A fascinating conversation with Jeffrey Calkins, one of the owners of the historic Aztec Theater in Shawnee, whose near century-long history and recent renovation have been a major part of the lively revitilization of the downtown area. A great personal and business story!
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Danny Clinkscale Reasonably irreverent podcast, insightful and
witty commentary, probing interviews and detours from the beaten path.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to Kansas City Profiles. And it's a real pleasure
to bring you a real treasure of Shawnee. Shawnee is
where I live. In about two miles from where I
live is the Aztec Theater. It has gone through a
crazy restoration, a wonderful restoration as part of the thriving
downtown scene in Shawnee. The theater was opened in nineteen
(00:37):
twenty seven and through the years it's been active as
a movie theater, it's been dormant, it's been storage space,
and then in the twenty teens it started to have
the idea of brewing about restoration of the theater as
part of the restoration of the downtown area. And it's
a pleasure to talk about that with Jeffrey Hawkins. He
(00:58):
and his family were part of the Cockins electrical supply
business started by his grandfather and his father, and he
worked there through the years with his brother and his sister,
and eventually the idea percolated and came around in the
late twenty teens to restore the historic Aztec Theater, which
had been pretty much dormant since nineteen seventy four as
(01:19):
a theater and had really been just used as storage
space and the like. And slowly but surely, weaving around
and through COVID, it has changed from the idea being
mainly as a place to show movies to mainly a
place to have concerts, many tribute bands and cover bands
and just great bands in the music scene. Sold out
(01:41):
now for twenty twenty five as far as the bookings
her concerned and Jeffrey and his family. He lost his
brother Chris, who actually ran the business solely for the
first few years, starting in twenty twenty. It actually opened
in late twenty twenty, right at the till end parts
of the COVID run, which was so devastating to so
(02:02):
many businesses, but they.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Fought through that.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Chris tragically passed away in twenty twenty three, and that's
when Jeffrey more full time took care of the business
along with his sister and other partner Bruce Young, and
it has turned into a thriving enterprise. It's really lovely
inside a couple hundred seats. I also have table seating
now on a dance floor and Fridays and Saturdays are
(02:26):
superactive there. Thursday, Friday, Saturday in downtown Shawnee is crazy
and a big part of it has been Jeffrey Hawkins
and the Aztec Theater, a historic theater from nineteen twenty
seven to this day of almost one hundred years of
it and a really cool story. It's a cool story
of business development of Shawnee and of entrepreneurship. It's a
(02:50):
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(06:38):
Jeffrey are born and raised in Shawnee, still around here
and contributing the community. And that's what we'll get into
eventually with the great Aztech Theater. But tell me about
growing up a Shawnee kid. What it was like when
it was like in Shawnee back in the day.
Speaker 6 (06:53):
Oh okay, Yeah, I grew up a fifty second bond
there in Shawnee, you know, regular suburban neighborhood, went to
Blue Jacket Grade School, walked there then uh, then moved
on to Hocker Grove Junior High and then uh shawn
(07:14):
Mission Northwest is where I went to high school. Like
I say, regular suburban neighborhood. A brother and a sister
that were four and five years older than me, So
you know, we didn't hang out much, but I had
lots of friends in the neighborhood that were around my
age that we still hang out with.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
You know, I still see periodically.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
Friends from junior high and high school. My best friend Rob,
but we we actually met in junior high. But we
still hang out, hanging out quite a bit and played
chess every week still. So always always been around the
Shawnee area, other than when I went to school in Lawrence,
(07:56):
but moved up there for for to go to college
and then moved back after I was done, and then
I have lived.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Here ever since.
Speaker 6 (08:05):
I worked at the our family business that my grandfather started,
Calkin's Electric Supply. He started it in nineteen forty six,
and each of us kids worked there in some capacity
as we grew up. It wasn't my lifelong goal to
be there forever, but after getting out of college and
(08:25):
not really finding anything in particular that I liked, I
ended up going back and working full time at the
at Calkin's Electric Supply there where I worked for a
little over thirty years.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
So, you know, when I was kid, Shawnee was.
Speaker 6 (08:41):
I think, like what I would have considered most any
small town.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
We you know, no cell phones, no pagers.
Speaker 6 (08:49):
So we were on weekends and summers, we were you know,
as kids were free to kind of roam around and
do whatever we wanted to during the day. We just
had to be back home at night. So you know,
we'd ride our by down to downtown Shawnee clear up
to you know, Shawnee Parkway. There used to be a
little minture golf course up there. We go TG and
Y or Taco Bell and periodically go to you know,
(09:12):
the theater, go to the go to the Aztec Theater
there and downtown Shawnee and some of.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
The other places around. That was just kind of our
our our way.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
We just hung out of each other's houses and and made.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Our way around Shawnee whenever we could.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Eventually went to KU, as you mentioned, And what were
you thinking about at that point in time? You know,
eventually obviously you'd go into the family business. We'll get
into that, but what what kind of things were you
thinking about at that point in time?
Speaker 6 (09:44):
Really at that time, I was ever since I was
in seventh grade, I was really interested in architecture.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
And from that, you know, from seventh grade on.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
I focused a lot of my uh, a lot of
my artwork, and a lot of my skills focused on
math and just happened to be something that I was
good at at the time, and so kind of figured
I would pursue a career in engineering. And since architecture,
you know, was my what I enjoyed, what I drew
(10:18):
and took some architecture and drafting classes in high school.
I when I headed a KU, I had it in
my head that I was going to study architectural engineering,
and within one semester realized that is not what I
wanted to do the rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
So that's hard, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah. Yeah, and I love the math.
Speaker 6 (10:38):
I you know, I really enjoyed the math part of it,
but for some reason the engineering part of it. I
think it was that it was more of an engineering
part rather than a design part, and I just lost
interest in it and focused. I changed my focus to psychology.
I'd taken a psychology class in in high school.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
And really interested me.
Speaker 6 (11:04):
So I switched my major over and and switched over
to psychology and went ahead and focused on that, and
then ended up getting a minor in mathematics since I
had so many math classes. Not a lot of math
classes needed for a psychology degree. But but yeah, had
really didn't have any intention on going back and working
(11:27):
at the family business other than maybe part time or
after I get out of college. But that's you know,
that's where my path led, and I was happy to
do it because there again I got to work with
with my family, with my brother and my sister and
my dad and and at the time my uncle and
(11:48):
my cousin as well too.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
So yeah, I mean wasn't necessarily the path I had.
Speaker 6 (11:53):
I really had expected but but I enjoyed my time there,
that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
We enjoyed running the business there.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
Or so what is it?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
What is it like to be part of a iconic
family business that's around for you know, decades in a community.
What are the you know, maybe pros and com I
mean obviously occasionally somebody is not going to be happy
or what you know.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
Yeah, so what's it? What's it like?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Well, being in family business.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
One of the things that my dad required us to
do as kids was we had to have a regular job,
you know, outside the company before coming into work for
the for the family business.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Which was a good idea because.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
You get an idea of how people are going to
treat you and you know, in reality compared to what
you're going to be treated like as family. And you know,
like I say, the reality of it is being treated
as family. Uh, sometimes you feel and I've had I've
had members of my family that have worked for us
in past say, you know, you feel like you're held
(12:56):
to a little bit higher standard just because because of
the family name, which when you first get there, that's
kind of hard to that's kind of hard to swallow.
