Seneca  Opera Houses

The following from the 1983 Courier-Tribune

Jean Kongs ends 52 years years at Seneca Theater

Jean Kongs retired from the motion  picture theater business in 1982 after 52 years of bringing Hollywood to the  Seneca Theater. She and her late husband. John, began operating the  theater in 1930 when it was still called the Royal Theater. a name that goes  back to about 1914. Before that people referred to the theater building  at Third and Main as the "Opera  House."    

There was a time. just before the  turn of the century, when Seneca had  two opera houses. One of them was the G.A.R. building that was destroyed in  the 1896 tornado, the other was the old  theater building. Almost every kind of entertainment was held at these opera  houses except operas. Before the invention of motion pictures, residents of  Seneca and the surrounding area enjoyed plays, lectures, wrestling matches, slide shows, banquets, and basketball games.

Unfortunately, the present theater building is not the original building that was known as the Opera House in those early days. Very little of the old building was salvaged when the present building was built by a wealthy Oklahoma oil man, F.A. Lamb, in 1927. An effort to locate the past date when the original building was constructed was unsuccessful, but records were found which showed that it existed as early as 1892. A 1927 Courier article that describes the present building says the original  building was "one of Seneca's earliest structures, " and it probably was.  

The old theater building or Opera House. was a two story  buildings much like the present building in that respect. Apparently the second floor was a large open room that could be used for almost anything, including banquets and basketball games, The first floor was used for some time as a combination general store and lecture hall. On more than one occasion, events were scheduled on both floors on the same night, a practice that drove one Courier writer in 1910 to complaint that a lecture on the bottom floor was spoiled by the scuffling of people on the floor above.

One of the first references to motion pictures in Seneca appeared in the November 4, 1909, Seneca Tribune.  The editor merely mentions that an "Electric Theater" is operating in Seneca. Later references to this theater at the Opera House indicate that the motion picture schedules were irregular at best, and that no movies at all were shown during the winter season. Later, by 1911 it became common to close the motion picture theater during the hot months of summer. During these months, films were shown at outdoor theaters on Main Street called Air Domes. One of these was set up near the old Gifford Hotel; another flourished for a time in the vacant lot where the J.C. Penney's building now stands.  (location of Fashions Unlimited today) 

All (if these early films were silent of course There is still one musician living in Seneca today, Charles Jerman. Which can recall spending long hours at the old theater playing violin music to accompany the action of these films. It was not until 1914 that talking pictures were shown at the Opera House, which by then had acquired the name The Royal Theater. It was Jean Karnes father. Bob Karnes, Who was the first man to make a  success of the motion picture business in Seneca, according to the 1927  Courier article referred to earlier, Karnes bought the Royal Theater business in 1923 and rented the building from  oil map J.A. Lamb. Lamb decided in 1927 to replace the old building with a  modern "movie palace," and invested  $20,00O in the project, the result was the theater building which was called  the "finniest picture house in northeast Kansas." and generations of Seneca moviegoer have sat through countless  Hollywood  classic that were shown on its screen.

Mr. Karri operated the business until 1930 when Jean and John Kongs became the new managers. They continued  the fine reputation of the established  by Mr. Karnes, Jean's Sister, Mrs. Alien Bisagno, of Augusta. Kansas,  recalls that true to family tradition  they brought only the best in film fare  to Seneca.

The Kongs bought the building, according to Mrs. Bisagno, in 1944, and in 1951 completely enlarged and remodeled the theater. At that time the name of the business was changed to it’s present name, The Seneca Theater.

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