Tivoli’s Jerry Harrington Reflects on a Life in Film Beloved Cinema Reopens in New Home This Week
Jerry Harrington discusses plans for the new Tivoli at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. (Brad Austin | Flatland)
Published October 21st, 2019 at 6:00 AM
One suspects Orson Welles would be pleased.
Tonight — six months after the Tivoli Cinemas closed its longtime Westport location — Kansas City’s cornerstone of independent film exhibition reopens in the 500-seat Atkins Auditorium at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
After a special event tonight to thank museum donors — featuring a screening of Buster Keaton’s 1926 silent film “The General” — regular screenings on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday will begin.
“I feel very supported here,” said Tivoli impresario Jerry Harrington during a recent interview conducted on the stage of the Atkins Auditorium. “They’re spending a lot of money to make this a place where movies will look really good.”
A powerful case can be made that no other person has done as much as Harrington to expand the boundaries of local film-goers over the past four decades.
“I love being the guy who premiered all these great movies,” Harrington said.
And now, thanks to the Nelson-Atkins, he can keep doing it.
Harrington discussed his history in Kansas City cinema, and his hopes for the new Tivoli at the Nelson-Atkins in this installment of Flatland Conversations.