"Built in 1930. Operated by Landmark since 1986.Featuring Denver's finest in independent film and foreign language cinema, the Mayan Theatre is located in the heart of Central Denver amongst a bevy of art galleries, restaurants and vintage clothing stores in the Baker District. The historic Mayan, built in 1930, narrowly missed the wrecking ball in the mid-1980s, when, at the eleventh hour, it was saved by the local group "Friends of the Mayan." In 1986, The Mayan was restored to its former glory. Renovated meticulously at a cost of nearly $2 million, it is one of the country's three remaining theatres designed in the Art Deco Mayan Revival style. It has been converted into a three-screen palace, with one large, magnificent auditorium and two cozy theatres upstairs, featuring stadium seating. There is also an upstairs cafe and seating area." (from (
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""Certain" demolition long past, the Mayan turns 75
"Help Save Me" was the plea on the marquee of the Mayan Theatre. It was June 1984, and the ornate movie palace, opened in 1930, teetered on the brink.
The newspaper headlines were dire: "Mayan Demolition Appears Certain," declared one.
Attorney Chris Citron recalls the words of Denver Post columnist Dick Kreck: "If throwing your body in front of a wrecking ball is your idea of a good time, then you should get on over to the Mayan Theatre this weekend."
It was "Perils of Pauline" time for the theater.
Citron had joined the legal fray four months earlier, helped by the Friends of the Mayan, a neighborhood organization attempting to save the Montana Fallis-designed theater by getting it declared a historic landmark. The owners had made it clear the theater would be demolished when the lease expired.
"It was basically a fifth-run flophouse kind of a theater at that time," says Citron who had worked for the law firm that saved New York's Grand Central Station. "The roof was leaking badly. It was barely being maintained."
Even after Denver's City Council declared the theater a landmark, permits for demolition were obtained on the owners' side. Scaffolding went up. Consultants were recruited by the Friends of the Mayan, and 90-day stays of execution were issued by the council.
In true movie fashion, said Citron, there was even a Deep Throat phone call. The caller hinted that Broncos owner Pat Bowlen and partner Dick Landon were in negotiations to buy the bank that owned that block. Eventually they did, and Landmark Theatres signed a long-term lease in 1986.
Nineteen years later, the Mayan is going strong.
This is just part of the history lesson you'll get this weekend as the Mayan and Esquire - two of Denver's art-house stalwarts - celebrate the former's 75th anniversary with a series of special events and screenings.
"The community has embraced these theaters for many, many years," says David Kimball, city manager for Landmark, which programs the Mayan, Esquire and the Chez Artiste. "I think they will continue to do so, and this is just a way for us to say thanks."
The Mayan opened in 1930, complete with a faux Indian ceremony. The Esquire - originally called the Hiawatha - had opened at East Sixth Avenue and Downing Street in 1927. It reopened as the Esquire in 1942 with "Thunderbirds." " By Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post Film Critic (excerpted from (
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