A promotional post card put out by the Gayety Theater, a Kansas City burlesque house located on the southeast corner of 12th and Wyandotte (a site now occupied by the enlarged Radisson-Muehlebach Hotel), advertises a January billing. The year is about 1912. The post card pictures six silk-stockinged beauties selected from the front-row line of Hurtig & Seamon's Social Maids. They are from six different states, and the post card's legend tells the reader to pick out the girl from Missouri and win a free orchestra seat. Max Spiegel, representing the Columbia Amusement Company and the Kansas City Amusement Company, was in charge of the theater when it was built, according to a March 21, 1909, Kansas City Star story. The two-story brick theater cost $115,000 and was built on the former site of the home of A.W. Armour, the packer. The theater's seating capacity was 1,600. Stores and shops occupied the first-floor frontage, except for the two theater entrances. The main entrance was on 12th and the balcony entrance was on Wyandotte. Sixteen offices were located on the second floor.The post card, printed in brown and white, was published by the Kraus Manufacturing Company, New York. It was found in a thrift shop. It had never been mailed. Kansas City Times, December 26, 1980.
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