The Brown Grand Theater

Location:  Downtown Concordia, at the west end of the business district.

Hours:  9-12, 1-4 Tuesday thru Saturday, also by appointment and during events.

Contact:  Phone--   785/243-2553    Email--   browngrand@dustdevil.com

Admission:  Yes

Photos Copyright H. Schuster.  Please do not use without permission.

Ever wonder what folks did for entertainment before movies, radio, and television?  They had live entertainment, often as close as the local theater, or Opera House as they were popularly known.   Yes, before entertainment was condensed, distilled, and pasteurized to fit onto the flat movie screen or reduced to excited electrons bouncing inside the cathode ray tube of a television set, crowds thrilled to live plays and musicals on stage.  Many of these old Opera Houses are gone now, victims of changing times and technology.

In Concordia, however, a truly fine example lives on, once again playing host to live performances.  The Brown Grand was completed in 1907, just before the dawn of the motion picture era.  Even before its construction, Concordia had witnessed many of the finest performers of their time, since it was serviced by several major rail lines, and performing groups often stopped at Concordia while enroute to larger cities.  The existing facilities were cramped and rather plain, though, and it was obvious a better theater was needed.

A wealthy local banker and businessman, "Col." Napoleon Brown announced in 1905 his intention to build a proper opera house in Concordia.  Earl Van Dorn Brown, "Col." Brown's son would direct the construction of the theater which would bear the family name.  Ground was broken in 1906, and soon the brick and native stone structure reached sixty feet into the Kansas sky.  Opening night was September 17, 1907, and the excited audience thrilled to the play " The Vanderbuilt Cup", a popular play of the day.  Early special effects included the use of a spinning background behind two actual automobiles on stage to produce the illusion of two cars speeding along in a race.

The Brown Grand Theater quickly became known as the finest theater between Kansas City and Denver, but even this could not stop the endless march of time.  The first decade of the Twentieth Century would prove to be the swan song for live theater.  Within four years of the theater's completion, both "Col." Napoleon Brown and his son Earl would be dead, and movies would soon largely replace stage plays for entertainment.  Ownership passed from the Brown widows to the city of Concordia and back to the Brown family estate.  Before it's conversion to a motion picture theater in 1925, the Brown Grand hosted a variety of events from high school graduations, traveling entertainers, wrestling matches, and local theater productions.

For fifty years, the Brown Grand functioned as a movie house, until it's last picture show in 1974.  The historic building, one of the last examples of the classic small town opera house, had been place on the National Historic Register in 1973.  The building was purchased by the restoration committee during this period, and subsequently donated to the City of Concordia.  Funds were raised, and from 1974-1980, a compete interior and exterior restoration was completed at a cost of $500,000.  The theater's original cost was $40,000 in 1907.

Reopening night was September 17, 1980, 73 years to the day of the original, and featuring the same play, "The Vanderbuilt Cup".

On opening night in 1907, Earl Brown presented his father, "Col." Napoleon Brown with the stage drop curtain featuring a painting entitled "Napoleon at Austerlitz" as a gift in recognition for all the elder Brown had contributed to the community and the construction of the theater.    Though the original curtain sustained water damage in a 1967 tornado, an exact reproduction was painted by the same firm which made the original nearly 70 years earlier, Twin Cities Scenic Company of Minneapolis, MN.

The view from the stage.... The interior looks pretty much the same as it did on opening night back in 1907.  The theater lighting was upgraded during the restoration, but great care was taken to preserve the vintage appearance.  The acoustics of this old theater are excellent.   Despite all of our modern computer design technology, we still cannot reproduce the sound carrying ability of these old theaters which were built in a time before electronic amplification of voice and music was possible.  No matter how many records are kept, and no matter how advanced our computer data storage may become, knowledge inevitably is lost from one generation to the next, and that alone is reason enough to preserve these old structures.

During restoration work at the theater, vintage play bills were discovered in good condition, and several of these are now on display in the lobby.  Judging from the posters, some of the live plays bore a stunning resemblance to our modern daytime soap operas.

There are those who believe the old theater to be haunted by the ghost of Earl Brown.  Doors left shut are found opened, shadowy figures have been seen standing at the window, electric circuit breakers trip without cause, and cold drafts are felt in certain places for no apparent reason.  The Flatlander puts little stock in these stories, but I think Earl would be proud if he could see his restored opera house today.

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