You feel like you get picked on a little bit.
But the reality is having a job outside of there,
you know, things have to get done, you know, nothing
that's nothing personal. And the good thing is once you
(13:18):
leave work, personal and family is something totally different. You
get the advantage of being being able to work with family.
You know, my brother and sister and I work together
for a long time, and you know, it's it's not
like we're great friends and all that. We were very
(13:39):
good friends, but we're still brothers and sisters. So there's still, uh,
there's still that aspect of it with a little bit
of of a difference of opinions on things, I'll put
it that way, let's say so. But yeah, but great
experience all all the way around.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
You know, not for everybody. I can tell you that.
Speaker 6 (14:02):
I know some people don't can't get along with their
family enough to work with them. They get along with
them enough to be related to them. That's about it.
But you know, it was it was a unique experience.
I will tell you that. I say it's unique. I
think there's a lot of people that go through that.
But for me, you know, I enjoyed it obviously enough
(14:22):
so that you know, I wanted to do it again
even after that so yeah, it's a different kind of
experience for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Well, obviously as time goes on, you go into the
rhythm of life and family and all that other stuff
and the business. At what point in time did maybe
the germination of what would eventually be your involvement in
the downtown Shawnee area and the theater start to germinate
a bit?
Speaker 6 (14:51):
So in twenty thirteen, my brother retired from the electrical
supply and.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Wanted to do some other things.
Speaker 6 (15:01):
My dad had had retired in ninety nine two thousand,
which is when my brother and sister and I took over.
My brother was ready to move on and do something else,
so he kind of went on to his own thing.
My sister and I ran the company. We had a
few other family members come in, we had some other employees.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
But the.
Speaker 6 (15:21):
Early on, so even when he was involved with the company,
we were working with downtown Shawnee and Chris even more
so because he was part of like the Downtown Shawnee Partnership,
which is a group of the downtown business owners.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
He was part of that.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
He was heavily involved, as I was a little bit
later in like the car show that we put on
downtown to kind of bring some more business downtown because
it was it was downtown Shawnee.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Was a place that could thrive.
Speaker 6 (15:57):
But just wasn't yet right. And uh, some businesses kind
of be there. There's some long there were some long
standing businesses from you know, Hartman Hardware and Shawnee Automotive
was down there and Donovan's and lots of lots of
(16:18):
businesses that have been there for quite a.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
While, and but not a real focus.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
You're not a lot of people down there during the
weekend on the weekend. So when Shawnee decided to do
the beautification project, which they called the Nieman Now Project,
they took all the electrical holes.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Down off of off of Nieman all the way.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
From I think fifty fifth clear down to Seawan Mission Parkway,
repaved the road, put a biking path, all those things.
You know, we were pretty excited about that, really in
a focus on downtown.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
And during that time, somebody had.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
Supposedly it was an article in this Cansdy Star that
somebody had purchased the building, the Aztec Theater building. At
the time, my brother knew the owner and knew it
would have taken He'd known him for years and knew
it would have taken something special for him to sell that.
And so my brother called called Wade and said, you know,
(17:32):
congratulated him on the on the sale and said, hey,
I saw it in the paper and Wade said, yeah,
I saw that too, but unfortunately that hasn't come to fruition.
So and in the conversation with the fact that it
hadn't really sold, Wade told Chris, he said, you should
buy that. And really, with my brother being retired and
(17:53):
with his you know, his heart really truly being in
downtown Shawnee, He's like, oh, this would be great. You know,
if it's something that we could do, w'd be great.
And that's really where that whole idea started. I mean,
something very simple with you know, somebody else having I
having idea, not really following through with it. And then
(18:14):
my brother was in the you know, knew the right
people and uh had the opportunity and he we were
actually at one of the Nieman Now Project meetings down
at City Hall looking at some of the plans and stuff,
how it was, how it was moving forward, and he
asked me, he said, hey, I I I talked to
him and and he wants to UH sell us the theater.
(18:38):
Are you interested in going in with me? And I
I was wholeheartedly.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
I was in, you know.
Speaker 6 (18:44):
So that's that's where the the shift came to the theater.
The biggest thing at that point was, you know, was
it a viable business option and and could we you know,
realistically run a business out of it and make it prosperous,
(19:05):
because I think he wanted something, and I wanted something
for him that that he could run and own himself
and sort of build up. I kind of pictured it
like my grandfather when he was a even an electrical
contractor for a long time and then he moved into
electrical distribution, which became our supply house. I felt like
(19:26):
the theater could easily be Chris's kind of legacy, you
know what he would if he could build it up
with a little bit of my help and run that
business and build it up. I could see that one
being around for a long time. But the trick was
figuring out if it was, like I say, if it
was a viable business option. I can't you know, if
(19:47):
I had, you know, millions and millions of dollars and
could say, hey, I just want to do this for
the community, because I know they want it, we would
just do it, and we probably would have, whether it
would have been a good idea or not. But the
reality is, you know, we don't have those kind of funds,
so we had to take a look at it from
you know, an outside looking in and say, okay, is
(20:07):
this going to be a viable business? Can we run this,
can we restore it? Can we afford to do it?
So that was that was the whole start of that
portion of our lives.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
The theater has a very interesting history. I mean it's
sort of been a I don't know, half and half
you know business that is working and you know, as
a theater and half the time dormant and or storage
or go through a little capsule of the history of
the building.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Okay, So.
Speaker 6 (20:45):
The building itself was built nineteen twenty seven. There was
a company called the Buller Brothers. They were they designed
and built theaters all over the country, and that they
were the at the time, it was called the as
Tech I'm sorry, it was called the Mission Theater originally,
and you can tell by the style of the front
(21:07):
it's like an old Spanish mission. So it opened in
nineteen twenty seven as the Mission theater and it ran
as such until sometime in the mid to late forties
when Dickinson Theaters bought it, rebranded it the ASTech Theater,
put a new marquee on it, refreshed it. We have
(21:30):
some paperwork and some news articles from the mid forties
that show a grand reopening.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
So they had restored it.
Speaker 6 (21:42):
They operated it clear through nineteen seventy four when they
shut it down. That was at the time when the
movie theaters it wasn't really a good business option to
have one screen to show movies.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
You wanted lots of screen the show movie.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
So all the multiplexes popped up at that time, and
that was Dickinson's focus. They had they had multiple single
screen theaters around the city, and they moved to having
multiple screens, and the you know, the buildings and the
single screen theaters just sort of went away, including the
Aztec so it closed down. The Shawnee State Bank was running,
(22:26):
was operating on the corner on the southwest corner of
Neeman and Johnson Drive. They purchased the building used it
for storage for a number of years until late nineties.
The city Shawnee was trying to revitalize downtown had a
company called Hyatt Palmer come in and do a study
(22:48):
on you know, what they could do to help businesses
and bring businesses and do all these things to help
build it back up the way it was. And this
report can say, you know, put a put a Walmart
here and Applebee's here, or a you know, a Burger
King here. They can't say those, but it can it
can say, use use this for retail space, use this
(23:13):
for sales. But it specifically pointed out many times to
reopen the theater because they knew at the time that
for small towns and for downtown districts, an operating movie theater,
especially historic one, would draw pedestrian traffic, which is what
(23:36):
they wanted. So so they they got a gentleman to
purchase the building, put a new marquee on, gave him,
you know, pretty good leadway to open this theater again,
and uh, you know, so that all started.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
They put the marquee on, he put some new scripts
on it.
