Inside the Folly, Barrett captured burlesque performers, posing in elegantly suggestive gowns and in various states of undress.
At Miller Nichols Library, photographs by Bob Barrett capture the theater’s colorful, at times racy, history
Ahand-written sign hangs lopsided in front of a shut door, reading, “Closed permanently — thanks for your patronage.” Above the entrance is a long wooden sign advertising “Burlesk” shows every Thursday. The black-and-white photographs preceding this image show a dilapidated theater and the performers and employees who occupied the space before it was presumed to be destroyed.
Now, some 50 years later, the Folly is a premier theater in Kansas City, an anchor of turn-of-the-century architecture and charm. “The Folly’s Last Gasp,” an exhibit curated by Stuart Hinds, curator of special collections & archives at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, gives a rare look into a seldom documented time in Kansas City’s history when 12th Street was a hedonistic strip of adult entertainment establishments.
The exhibition features the photography of longtime local photographer Bob Barrett. He was incredibly prolific, photographing everything from wildlife and architecture to commercial images. He worked professionally as a freelance photographer for The Kansas City Star and was a staff photographer at UMKC. When Barrett died in 2016, his sister-in-law Judith Epstein wanted his legacy to live on. “When I opened up his storage locker and I saw thousands and thousands of slides, I did not want his work thrown away,” says Epstein. “I wanted it to be given to somebody as a legacy of his talent and brilliance.” She met Hinds and knew Barrett’s work would be in good hands.
As Hinds and other special collections employees sifted through the mass of Barrett’s images, they came across images of the Folly likely from 1974, when the theater was on its last legs. Hinds was immediately struck by these images, explaining, “It’s an undocumented aspect of the city’s history and unexpected. People now think of the Folly as the jewel that it is, and they’re not really aware of how close the city came to losing it and what it was when that was about to occur.”
Since the Folly opened its doors in 1900, it has transformed numerous times — from vaudeville to legitimate theater. However, from the middle of the century to 1974, it was in a period of decline, even closing its doors more than once. During the moments that Barrett captured, the Folly operated as an adult film and burlesque venue. Taken from the outside of the theater, one of Barrett’s images reads, “Folly Burlesk theatre presents mature adult films you can bring your best friends [sic] wife to.”
This adult subculture was not unique to the Folly. In fact, it was a part of a larger area on 12th Street known as the Strip, which was ultimately demolished to make room for the Downtown Marriott. The Kansas City Public Library contributed images to the exhibition, allowing viewers to see the dramatic transformation of the well-known street. Additional newspaper clippings of adult entertainment advertisements and editorials about 12th Street are also viewable in glass cases between Barrett’s photographs.
Inside the Folly, Barrett captured burlesque performers, posing in elegantly suggestive gowns and in various states of undress. One photograph even shows a performer beaming brightly, perched on a chandelier. Another performer balances atop a ladder in a feminine, bell-bottom suit, holding a bowler hat in her hand. She is later seen onstage counting money with two men, one of whom Hinds discovered to be Henry S. Hogan. Because of what Hinds refers to as, “the sexism of the day,” none of the identities of the burlesque performers are known. However, Hogan, aged 101 at the time of these photographs and 108 at the time of his death, was a well-known Kansas City character. At the time of his death, he was given an editorial obituary in The Kansas City Star because he was such a recognizable feature of the downtown scene.
Character is at the heart of this exhibition. It conveys the humanity and grittiness of the subculture that frequented the Strip, as well as the loss that came with its destruction. As Hinds explains, “What you lose are some of the figures like Hogan and some of the earlier individuals who give the city a unique kind of character. When you eradicate all that to cater to the tourist, you lose a certain facet of your city.”
Likewise, underneath the striking black-and-white photographs is the story of another local character — Barrett himself. He was the longtime partner and eventual spouse of Kansas City Star arts & entertainment editor and prolific writer Shifra Stein. The two met on the job and became a sort of journalistic power couple, with Stein interviewing and Barrett photographing notable names who came to Kansas City. Epstein adds, “They just had a fascinating, interesting life. He was interested in everything, whether it was art or architecture or birds or wildlife. He was just great, and my sister had one hell of an impact on Kansas City. I mean, everybody knew her.”
“The Folly’s Last Gasp” tells the surprising story of one of the most famous theaters in Kansas City, but it also has a wider, more poignant message about the character (and characters) that make up the very core of our city. Hinds summarizes, “The fact that this documentation exists — both in the set of photographs and in these publications — is pretty remarkable and really, really rare especially in the history of this city, so I’m thrilled that we were able to bring this stuff together and share it with the public. It’s a moment, and it’s a moment that isn’t typically captured.”
“The Folly’s Last Gasp” continues through June 2026 on the third floor of Miller Nichols Library, 800 E. 51st St. Hours are 7:30 a.m. to midnight Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday. For more information, 816.235.1526 or library.umkc.edu.
