Nearly a year after visiting Albuquerque, New Mexico, I was browsing through my picture files, looking for images I had meant to use and hadn't gotten to. I'm glad I did; if not, I wouldn't have discovered how rich a history the building has. All I knew was that the outside was gorgeous.
The theatre, which features both the Art Deco styling of its time (1927) and elements of Native American art. It was built by a couple, Oreste Bachechi and his wife, Maria Franceschi Bachechi, who had lived and been welcomed in one of New Mexico's pueblos. The name translates roughly as 'mountain lion' in the local native language.
Among the design elements featuring native art are the terra cotta medallions near the top of the facade. I've been told the interior is as gorgeous as the exterior, but sadly, we didn't have the opportunity. Here's a photo from the Library of Congress showing it in about 1980.
The theater was restored in 2000, after having fallen into decay after a fire and is a major local performance venue.
It even has a ghost story of its own. Here it is, from Wikipedia:
According to local legend, the KiMo Theatre is haunted by the ghost of Robbie Darnall, a six-year-old boy killed in 1951 when a water heater in the theater's lobby exploded. The tale alleges that a theatrical performance of A Christmas Carol in 1974 was disrupted by the ghost, who was supposedly angry that the staff was ordered to remove donuts they'd hung on backstage pipes to appease him.
While investigating the legend, writer Benjamin Radford discovered that A Christmas Carol was not performed at the theater until 1986, and no disruptions were reported. According to Radford, "all the evidence points to an inescapable conclusion: the ruination of the play - the very genesis of the KiMo Theater ghost story - simply did not occur; it is but folklore and fiction". Radford also contacted Robbie Darnall's siblings, who told him they felt "exploited by the story" and did not appreciate "claims that their beloved brother is continuing to eat stale doughnuts and ruin performances at the KiMo Theater".
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