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Actually he got the marquis from the Plaza Theater in Apling, Kansas,
so it's got some historic Kansas ba you know lineage.
But so put that on and you know, one thing
led to another. It just never came to fruition, right.
It was something he wanted, they wanted, but it just
(24:19):
it just didn't work out, and so it sat dormant
for a while. They started to do some work again,
you know, two thousand and eight, I think two thousand
and seven, two thousand and eight, and it just some
restoration work. But you know, by this time, you got
to have it's a building built in nineteen twenty seven,
it still has to be up to code and safe
and you know, accessible and you know, meet fire codes
(24:40):
and things. So that's that's not really easy to do.
And I think a lot of people have their ideas
of what you can do with an old building, but
it just wasn't coming to fruition. So, you know, like
I say, when in twenty seventeen, we had the opportunity,
everything sort of fell in place. Well, City of Shawnee
wanted a specific draw to the downtown area because of
(25:05):
the new Nieman Now project, and they wanted to build
pedestrian traffic and more people in downtown Shawnee. So a
lot of things came together, you know, that built up
from well nineteen twenty seven on, So.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
It was a good example of synchronicity. It was. It
was just a nice, nice thing to be able to do.
Speaker 6 (25:29):
And we knew that the community had wanted this theater
for many years and it hadn't come through.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
And the mayor was very.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
Instrumental in trying to get it because at the time
Michelle Thissler was was a mayor and she, you know,
she really would would have loved to have had that theater.
And so it was we knew that there was a
there was enough of the community in behind it that
we could we could do something with it, that's for sure.
So that's that's where that came from.
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Speaker 2 (31:19):
Our guest is Jeffrey Hawkins. He is, along with the
couple family members through the years, including one tragically lost
a couple of years ago, as part of the has
been the part of the renovation of the Aztec Theater
into what is now a thriving, generally concert venue. Originally
the idea was more movies and maybe a concert or
(31:41):
you know, every now and then, and it ended up pivoting.
Let's take go through that process, which of course includes
what was such a dominant part of our life which
I thankfully we almost looked like, did that really happens?
Speaker 3 (31:53):
COVID. Yeah, yes, that's for sure.
Speaker 6 (31:57):
So when we decided to take on the project, we
started by looking at restoration costs. We're going to purchase
the building. We knew what that was going to cost.
Look at restoration costs. The city stepped up. They had
some economic development funds that they could help us out with.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
We did a business.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
Plan fully on board with running a movie theater, you know,
running classic and art films.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
And that was what I did.
Speaker 6 (32:28):
The whole business plan based on you know, what we
would sell popcorn for, when our snacks would be, you
know everything, you.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Know, and.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
September, I guess it was an end of September twenty seventeen,
the Shunty Council approved the funding. We closed on the
building one week later and started restoration.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
You know, a little naive to you know how long
it would take.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
I knew, I realistically thought it would take about a year.
I was hopeful for six months. I knew by the
state that it was in was going to be a
real trick to do it in six months, but we
wanted to. We wanted to get it open as soon
as possible. Well, you know, there again, nineteen twenty seven,
building lots of things can happen, and logistically just putting
(33:20):
things together. We had already put a put together a
business plan, we knew where we wanted to head with it.
I started moving forward with all the design elements for
the interior. We hired a general contractor somebody you know,
associated with city Shawnee and very philanthropic. Ron with Bratton
(33:42):
Brothers Contracting, was instrumental with his crew in you know,
bringing the Aztec to life as well. Which side note,
my brother and Ron actually worked together at Garrett's grocery
store in downtown Shawnee when they were younger, which was
a kind of an interesting matchup. But you know, there
(34:04):
again another you know Shawnee resident. Uh so we were
able to bring in for that as well too so
but but yeah, the whole focus was going to be
on showing old movies.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
With our third partner, Bruce Young. He had a connection to.
Speaker 6 (34:23):
The concerts, and so I reworked the business plan to
maybe show a concert or two during the month.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
We were shooting along pretty good.
Speaker 6 (34:36):
Took I think almost a full eight months or so,
eight to eight to twelve months before we really had
a plan going forward with how everything was going to
be built and all this.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
We were getting the.
Speaker 6 (34:52):
Fire sprinkler system put in at the time because we'd
already gutted and done all the demo, so we we
were moving forward, but we were. It was at that time,
probably the beginning of twenty nineteen is where everything really
started moving forward and was going pretty fast. By January
(35:12):
of twenty twenty, we already had people interested in renting
the venue for private events. I had set up a
couple of private events of all things. I was talking
to two different, two completely different groups for the summer
of twenty twenty that were consecutive days, two days consecutive
(35:33):
in July, which and you know, I'd have them come
in and look at the theater and it was all
in sheet rock and being mudded, and they were like, wow,
is this going to be ready? And my thought was, well,
if you would have seen us two months ago, you
would I would have thought that too. But they were
really moving along pretty fast. We were we were due
to open in June to twenty twenty and have everything
ready to go, and then of course in March everything
(35:57):
shut down for COVID, so we couldn't have contractors, you know,
stacked on top of each other doing all their work.
We could only have a couple in there at a time,
which really slowed it down. And if you remember, during COVID,
the theater business was struggling.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Theaters were going bankrupt and you know and all this,
so that is not a good sign. So we at
that time we.
Speaker 6 (36:26):
Took a one eight decided to focus on the concerts.
Like I said, our third partner, Bruce Young, he had
a connection to doing concerts. So we we got some
experts on you know, soundboard, sound equipment, audio, everything to
get it kind of started up that way that we
(36:46):
could use for our movies too, but mostly for concerts.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
And you know, we were I tell.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
Everybody, because we opened in December of twenty twenty. People, wow, wow,
you opened right, you know, right during the you know COVID.
We we took that as a little bit of a benefit.
I think had we opened with if COVID had not happened,
I think we would have been so overwhelmed, we would
(37:17):
we would have struggled to really find our niche and
make people happy the way we wanted to. But with COVID,
it allowed us to ramp up very slowly because we
had to limit how many people could be in there.
We had a social distance, you know, everybody had to
wear masks. We we learned at a very slow rate
(37:39):
what we were doing right, what we were doing wrong.
So it was a little bit of a blessing in disguise.
The for the first year, for the first full year,
from December twenty twenty through December twenty one, the only
six employees that we had were our owners. That was
my brother and his wife, Bruce and his wife, and
(38:02):
me and my wife.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
So we were the ones work in the theater.
Speaker 6 (38:05):
You know, typical new business, just odd starting in COVID,
but that's where it all that's where it all started
and how everything sort of came and my brother started
running that as a concert venue and we'd show movies
every once in a while because we knew we wanted
to do that. But he did a very good job
of really getting that set up and start to bring
in some bands and we had our December twenty twenty,
(38:29):
we had our fundraising galap which was our opening, our
grand opening. Five days later we had our first concert,
which was a blues artist by the name of Nick
schnevelin which a lot of people around the Kensy area
would recognized Nick from his solo stuff and his family
group too, and then it progressed from there.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
When we started.
