Kansas City Public Library: Have You Seen A Ghost At The Midland?

Press release from the Kansas City Public Library:

November 3, 2021

A good ghost story is a treat any time. But especially around Halloween.

This week, “What’s Your KCQ?” has one to share, thanks to a reader who asks, “Is it true that the beautiful Midland Theatre downtown is haunted?”

Well, whether it’s spooked up or not, this classic movie palace looks like it should be.

Originally named the Loew’s Midland, the 3,200-seat theatre is still a feast for the senses. Dark wood, statuary and chandeliers, elegant staircases and an ornate ceiling.

When it opened in 1927, silent movies and vaudeville shows were on the marquee. These days, concerts and special events keep crowds coming to what is now officially called the Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland.

Sammy Jo Gibson, the theatre’s marketing manager, says, yes, people have noticed strange phenomena inside the hall.

In fact, the resident ghost even has a name: Frank. And he has a truly tragic origin story.

On the night of Jan. 11, 1932, an explosion rocked the young theatre. The next day, the Kansas City Times reported that Frank Alexander, “a 25-year-old Negro janitor,” had been cleaning up in the balcony just minutes after the end of the show.

The article says Alexander found something beneath a seat that he thought was “trash or a package left by someone.” He was carrying it downstairs when the dynamite inside it exploded. Alexander was killed, and the lobby--which had just emptied out--suffered significant damage.

You can still see small indentations from the blast on the wall along the north staircase.

But why attack a movie house?

The answer, amazingly enough, was feuding projectionists. In the 1930s, two different labor unions handled the business of playing films on Kansas City screens.

For months, there had been incidents, threats and even small explosives detonated at theatres around town. The Midland blast, intended to intimidate, turned deadlier than planned.

The three men responsible for Alexander’s death, two who built the bomb and one who planted it, were quickly apprehended and sentenced to life in prison.

Since then, sightings of a solemn, solitary figure have occurred most often in or near the men’s room on The Midland’s loge level.

Katie Schillare, the theatre’s director of special events, recalls a time when a guest at a wedding was startled by a man in clothing he described as “dated and disheveled.” When he looked again, the man was gone. Security was summoned, but they couldn’t find anyone matching that description.

This press release was produced by the Kansas City Public Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.