Milburn Kenworthy enjoyed a successful career as a performer when he decided to settle in Moscow and open a theatre house.
Professional actor and vaudevillian, he worked on the road and in theatre houses most of his life with such luminaries as Al Jolson, Lillian Russell, and Charlie Chaplin. He ran his own touring troupe for several years, and the Kenworthy family remembers the Warner Brothers wanting him in California to get into the newly booming film industry in a place called Hollywood (Legacy, p. 9).
Instead, he followed the advice of an orchestra player turned mortician to come to Moscow, Idaho. “…this would be a good place to have a theatre. Because there was a university here” Bethine Kenworthy remembered (Legacy, p. 9). He purchased the Strand Theater, renamed it the Kenworthy, and moved to a town he had never visited in all his travels.
Seven years after this purchase, Kenworthy would purchase a building on Main Street which had been an opera house, the Crystal Theatre, and a car dealership. He renovated the site, creating the picture palace we are familiar with today. The new theatre opened in 1926, under the name Kenworthy Theatre (the old Kenworthy became the Vandal Theatre). Milburn Kenworthy also installed a Robert Morton pipe organ to accompany the silent movies.
In 1936 Kenworthy donated his Robert Morton pipe organ to the University (an item the University Auditorium had been in sore need of); and in the 1970s, theatre seats were donated to the Drama Department for its studio theatre (Legacy 45, p. 29). U of I Theatre returned the favor by donating the studio’s stage light patch bay when it was shuttered after 80 or so years of service.
Initially showing films and staging plays, the theatre eventually switched to strictly movies. It would remain that way until 2000 when it successfully transitioned into a non-profit, the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre (KPAC) when it resumed play production and other community events.
The organ was used for practice and performance, and it received a renovation in 1988 (Kelley, p. 29; Argonaut, 1988, p.8) Also, the theatre seats were used for almost 30 years.
The KPAC has also served as a venue for the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. It continues to serve town and gown. Today it shows cartoons during Moscow Farmers Market, hosts the Outdoor Program’s Backcountry Film Festival, KINO Short Film Festival, and films sponsored by a variety of campus groups, including U of I Tribal Nations Student Affairs. Theatre Arts Department students have staged productions there.
This Saturday June 6th, 2026 at 11:30am, the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre celebrates 100 years at its Main Street location in collaboration with Mikey’s Gyros & BookPeople of Moscow who are celebrating the 100th anniversary of their buildings. The Latah County Historical Society will be on hand to conduct a walking tour.
Sources
Argonaut Archive - University of Idaho’s Student Run Newspaper
Burns, Ariana and Dusty Fleener. “Held Together By Paint and Passion! A Retrospective of the University of Idaho’s University Hut,” Latah Legacy, Vol. 45 No. 1; 2018
Idaho Cities and Towns Collection
Kelley, N.R.. “Here We Have Idaho,” Theatre Organ, Vol. 12, No. 2, April 1970.
“Kenworthy organ returns,” Argonaut, 1988-01-29.
Latah County Historical Society
“Local Theatre Magnate Give Pipe Organ For University of Idaho Auditorium,” Argonaut, 1936-02-28