Speaker 6 (38:52):
One of the one of the deals I had with
my brother because I was running calling the electric supply
with my sister, was that I would not be part
of operations.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
That was that was the deal. This was his business
to run, This was his baby.
Speaker 6 (39:07):
But then again for the first year I was part
of operations, but then stepped back away from it so
that they could move forward and had set the stage
no pun intended, so to speak. So and did he
did a very good job of setting it up and
really getting it going at that time.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Yeah, And tragically in twenty twenty three he became ill
and very quickly it would go from discovery to him
passing in twenty twenty three. That's obviously tragic, but he
has a legacy that he is left of a family
business and this particular business. How did that change things?
Speaker 6 (39:42):
So it was like you said it was, it was
very quick, very unexpected. Luckily I had been a little
bit of part of the operations for the first year
and and was able when he first got sick, was
(40:04):
able to move in and help with the operations while
he and my sister in law, Tammy, dealt with Chris's illness.
So for the month of May in twenty twenty three,
I was stepped up and started, you know, speaking with
(40:26):
the bands, doing the private events, you know, working with
all of those things. And then, you know, very unexpectedly,
he passed on May twenty sixth of twenty three. So
at that point I took over operations at the theater
(40:46):
and started running with the employee.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Base that he had set up. And you know, with
the help of of.
Speaker 6 (40:53):
Our you know, our friends and family that that we
we moved forward with what.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
Was basically his vision and have ever since. So it is.
Speaker 6 (41:04):
I can't even explain how you get through something like
that other than I know so many people have, you know,
go through that, and there were people in far worse
situations than what we were, but and me personally that
you know, you hate to think that people are going
through even worse times. But my brother did a very
(41:28):
good job of setting up what would eventually and I
know will always be his legacy in downtown Shawnee.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Well, I don't know if anybody could have really you know,
envisioned maybe in their wildest dreams how well that whole
Niemen project in the downtown area and there's breweries and
all kinds of stuff, and yeah, Thursdays are crazy and
there's the kinds of people down there. Just talk a
little bit about how that downtown Shawnee area has exploded it.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
Yeah, So.
Speaker 6 (42:04):
When we first got together to even with the concept
back in twenty seventeen, the concept of of you know,
reopening the theater, one of my points of inspiration was
a photograph that was taken from the northeast corner of
Neiman and Johnson Drive, right over by Hartman Hardware, and
(42:27):
the focus was toward the bank and the theater and
all that. And at the time, Johnson Drive was two
lane and had angled parking on each side of the street.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
But it was a great like dusk picture of the
theater with a Marquee.
Speaker 6 (42:43):
Lit up and the sun setting and it's just a
beautiful picture.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
And I loved the look of the picture.
Speaker 6 (42:51):
But it was totally my inspiration when I saw it
was to realize that there wasn't a single open parking
space and there was tons of people walking around, right,
and I knew that was what the the you know,
the city of Shawnee was looking for again, and it
wasn't just a great picture, it was easily my main inspiration.
(43:16):
I go back to that picture a lot. I've got
it in my head. It's just one of those things
that I was like, it's a great it's a great photograph,
but when you look at it and go wow, look
at all the people down there. That's what everybody wants
and that's what we want to We wanted to be
that one place that everybody came to and everything grew from.
(43:37):
And I still have people come down and talk to
me said, man, man, it was a good idea to
come down here because of all this stuff that's going on,
And I just sort of bite my tongue and say, yeah,
I know. We were very lucky to be here when
everybody was here, and the reality was there was only
a few main businesses down there. You know, Betty Sees
right next to us, Brian's barr was there, Pegas was
(44:01):
down the street, Harmond Hardware was there, but there wasn't
a lot of other.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
Things going on down there.
Speaker 6 (44:08):
So and now there's you know, multiple breweries, you know,
cocktail bars, more of those opening restaurants, you know, everything
that's down there has been building off of each other,
and it is just I love knowing that I'm a
part of it. It's that was going back to that picture.
(44:31):
That photograph is exactly what it was. And when you
I run into people that you know, grew up here
and they were like, this is what I remember. I
remember growing up here, and then we moved away and
now we're back or they're visiting or something, and they're
just amazed that the city was able to, you know,
bring that back again and I and I love it.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
It's just.
Speaker 6 (44:54):
I could sit there, I could sit outside and sit
out on the Marquee or do whatever and just watch
people walk by. It's just it's just a great feeling
to be a part of something so much bigger than
yourself and thinking that maybe we had we had a
little bit of something to do with that.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
That's just nice.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Yeah, a lot of something to do with it. And
tell us you know where you're at right now and
what the future, what lives in the future.
Speaker 6 (45:17):
Well, right now, we've had, we luckily have had a
good customer base, good feedback from everybody. We try to
listen to everybody's suggestions. We still show movies periodically We
work together with Shawnetown twenty nine Historical Society down the
(45:39):
street that we show old movies. The octobers we still
show the old horror movies and things.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
This year we'll be showing.
Speaker 6 (45:49):
Nosferatu, the original one, and we've shown in the past.
We've shown Dracula and and the wolf Man, and the
Mummy and Frankenstein and just the good old you know,
early early films, and so we enjoy that. But our
focus is mainly the concerts on Fridays and Saturdays and
(46:10):
our private events that people can rent the theater for
Sundays through Thursdays. Lots of concerts coming up.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
We have.
Speaker 6 (46:19):
A broad range of cover bands from different eras as
opposed as opposed to just having you know, the same
ones over and over, we have a rotation of lots.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
Of different ones. Kin City. It's just a huge music area.
Speaker 6 (46:33):
And as I've traveled around the last couple of years,
I've realized how how great a source of music we
have here in Kansas City. I don't think everybody realizes that. So,
you know, a lot of our bands come in. You
have cover bands that do uh, you know, stuff from
the fifties, the sixties, the seventies, eighties, the nineties, and
(46:53):
then we have tribute bands that focus, you know, solely
on one group. You know, we have a Kiss tribute
at a CDC, Sticks, Beach Boys, I mean, just all
sorts of tribute bands, bands that maybe you can't see anymore,
so you get to see somebody doing their representation of it.
(47:16):
And it's just it's so fun to be there on
Fridays and Saturdays when everybody's having a good time in there.
And we've over the last couple of years we've done
some changes. We've added a dance floor, so we expanded
our dance floor. We have table seating, which has been
very popular, so instead of just having our theater seats,
(47:38):
we've expanded into that. And like I say, we can
still show movies, but the concerts are really our.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
Big thing and we enjoy it fully.
Speaker 6 (47:49):
We've got a great staff, lots of bartenders and lots
of door personnel, and we try to keep a pretty
pretty good kind of family atmosphere we're in there. So
it has been a joy to work there, and.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
We currently are for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 6 (48:11):
I think last week I booked our last Friday date
in twenty twenty five, so we have concerts every Friday
and Saturday. This year booked up and I'm already booking
into twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
So you know, knock on wood.
Speaker 6 (48:24):
We've been We've been very fortunate and have a good
customer base of the Shawnee community and surrounding area traveling
in to see our you know.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
Our little piece of heaven is what I call it.
