed terra cotta brick, adorned with engaged pilasters, winged figures, leaves, flowers, swags, volutes, urns, and arches. A four-story arched window rose above a copper and gold marquee that contained 3,600 light bulbs.
The theater is well known for its over 500,000 feet of gold leaf, five giant Czechoslovakian hand-cut crystal chandeliers, irreplaceable art objects and precious antiques, and spectacular wood and plaster work.
At the time the Loew's Midland opened, it was home to a Robert-Morgan theatre pipe organ. The organ was used at the theatre until after World War II, when larger screen sound movies eventually resulted in the end for stage shows and in-house organ music. The organ began to deteriorate from lack of use until it was purchased and removed in the 1960s by Robert Fray and placed in his home. After the organ changed hands and was moved across the country several more times, it was eventually purchased by local enthusiasts in 1984 and is now at home in the Kansas City Music Hall.
The Midland closed in January 1961, and then after some remodeling, it briefly reopened as an arena that served as the home for Kansas City's professional bowling team, the Kansas City Stars. The Stars were financially unsuccessful, and they left the Midland in December of the same year.
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