Edward Dubinsky

Edward Dubinsky, later Edward Durwood, was one of three brothers who moved from touring melodrama tent shows into exhibition, buying the Regent Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri in 1920. He ran the circuit as it grew to about 40 theatres across Missouri and Kansas by 1932, changed the family name to Durwood, and led the company until his death in 1960, when his son Stanley took over.

AMC began as a family business in the American Midwest. In 1920 Edward Dubinsky and his brothers Maurice and Barney, who had been travelling the Midwest performing melodramas and tent shows with the actress Jeanne Eagels, bought the Regent Theatre on 12th Street in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. They traded as Dubinsky Bros. and built the circuit to about 40 theatres in Missouri and Kansas by 1932, a regional chain operating outside the studio owned theatre systems of the era. Edward changed the family name to Durwood; the company traded as Durwood-Dubinsky Bros. from 1939 and as Durwood Theatres from 1947. Edward died in 1960 and his son Stanley Durwood inherited about ten theatres. In 1963 Stanley opened a two auditorium theatre in Kansas City where both screens shared one box office, one concession stand and one staff, generally considered the first modern multiplex, because a single site could then carry several titles without duplicating overhead. He renamed the company American Multi-Cinema in 1968 and expanded the format nationally, and in May 1995 AMC opened the Grand 24 in Dallas, the first megaplex in the United States. Edward's single Kansas City theatre is the origin of what is now the largest movie exhibition company in the world.