Speaker 8 (48:38):
We hope you.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Enjoyed the latest Danny kling Scale Reasonably irreverent podcast. Come
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Speaker 7 (49:10):
MHM
Welcome to the Danny Clinkscale Reasonably irreverent podcast, insightful and
witty commentary, probing interviews and detours from the beaten path.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to Kansas City Profiles. And it's a real pleasure
to bring you a real treasure of Shawnee. Shawnee is
where I live. In about two miles from where I
live is the Aztec Theater. It has gone through a
crazy restoration, a wonderful restoration as part of the thriving
downtown scene in Shawnee. The theater was opened in nineteen
(00:37):
twenty seven and through the years it's been active as
a movie theater, it's been dormant, it's been storage space,
and then in the twenty teens it started to have
the idea of brewing about restoration of the theater as
part of the restoration of the downtown area. And it's
a pleasure to talk about that with Jeffrey Hawkins. He
(00:58):
and his family were part of the Cockins electrical supply
business started by his grandfather and his father, and he
worked there through the years with his brother and his sister,
and eventually the idea percolated and came around in the
late twenty teens to restore the historic Aztec Theater, which
had been pretty much dormant since nineteen seventy four as
(01:19):
a theater and had really been just used as storage
space and the like. And slowly but surely, weaving around
and through COVID, it has changed from the idea being
mainly as a place to show movies to mainly a
place to have concerts, many tribute bands and cover bands
and just great bands in the music scene. Sold out
(01:41):
now for twenty twenty five as far as the bookings
her concerned and Jeffrey and his family. He lost his
brother Chris, who actually ran the business solely for the
first few years, starting in twenty twenty. It actually opened
in late twenty twenty, right at the till end parts
of the COVID run, which was so devastating to so
(02:02):
many businesses, but they.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Fought through that.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Chris tragically passed away in twenty twenty three, and that's
when Jeffrey more full time took care of the business
along with his sister and other partner Bruce Young, and
it has turned into a thriving enterprise. It's really lovely
inside a couple hundred seats. I also have table seating
now on a dance floor and Fridays and Saturdays are
(02:26):
superactive there. Thursday, Friday, Saturday in downtown Shawnee is crazy
and a big part of it has been Jeffrey Hawkins
and the Aztec Theater, a historic theater from nineteen twenty
seven to this day of almost one hundred years of
it and a really cool story. It's a cool story
of business development of Shawnee and of entrepreneurship. It's a
(02:50):
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(06:38):
Jeffrey are born and raised in Shawnee, still around here
and contributing the community. And that's what we'll get into
eventually with the great Aztech Theater. But tell me about
growing up a Shawnee kid. What it was like when
it was like in Shawnee back in the day.
Speaker 6 (06:53):
Oh okay, Yeah, I grew up a fifty second bond
there in Shawnee, you know, regular suburban neighborhood, went to
Blue Jacket Grade School, walked there then uh, then moved
on to Hocker Grove Junior High and then uh shawn
(07:14):
Mission Northwest is where I went to high school. Like
I say, regular suburban neighborhood. A brother and a sister
that were four and five years older than me, So
you know, we didn't hang out much, but I had
lots of friends in the neighborhood that were around my
age that we still hang out with.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
You know, I still see periodically.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
Friends from junior high and high school. My best friend Rob,
but we we actually met in junior high. But we
still hang out, hanging out quite a bit and played
chess every week still. So always always been around the
Shawnee area, other than when I went to school in Lawrence,
(07:56):
but moved up there for for to go to college
and then moved back after I was done, and then
I have lived.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Here ever since.
Speaker 6 (08:05):
I worked at the our family business that my grandfather started,
Calkin's Electric Supply. He started it in nineteen forty six,
and each of us kids worked there in some capacity
as we grew up. It wasn't my lifelong goal to
be there forever, but after getting out of college and
(08:25):
not really finding anything in particular that I liked, I
ended up going back and working full time at the
at Calkin's Electric Supply there where I worked for a
little over thirty years.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
So, you know, when I was kid, Shawnee was.
Speaker 6 (08:41):
I think, like what I would have considered most any
small town.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
We you know, no cell phones, no pagers.
Speaker 6 (08:49):
So we were on weekends and summers, we were you know,
as kids were free to kind of roam around and
do whatever we wanted to during the day. We just
had to be back home at night. So you know,
we'd ride our by down to downtown Shawnee clear up
to you know, Shawnee Parkway. There used to be a
little minture golf course up there. We go TG and
Y or Taco Bell and periodically go to you know,
(09:12):
the theater, go to the go to the Aztec Theater
there and downtown Shawnee and some of.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
The other places around. That was just kind of our
our our way.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
We just hung out of each other's houses and and made.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Our way around Shawnee whenever we could.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Eventually went to KU, as you mentioned, And what were
you thinking about at that point in time? You know,
eventually obviously you'd go into the family business. We'll get
into that, but what what kind of things were you
thinking about at that point in time?
Speaker 6 (09:44):
Really at that time, I was ever since I was
in seventh grade, I was really interested in architecture.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
And from that, you know, from seventh grade on.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
I focused a lot of my uh, a lot of
my artwork, and a lot of my skills focused on
math and just happened to be something that I was
good at at the time, and so kind of figured
I would pursue a career in engineering. And since architecture,
you know, was my what I enjoyed, what I drew
(10:18):
and took some architecture and drafting classes in high school.
I when I headed a KU, I had it in
my head that I was going to study architectural engineering,
and within one semester realized that is not what I
wanted to do the rest of my life.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
So that's hard, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah. Yeah, and I love the math.
Speaker 6 (10:38):
I you know, I really enjoyed the math part of it,
but for some reason the engineering part of it. I
think it was that it was more of an engineering
part rather than a design part, and I just lost
interest in it and focused. I changed my focus to psychology.
I'd taken a psychology class in in high school.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
And really interested me.
Speaker 6 (11:04):
So I switched my major over and and switched over
to psychology and went ahead and focused on that, and
then ended up getting a minor in mathematics since I
had so many math classes. Not a lot of math
classes needed for a psychology degree. But but yeah, had
really didn't have any intention on going back and working
(11:27):
at the family business other than maybe part time or
after I get out of college. But that's you know,
that's where my path led, and I was happy to
do it because there again I got to work with
with my family, with my brother and my sister and
my dad and and at the time my uncle and
(11:48):
my cousin as well too.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
So yeah, I mean wasn't necessarily the path I had.
Speaker 6 (11:53):
I really had expected but but I enjoyed my time there,
that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
We enjoyed running the business there.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
Or so what is it?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
What is it like to be part of a iconic
family business that's around for you know, decades in a community.
What are the you know, maybe pros and com I
mean obviously occasionally somebody is not going to be happy
or what you know.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
Yeah, so what's it? What's it like?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Well, being in family business.
Speaker 6 (12:19):
One of the things that my dad required us to
do as kids was we had to have a regular job,
you know, outside the company before coming into work for
the for the family business.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Which was a good idea because.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
You get an idea of how people are going to
treat you and you know, in reality compared to what
you're going to be treated like as family. And you know,
like I say, the reality of it is being treated
as family. Uh, sometimes you feel and I've had I've
had members of my family that have worked for us
in past say, you know, you feel like you're held
(12:56):
to a little bit higher standard just because because of
the family name, which when you first get there, that's
kind of hard to that's kind of hard to swallow.
You feel like you get picked on a little bit.
