By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
Northeast News
October 8, 2014

This week’s historic postcard is a Real Photo postcard that shows a shot of the Shrine Parade in Kansas City in 1924.

No publisher’s information exists on the card, and there is no written message on its reverse. Huge crowds gathered to watch the spectacle as it proceeded down Baltimore Avenue. Shown here are the Shriners passing in front of the Orpheum Theater between 12th and 13th Streets. Huge banners were hung from guy-wires above downtown streets, welcoming the 1924 Shrine conventioneers to Kansas City for their annual meeting, and spectators were treated to Shrine bands from all over the United States. The parade route that year started at Union Station along Pershing Road, went north on Walnut to 11th (Petticoat Lane), then east to Baltimore, and then back south to end near 14th and Baltimore.

A sign on the Orpheum Theater welcomes all of the Shrine Nobles in addition to advertising the new comedy hit “Mary’s Ankle” starring Douglas MacLean, Arthur Hampton and Victor Potel. The Orpheum shown here is actually the second such “Orpheum” built in Kansas City. The first Orpheum Theater, built in 1898 was located at Ninth and May, a block east of Broadway, and operated there until 1914. The Orpheum theater shown here was opened in late 1914 and operated continuously until its razing in 1956 by the Trianon Hotel Company, then operators of the Meuhlebach Hotel. Following the theater’s razing, Trianon built the Meuhlebach annex and convention center. The banner in the left-center of the photograph designates VIP seating for the Imperial Divan, past Imperial Potentates and the Executive Committee.