The King of Theatres: Ghost Stories, "Pueblo Deco," and More
The KiMo Theatre, where we gather for the Movies & Meaning Festival, is not just a treasured hub for Albuquerque events due to its easy downtown location, but a truly one-of-a-kind venue with a long history—from its architecture to its ghost stories.
It was designed in the 1920s to stand out from the other “picture palaces” being built in those days, which were frequently styled after Greek temples or Chinese pavilions. The designer, Carl Boller, traveled throughout New Mexico visiting pueblos of Acoma and Isleta, and the Navajo Nation before beginning his plans. Combining indigenous art with the popular Art Deco stylings of the decade, Boller mocked up what has been called a “Pueblo Deco” design: spirited, exuberant, and every bit a blend of the cultures of New Mexico.
Original watercolor rendering by Boller
One historian describes the space:
The interior was to include plaster ceiling beams textured to look like logs and painted with dance and hunt scenes, air vents disguised as Navajo rugs, chandeliers shaped like war drums and Native American funeral canoes, wrought iron birds descending the stairs and rows of garlanded buffalo skulls with eerie, glowing amber eyes.
None of the designs were chosen at random. Each of the myriad images of rain clouds, birds and swastikas had historical significance. The Navajo swastika is a symbol for life, freedom and happiness.
Like its abstract symbols, color, too, was part of the Indian vocabulary. Yellow represents the life-giving sun, white the approaching morning, red the setting sun of the West and black the darkening clouds from the North. The crowning touch was the nine large wall murals painted in oil by Carl Von Hassler. Working from 20 foot high scaffolding, Von Hassler spent months on his creations.
The architecture reflected the KiMo’s animating spirit as a meeting place for a diversity of people: when it was completed, the KiMo opened with performances by representatives from nearby Native American pueblos and reservations.
The theatre is one of the few original picture palaces in America built to house silent films and carefully modernized over the twentieth century. In 2000, the City of Albuquerque completed a $2 million project to restore the elaborate Pueblo Deco designs of its origination, as well as outfit the stage and movie screen with the best modern technology.
No amount of modernizing, though, detaches the KiMo from its long history—including, some say, the resident ghost of a young boy who perished in a water heater accident in 1951. Ask the staff, and they’ll look at you with something of a twinkle in their eye, and say that sometimes…things get rearranged in their offices.
The ghost of the KiMo Theatre is friendly, they say. In fact, if you exit the stage on the left, you’ll find in one stairwell a shelf of little toys, paper flowers, and bright postcards for the kid: it has become a tradition now for performers to bring a little gift for the KiMo’s ghost so their shows go smoothly.
Last year, our staff left a little pinwheel there. And who knows? We did have a great time—with no ghostly shenanigans.
The KiMo is unlike any other place on earth. And it’s true to its name, “KiMo,” which is a combination of Tiwa words interpreted as “king of its kind.” It’s the king of theatres: a warm and animated center for a gathering of imaginative, diverse people.