But the reality is having a job outside of there,
you know, things have to get done, you know, nothing
that's nothing personal. And the good thing is once you
(13:18):
leave work, personal and family is something totally different. You
get the advantage of being being able to work with family.
You know, my brother and sister and I work together
for a long time, and you know, it's it's not
like we're great friends and all that. We were very
(13:39):
good friends, but we're still brothers and sisters. So there's still, uh,
there's still that aspect of it with a little bit
of of a difference of opinions on things, I'll put
it that way, let's say so. But yeah, but great
experience all all the way around.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
You know, not for everybody. I can tell you that.
Speaker 6 (14:02):
I know some people don't can't get along with their
family enough to work with them. They get along with
them enough to be related to them. That's about it.
But you know, it was it was a unique experience.
I will tell you that. I say it's unique. I
think there's a lot of people that go through that.
But for me, you know, I enjoyed it obviously enough
(14:22):
so that you know, I wanted to do it again
even after that so yeah, it's a different kind of
experience for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Well, obviously as time goes on, you go into the
rhythm of life and family and all that other stuff
and the business. At what point in time did maybe
the germination of what would eventually be your involvement in
the downtown Shawnee area and the theater start to germinate
a bit?
Speaker 6 (14:51):
So in twenty thirteen, my brother retired from the electrical
supply and.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Wanted to do some other things.
Speaker 6 (15:01):
My dad had had retired in ninety nine two thousand,
which is when my brother and sister and I took over.
My brother was ready to move on and do something else,
so he kind of went on to his own thing.
My sister and I ran the company. We had a
few other family members come in, we had some other employees.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
But the.
Speaker 6 (15:21):
Early on, so even when he was involved with the company,
we were working with downtown Shawnee and Chris even more
so because he was part of like the Downtown Shawnee Partnership,
which is a group of the downtown business owners.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
He was part of that.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
He was heavily involved, as I was a little bit
later in like the car show that we put on
downtown to kind of bring some more business downtown because
it was it was downtown Shawnee.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Was a place that could thrive.
Speaker 6 (15:57):
But just wasn't yet right. And uh, some businesses kind
of be there. There's some long there were some long
standing businesses from you know, Hartman Hardware and Shawnee Automotive
was down there and Donovan's and lots of lots of
(16:18):
businesses that have been there for quite a.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
While, and but not a real focus.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
You're not a lot of people down there during the
weekend on the weekend. So when Shawnee decided to do
the beautification project, which they called the Nieman Now Project,
they took all the electrical holes.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Down off of off of Nieman all the way.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
From I think fifty fifth clear down to Seawan Mission Parkway,
repaved the road, put a biking path, all those things.
You know, we were pretty excited about that, really in
a focus on downtown.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
And during that time, somebody had.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
Supposedly it was an article in this Cansdy Star that
somebody had purchased the building, the Aztec Theater building. At
the time, my brother knew the owner and knew it
would have taken He'd known him for years and knew
it would have taken something special for him to sell that.
And so my brother called called Wade and said, you know,
(17:32):
congratulated him on the on the sale and said, hey,
I saw it in the paper and Wade said, yeah,
I saw that too, but unfortunately that hasn't come to fruition.
So and in the conversation with the fact that it
hadn't really sold, Wade told Chris, he said, you should
buy that. And really, with my brother being retired and
(17:53):
with his you know, his heart really truly being in
downtown Shawnee, He's like, oh, this would be great. You know,
if it's something that we could do, w'd be great.
And that's really where that whole idea started. I mean,
something very simple with you know, somebody else having I
having idea, not really following through with it. And then
(18:14):
my brother was in the you know, knew the right
people and uh had the opportunity and he we were
actually at one of the Nieman Now Project meetings down
at City Hall looking at some of the plans and stuff,
how it was, how it was moving forward, and he
asked me, he said, hey, I I I talked to
him and and he wants to UH sell us the theater.
(18:38):
Are you interested in going in with me? And I
I was wholeheartedly.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
I was in, you know.
Speaker 6 (18:44):
So that's that's where the the shift came to the theater.
The biggest thing at that point was, you know, was
it a viable business option and and could we you know,
realistically run a business out of it and make it prosperous,
(19:05):
because I think he wanted something, and I wanted something
for him that that he could run and own himself
and sort of build up. I kind of pictured it
like my grandfather when he was a even an electrical
contractor for a long time and then he moved into
electrical distribution, which became our supply house. I felt like
(19:26):
the theater could easily be Chris's kind of legacy, you
know what he would if he could build it up
with a little bit of my help and run that
business and build it up. I could see that one
being around for a long time. But the trick was
figuring out if it was, like I say, if it
was a viable business option. I can't you know, if
(19:47):
I had, you know, millions and millions of dollars and
could say, hey, I just want to do this for
the community, because I know they want it, we would
just do it, and we probably would have, whether it
would have been a good idea or not. But the
reality is, you know, we don't have those kind of funds,
so we had to take a look at it from
you know, an outside looking in and say, okay, is
(20:07):
this going to be a viable business? Can we run this,
can we restore it? Can we afford to do it?
So that was that was the whole start of that
portion of our lives.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
The theater has a very interesting history. I mean it's
sort of been a I don't know, half and half
you know business that is working and you know, as
a theater and half the time dormant and or storage
or go through a little capsule of the history of
the building.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Okay, So.
Speaker 6 (20:45):
The building itself was built nineteen twenty seven. There was
a company called the Buller Brothers. They were they designed
and built theaters all over the country, and that they
were the at the time, it was called the as
Tech I'm sorry, it was called the Mission Theater originally,
and you can tell by the style of the front
(21:07):
it's like an old Spanish mission. So it opened in
nineteen twenty seven as the Mission theater and it ran
as such until sometime in the mid to late forties
when Dickinson Theaters bought it, rebranded it the ASTech Theater,
put a new marquee on it, refreshed it. We have
(21:30):
some paperwork and some news articles from the mid forties
that show a grand reopening.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
So they had restored it.
Speaker 6 (21:42):
They operated it clear through nineteen seventy four when they
shut it down. That was at the time when the
movie theaters it wasn't really a good business option to
have one screen to show movies.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
You wanted lots of screen the show movie.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
So all the multiplexes popped up at that time, and
that was Dickinson's focus. They had they had multiple single
screen theaters around the city, and they moved to having
multiple screens, and the you know, the buildings and the
single screen theaters just sort of went away, including the
Aztec so it closed down. The Shawnee State Bank was running,
(22:26):
was operating on the corner on the southwest corner of
Neeman and Johnson Drive. They purchased the building used it
for storage for a number of years until late nineties.
The city Shawnee was trying to revitalize downtown had a
company called Hyatt Palmer come in and do a study
(22:48):
on you know, what they could do to help businesses
and bring businesses and do all these things to help
build it back up the way it was. And this
report can say, you know, put a put a Walmart
here and Applebee's here, or a you know, a Burger
King here. They can't say those, but it can it
can say, use use this for retail space, use this
(23:13):
for sales. But it specifically pointed out many times to
reopen the theater because they knew at the time that
for small towns and for downtown districts, an operating movie theater,
especially historic one, would draw pedestrian traffic, which is what
(23:36):
they wanted. So so they they got a gentleman to
purchase the building, put a new marquee on, gave him,
you know, pretty good leadway to open this theater again,
and uh, you know, so that all started.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
They put the marquee on, he put some new scripts
on it.
