Boone Theater

The Boone theater, opened as The New Rialto Theater in 1924. Along with the Eblon, Lincoln and Gem Theaters, The New Rialto served as a vital core to the commercial and entertainment center created by the African-American community in Kansas City’s 18th and Vine District[1]. In 1929 it was renamed The Boone Theater in honor of John W. “Blind” Boone, a famous black child composer, pianist and prodigy from Missouri, who died in 1927. Boone was born during the middle of the Civil War in 1864 in Miami, Saline County, Missouri. He was most famously known to have overcome his extreme poverty, disability, and racism to become a nationally known composer and musician. Boone was blind almost since birth, yet created music using his knowledge of classical music, Negro spirituals, and the syncopated or “ragged” rhythms he heard in his everyday life. His music influenced many genres, especially Kansas City Jazz[2].

In the early 1940s, the building site was converted into a theater-restaurant and bar called the Scott Theater. The Scott mainly featured live performances but still showed movies on occasion. The Scott was home to music, drinks and food, and a theater where the Orpheum Circuit booked touring acts. The use of the building then changed again in the 1950s when the State of Missouri purchased the site and renovated it to house a National Guard Armory. It was home to an all black unit, the 242nd Engineering Battalion. Not much is known about the 242nd Engineers, other than it disbanded in 1960 when segregation ended in Missouri’s National Guard.  The building was thus referred to as the “Armory Building” in the community, and is still commonly known by that name[3].

In 1970 the theatre was sold yet again, this time to the Mutual Musicians Foundation, who had hoped to convert the theater into a jazz and cultural center, but because of lack of funding, the project failed to take off. Thankfully however, the Boone Theatre is currently a part of an ongoing restoration project of Kansas City’s 18th and Vine District, in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. They state that, “the Downtown Council of Kansas City took the lead and planned to find the right partners to restore the 45,000 square foot theatre with seating for 300, reviving another significant performing arts venue and culture organization to augment and solidify the heart of the district [4].

Works Cited

[1] Joe Vogel, “Boone Theatre in Kansas City, MO - Cinema Treasures,” accessed November 20, 2019, http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/57684.

 [2] Christine Montgomery and Mike Shaw, “John William ‘Blind’ Boone - Historic Missourians - The State Historical Society of Missouri,” accessed December 10, 2019, https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/historicmissourians/name/b/blindboone/.

 [3] kcjazzlark, “The Boone Theater...and New Rialto and Scotts and the Armory Building,” accessed November 20, 2019, http://www.kcjazzlark.com/2011/07/boone-theaterand-new-rialto-and-scotts.html.

 [4] “Boone Theatre | Exploring Our Town,” accessed November 20, 2019, https://www.arts.gov/exploring-our-town/boone-theatre.

Content Provided by

Alex Ayala, student at the University of Missouri Kansas City as part of Dr. Sandra Enriquez’s Urban History Class.