KiMo Theater is a theater and historic landmark located in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the northeast corner of
Central Avenue and Fifth Street. It was built in 1927 in the extravagant
Pueblo Deco architecture, which is a blend of
adobe-style
Pueblo Revival building styles (rounded corners and edges), decorative motifs from indigenous cultures, and the soaring lines and linear repetition found in American
Art Deco architecture. The name
Kimo, meaning 'mountain lion', was suggested by
Pablo Abeita in a competition sponsored by the
Albuquerque Journal. The theater opened on September 19, 1927, with a program including Native American dancers and singers, a performance on the newly installed $18,000
Wurlitzer theater organ, and the comedy film
Painting the Town. According to local legend, the KiMo Theatre is haunted by the ghost of Bobby 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 had hung on backstage pipes to appease him. This photograph shows the facade of the KiMo Theater, seen from across Central Avenue.
Photograph credit: Daniel Schwen