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Actually he got the marquis from the Plaza Theater in Apling, Kansas,
so it's got some historic Kansas ba you know lineage.
But so put that on and you know, one thing
led to another. It just never came to fruition, right.
It was something he wanted, they wanted, but it just
(24:19):
it just didn't work out, and so it sat dormant
for a while. They started to do some work again,
you know, two thousand and eight, I think two thousand
and seven, two thousand and eight, and it just some
restoration work. But you know, by this time, you got
to have it's a building built in nineteen twenty seven,
it still has to be up to code and safe
and you know, accessible and you know, meet fire codes
(24:40):
and things. So that's that's not really easy to do.
And I think a lot of people have their ideas
of what you can do with an old building, but
it just wasn't coming to fruition. So, you know, like
I say, when in twenty seventeen, we had the opportunity,
everything sort of fell in place. Well, City of Shawnee
wanted a specific draw to the downtown area because of
(25:05):
the new Nieman Now project, and they wanted to build
pedestrian traffic and more people in downtown Shawnee. So a
lot of things came together, you know, that built up
from well nineteen twenty seven on, So.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
It was a good example of synchronicity. It was. It
was just a nice, nice thing to be able to do.
Speaker 6 (25:29):
And we knew that the community had wanted this theater
for many years and it hadn't come through.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
And the mayor was very.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
Instrumental in trying to get it because at the time
Michelle Thissler was was a mayor and she, you know,
she really would would have loved to have had that theater.
And so it was we knew that there was a
there was enough of the community in behind it that
we could we could do something with it, that's for sure.
So that's that's where that came from.
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Speaker 2 (31:19):
Our guest is Jeffrey Hawkins. He is, along with the
couple family members through the years, including one tragically lost
a couple of years ago, as part of the has
been the part of the renovation of the Aztec Theater
into what is now a thriving, generally concert venue. Originally
the idea was more movies and maybe a concert or
(31:41):
you know, every now and then, and it ended up pivoting.
Let's take go through that process, which of course includes
what was such a dominant part of our life which
I thankfully we almost looked like, did that really happens?
Speaker 3 (31:53):
COVID. Yeah, yes, that's for sure.
Speaker 6 (31:57):
So when we decided to take on the project, we
started by looking at restoration costs. We're going to purchase
the building. We knew what that was going to cost.
Look at restoration costs. The city stepped up. They had
some economic development funds that they could help us out with.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
We did a business.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
Plan fully on board with running a movie theater, you know,
running classic and art films.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
And that was what I did.
Speaker 6 (32:28):
The whole business plan based on you know, what we
would sell popcorn for, when our snacks would be, you
know everything, you.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Know, and.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
September, I guess it was an end of September twenty seventeen,
the Shunty Council approved the funding. We closed on the
building one week later and started restoration.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
You know, a little naive to you know how long
it would take.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
I knew, I realistically thought it would take about a year.
I was hopeful for six months. I knew by the
state that it was in was going to be a
real trick to do it in six months, but we
wanted to. We wanted to get it open as soon
as possible. Well, you know, there again, nineteen twenty seven,
building lots of things can happen, and logistically just putting
(33:20):
things together. We had already put a put together a
business plan, we knew where we wanted to head with it.
I started moving forward with all the design elements for
the interior. We hired a general contractor somebody you know,
associated with city Shawnee and very philanthropic. Ron with Bratton
(33:42):
Brothers Contracting, was instrumental with his crew in you know,
bringing the Aztec to life as well. Which side note,
my brother and Ron actually worked together at Garrett's grocery
store in downtown Shawnee when they were younger, which was
a kind of an interesting matchup. But you know, there
(34:04):
again another you know Shawnee resident. Uh so we were
able to bring in for that as well too so
but but yeah, the whole focus was going to be
on showing old movies.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
With our third partner, Bruce Young. He had a connection to.
Speaker 6 (34:23):
The concerts, and so I reworked the business plan to
maybe show a concert or two during the month.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
We were shooting along pretty good.
Speaker 6 (34:36):
Took I think almost a full eight months or so,
eight to eight to twelve months before we really had
a plan going forward with how everything was going to
be built and all this.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
We were getting the.
Speaker 6 (34:52):
Fire sprinkler system put in at the time because we'd
already gutted and done all the demo, so we we
were moving forward, but we were. It was at that time,
probably the beginning of twenty nineteen is where everything really
started moving forward and was going pretty fast. By January
(35:12):
of twenty twenty, we already had people interested in renting
the venue for private events. I had set up a
couple of private events of all things. I was talking
to two different, two completely different groups for the summer
of twenty twenty that were consecutive days, two days consecutive
(35:33):
in July, which and you know, I'd have them come
in and look at the theater and it was all
in sheet rock and being mudded, and they were like, wow,
is this going to be ready? And my thought was, well,
if you would have seen us two months ago, you
would I would have thought that too. But they were
really moving along pretty fast. We were we were due
to open in June to twenty twenty and have everything
ready to go, and then of course in March everything
(35:57):
shut down for COVID, so we couldn't have contractors, you know,
stacked on top of each other doing all their work.
We could only have a couple in there at a time,
which really slowed it down. And if you remember, during COVID,
the theater business was struggling.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Theaters were going bankrupt and you know and all this,
so that is not a good sign. So we at
that time we.
Speaker 6 (36:26):
Took a one eight decided to focus on the concerts.
Like I said, our third partner, Bruce Young, he had
a connection to doing concerts. So we we got some
experts on you know, soundboard, sound equipment, audio, everything to
get it kind of started up that way that we
(36:46):
could use for our movies too, but mostly for concerts.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
And you know, we were I tell.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
Everybody, because we opened in December of twenty twenty. People, wow, wow,
you opened right, you know, right during the you know COVID.
We we took that as a little bit of a benefit.
I think had we opened with if COVID had not happened,
I think we would have been so overwhelmed, we would
(37:17):
we would have struggled to really find our niche and
make people happy the way we wanted to. But with COVID,
it allowed us to ramp up very slowly because we
had to limit how many people could be in there.
We had a social distance, you know, everybody had to
wear masks. We we learned at a very slow rate
(37:39):
what we were doing right, what we were doing wrong.
So it was a little bit of a blessing in disguise.
The for the first year, for the first full year,
from December twenty twenty through December twenty one, the only
six employees that we had were our owners. That was
my brother and his wife, Bruce and his wife, and
(38:02):
me and my wife.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
So we were the ones work in the theater.
Speaker 6 (38:05):
You know, typical new business, just odd starting in COVID,
but that's where it all that's where it all started
and how everything sort of came and my brother started
running that as a concert venue and we'd show movies
every once in a while because we knew we wanted
to do that. But he did a very good job
of really getting that set up and start to bring
in some bands and we had our December twenty twenty,
(38:29):
we had our fundraising galap which was our opening, our
grand opening. Five days later we had our first concert,
which was a blues artist by the name of Nick
schnevelin which a lot of people around the Kensy area
would recognized Nick from his solo stuff and his family
group too, and then it progressed from there.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
When we started.
Speaker 6 (38:52):
One of the one of the deals I had with
my brother because I was running calling the electric supply
with my sister, was that I would not be part
of operations.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
That was that was the deal. This was his business
to run, This was his baby.
