The KiMo Theatre, Albuquerque: Bobby Darnall, the Donut Shrine and the Truth Behind the Ghost

The KiMo Theatre opened on Central Avenue, then Route 66, on September 19, 1927, and its Pueblo Deco design, mixing Pueblo Revival forms with Art Deco, makes it one of the most distinctive theaters in the country. The City of Albuquerque bought it in 1977 to save it from demolition, restored it, and still runs it as a 650-seat venue for films, plays, dance and concerts.

It is also Albuquerque’s most famous haunted building. In August 1951 a water heater exploded in the lobby during a matinee and killed six-year-old Bobby Darnall Jr. Theater people say Bobby never left, and a shrine backstage holds the toys, notes and ballet shoes left for him so that he will not spoil the show. The ghost story is told with real affection, but it has also been researched more carefully than almost any haunting in the Southwest, and the records tell a more complicated tale.

History of the KiMo Theatre

Oreste Bachechi came to Albuquerque from Italy and built a successful business before he decided to build a theater that would stand out from the Greek temples and Chinese pavilions of 1920s movie houses. He hired the Boller Brothers, specialists in theaters, and the result was a three-story building in what came to be called Pueblo Deco, its facade covered in colorful terracotta ornament. Inside, Carl Von Hassler painted nine murals, and rows of plaster buffalo skulls with glowing amber eyes line the walls. Bachechi lived to see it open in 1927 and died the following year.

The name came from a contest. Isleta Pueblo Governor Pablo Abeita won $50 for suggesting KiMo, from two Tiwa words for mountain lion, loosely meaning king of its kind. The Bachechi family ran the theater for decades, merging it into a larger chain in 1935.

On the afternoon of Thursday, August 2, 1951, about a thousand people were watching an Abbott and Costello film, Comin’ Round the Mountain, when the water heater under the lobby stairs exploded. Bobby Darnall Jr., six, had been in the balcony with friends; frightened by a loud siren in a short film, he ran down toward the lobby just as the boiler blew. The blast threw him against a wall. He had a faint pulse when he was picked up and was dead on arrival at St. Joseph’s Hospital. Seven or eight other people were hurt, one man losing an eye. Bobby was buried at Fairview Park Cemetery.

Like many downtown theaters, the KiMo declined in the 1960s and 1970s, and by the mid-1970s it was showing adult films. After a fire, the family sold it to the city in 1977 rather than see it torn down. It was listed on the National Register that year, and a major restoration finished in 2000 brought back the seating, curtain and proscenium arch. In 2011 the city installed a 24-foot replica of the original vertical neon sign.

The ghost of the KiMo

Bobby and the donuts

The story everyone tells is that crews began leaving donuts out for Bobby after the theater reopened, found them gone in the morning and kept up the custom. According to the legend, a director ordered the donuts strung up backstage to be taken down before a Christmas performance of A Christmas Carol, and that night everything went wrong: lights failed, actors tripped and forgot lines. When the donuts went back up, the next show ran smoothly. Performers have left Bobby gifts ever since.

What the researchers found

Writers Benjamin Radford and Weekly Alibi dug into the archives. They found that no Christmas Carol was staged at the KiMo on Christmas Day 1974, the date usually given, because the theater was showing adult films that year; the production in question was in December 1986, and its reviews mention no problems. The director said nothing supernatural happened in his eight years there. The theater’s own technical manager traced the donuts to leftovers that crew members tied to a pipe as a joke, a souvenir collection that grew into a shrine. A newspaper photo from August 1951 also shows that the balcony stairs where the ghost is said to play were not where Bobby died. Bobby’s siblings told Radford they felt the story exploited their brother.

The shrine today

None of that has stopped the tradition. Under the dressing room stairs is a shrine with Bobby’s photo, toys, notes, jewelry and ballet slippers left by casts and crews. Food is no longer allowed, so performers leave trinkets instead. The theater’s events supervisor told KRQE in 2024 that he encourages performers to leave something small, though he has never seen anything creepy himself.

Other stories

Staff and visitors add smaller tales: a woman who died at a cafe once inside the building is said to haunt the second floor, audiences lose keys and glasses, a manager once found himself locked in his office from his own side of the door, and two businessmen who had never heard of Bobby are said to have seen a boy in the balcony during a renovation. These come from staff interviews rather than records.

Where to look

• The lobby: where the water heater exploded in 1951.
• The balcony stairs: where Bobby is most often said to appear, in a striped shirt and jeans.
• The backstage shrine: under the dressing room stairs, shown on building tours.
• The buffalo skulls: with their glowing amber eyes along the auditorium walls.

Visiting the KiMo Theatre

The easiest way inside is to buy a ticket for a film, concert or play; the city’s KiMo season runs through the year, and tickets are sold through the city’s box office. The lobby, auditorium and balcony are all open to ticket holders before shows.

The city also runs occasional free guided tours of about an hour that cover the architecture, the naming of the theater, recent upgrades and Bobby’s story, and it has held special Halloween tours of the building. These are announced on the City of Albuquerque’s arts and culture events pages and tend to fill quickly.

The KiMo is at Central Avenue and Fifth Street downtown, a short walk from the Hotel Andaluz and the Old Bernalillo County Courthouse, and about a mile from Old Town.

• Visiting City-owned working theater; the lobby is open for shows and events
• Tours Occasional free guided tours by the city that include the 1951 story

Tips for your visit

• Watch the city’s arts and culture events listings for free building tours.
• Arrive early for a show to see the lobby and buffalo skulls in the light.
• Leave a note or a small trinket for Bobby rather than food.
• Stay at the Hotel Andaluz around the corner, which has its own ghost stories.

More haunted places nearby

• Haunted places in Albuquerque: Old Town, Church Street Cafe and more
• Hotel Andaluz: Conrad Hilton’s 1939 hotel, a block away
• Hotel Parq Central: a former railroad hospital turned hotel
• Haunted Route 66: the KiMo stands on the old road
• Haunted places in New Mexico
• Haunted places in Albuquerque

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.

• Wikipedia: KiMo Theater
• City of Albuquerque: History of the KiMo
• City of Albuquerque: Free tour of the KiMo Theatre
• Weekly Alibi: The definitive KiMo ghost
• KRQE News 13: Is Albuquerque's KiMo Theatre haunted? (2024)
• Daily Lobo: KiMo tour (2014)
• Albuquerque Journal: These are 5 of the most haunted places in Albuquerque (2024)
• Albuquerque Journal: Haunted houses (2017)