But here’s what would later scare his young patrons in particular: He lined the walls with steer skulls, whose empty eye sockets glowed a spooky amber when the auditorium lights went down.

Bachechi called his theater the “KiMo,” which in the Tiwa Indian tongue broadly describes anything that is “king of its kind.”

Like many U.S. movie palaces, the KiMo’s financial fortunes declined with the coming of television.

Its owners even resorted to showing pornographic films for awhile.

The KiMo Theatre's outside lobby gives a hint of the American Indian touches to be found inside. (Carol M. Highsmith)

But the theater closed in 1968 and remained shuttered for 15 years until a fundraising drive led to its glorious restoration.

Today, the KiMo screens classic movies and offers its stage to regional theatre and musical groups.

And the steer skulls glow eerily once again.