Speaker 6 (39:07):
But then again for the first year I was part
of operations, but then stepped back away from it so
that they could move forward and had set the stage
no pun intended, so to speak. So and did he
did a very good job of setting it up and
really getting it going at that time.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Yeah, And tragically in twenty twenty three he became ill
and very quickly it would go from discovery to him
passing in twenty twenty three. That's obviously tragic, but he
has a legacy that he is left of a family
business and this particular business. How did that change things?
Speaker 6 (39:42):
So it was like you said it was, it was
very quick, very unexpected. Luckily I had been a little
bit of part of the operations for the first year
and and was able when he first got sick, was
(40:04):
able to move in and help with the operations while
he and my sister in law, Tammy, dealt with Chris's illness.
So for the month of May in twenty twenty three,
I was stepped up and started, you know, speaking with
(40:26):
the bands, doing the private events, you know, working with
all of those things. And then, you know, very unexpectedly,
he passed on May twenty sixth of twenty three. So
at that point I took over operations at the theater
(40:46):
and started running with the employee.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Base that he had set up. And you know, with
the help of of.
Speaker 6 (40:53):
Our you know, our friends and family that that we
we moved forward with what.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
Was basically his vision and have ever since. So it is.
Speaker 6 (41:04):
I can't even explain how you get through something like
that other than I know so many people have, you know,
go through that, and there were people in far worse
situations than what we were, but and me personally that
you know, you hate to think that people are going
through even worse times. But my brother did a very
(41:28):
good job of setting up what would eventually and I
know will always be his legacy in downtown Shawnee.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Well, I don't know if anybody could have really you know,
envisioned maybe in their wildest dreams how well that whole
Niemen project in the downtown area and there's breweries and
all kinds of stuff, and yeah, Thursdays are crazy and
there's the kinds of people down there. Just talk a
little bit about how that downtown Shawnee area has exploded it.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
Yeah, So.
Speaker 6 (42:04):
When we first got together to even with the concept
back in twenty seventeen, the concept of of you know,
reopening the theater, one of my points of inspiration was
a photograph that was taken from the northeast corner of
Neiman and Johnson Drive, right over by Hartman Hardware, and
(42:27):
the focus was toward the bank and the theater and
all that. And at the time, Johnson Drive was two
lane and had angled parking on each side of the street.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
But it was a great like dusk picture of the
theater with a Marquee.
Speaker 6 (42:43):
Lit up and the sun setting and it's just a
beautiful picture.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
And I loved the look of the picture.
Speaker 6 (42:51):
But it was totally my inspiration when I saw it
was to realize that there wasn't a single open parking
space and there was tons of people walking around, right,
and I knew that was what the the you know,
the city of Shawnee was looking for again, and it
wasn't just a great picture, it was easily my main inspiration.
(43:16):
I go back to that picture a lot. I've got
it in my head. It's just one of those things
that I was like, it's a great it's a great photograph,
but when you look at it and go wow, look
at all the people down there. That's what everybody wants
and that's what we want to We wanted to be
that one place that everybody came to and everything grew from.
(43:37):
And I still have people come down and talk to
me said, man, man, it was a good idea to
come down here because of all this stuff that's going on,
And I just sort of bite my tongue and say, yeah,
I know. We were very lucky to be here when
everybody was here, and the reality was there was only
a few main businesses down there. You know, Betty Sees
right next to us, Brian's barr was there, Pegas was
(44:01):
down the street, Harmond Hardware was there, but there wasn't
a lot of other.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
Things going on down there.
Speaker 6 (44:08):
So and now there's you know, multiple breweries, you know,
cocktail bars, more of those opening restaurants, you know, everything
that's down there has been building off of each other,
and it is just I love knowing that I'm a
part of it. It's that was going back to that picture.
(44:31):
That photograph is exactly what it was. And when you
I run into people that you know, grew up here
and they were like, this is what I remember. I
remember growing up here, and then we moved away and
now we're back or they're visiting or something, and they're
just amazed that the city was able to, you know,
bring that back again and I and I love it.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
It's just.
Speaker 6 (44:54):
I could sit there, I could sit outside and sit
out on the Marquee or do whatever and just watch
people walk by. It's just it's just a great feeling
to be a part of something so much bigger than
yourself and thinking that maybe we had we had a
little bit of something to do with that.
Speaker 3 (45:09):
That's just nice.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Yeah, a lot of something to do with it. And
tell us you know where you're at right now and
what the future, what lives in the future.
Speaker 6 (45:17):
Well, right now, we've had, we luckily have had a
good customer base, good feedback from everybody. We try to
listen to everybody's suggestions. We still show movies periodically We
work together with Shawnetown twenty nine Historical Society down the
(45:39):
street that we show old movies. The octobers we still
show the old horror movies and things.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
This year we'll be showing.
Speaker 6 (45:49):
Nosferatu, the original one, and we've shown in the past.
We've shown Dracula and and the wolf Man, and the
Mummy and Frankenstein and just the good old you know,
early early films, and so we enjoy that. But our
focus is mainly the concerts on Fridays and Saturdays and
(46:10):
our private events that people can rent the theater for
Sundays through Thursdays. Lots of concerts coming up.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
We have.
Speaker 6 (46:19):
A broad range of cover bands from different eras as
opposed as opposed to just having you know, the same
ones over and over, we have a rotation of lots.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
Of different ones. Kin City. It's just a huge music area.
Speaker 6 (46:33):
And as I've traveled around the last couple of years,
I've realized how how great a source of music we
have here in Kansas City. I don't think everybody realizes that. So,
you know, a lot of our bands come in. You
have cover bands that do uh, you know, stuff from
the fifties, the sixties, the seventies, eighties, the nineties, and
(46:53):
then we have tribute bands that focus, you know, solely
on one group. You know, we have a Kiss tribute
at a CDC, Sticks, Beach Boys, I mean, just all
sorts of tribute bands, bands that maybe you can't see anymore,
so you get to see somebody doing their representation of it.
(47:16):
And it's just it's so fun to be there on
Fridays and Saturdays when everybody's having a good time in there.
And we've over the last couple of years we've done
some changes. We've added a dance floor, so we expanded
our dance floor. We have table seating, which has been
very popular, so instead of just having our theater seats,
(47:38):
we've expanded into that. And like I say, we can
still show movies, but the concerts are really our.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
Big thing and we enjoy it fully.
Speaker 6 (47:49):
We've got a great staff, lots of bartenders and lots
of door personnel, and we try to keep a pretty
pretty good kind of family atmosphere we're in there. So
it has been a joy to work there, and.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
We currently are for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 6 (48:11):
I think last week I booked our last Friday date
in twenty twenty five, so we have concerts every Friday
and Saturday. This year booked up and I'm already booking
into twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
So you know, knock on wood.
Speaker 6 (48:24):
We've been We've been very fortunate and have a good
customer base of the Shawnee community and surrounding area traveling
in to see our you know.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
Our little piece of heaven is what I call it.
Speaker 8 (48:38):
We hope you.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Enjoyed the latest Danny kling Scale Reasonably irreverent podcast. Come
back soon for something fresh and new. This podcast was
made possible by our great sponsors like Eastern Roofing, where
integrity matters. Joe Spiker and his team are the best
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Speaker 7 (49:10):
MHM
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