“The Mayan is my favorite place in Denver, and it will always be and I plan to work here as long as they'll let me," said Adam Kaiser, who has worked at the movie theater for around five years now. “There are not very many old movie palaces like this left in the country.”
“It operated as a movie theatre until 1984. It shut down after that, but a group of individuals in the community called themselves The Friends of Mayan. And they, I guess, banded together to not only get the theatre a historical designation, but also reopen it to play films," said Kaiser, who told Denver7 the theater reopened just two years later.
“Film is one of the things across the last 100 years that really has a power to bring people together," said Kaiser. “It allows you to put your phone away, sit in a dark room with a bunch of strangers, and fully immerse yourself with what's on the screen.”