Michigan Theatre

[gnome]

Attachment 7772

what it might look like as a MMA arena

[gnome]

Estate Sale at Michigan Theater Today/ Saturday Nov 12

[GrandCircus289]

Is this structure open to the public or is it specifically for those working in adjacent buildings?

[dawn26]

it is open to the public after 4 on weekdays and on weekends for sporting events, i think

[1KielsonDrive]

Attachment 7772

what it might look like as a MMA arena

Gnome, that's fabulous. First time I've seen your rendering. But it would have to be held in the spring or fall due to lack of HVAC.

[1KielsonDrive]

it is open to the public after 4 on weekdays and on weekends for sporting events, i think

Funny.......

[Gistok]

I believe the theatre garage is only open to the public on game days....

The former theatre space could have many very interesting uses besides parking and tailgating. However, the buildings insurance company would have a fit over many of them... liability is a big concern for the building owner.

Interestingly enough falling plasterwork is rarely an issue. Plaster is never heavier than when it is first installed. And as long as the plaster and iron rods holding it in place are secure from water leaking into the building, it is relatively secure. Especially since the building roof is kept in good condition.

The top level of the parking structure is located between where the theatre mezzanine and lowest balcony level were located. Although the main floor, mezzanine and 1st balcony foyers have been removed, the 2nd and 3rd balcony foyers still exist stacked on top of one another on top of the former theatre grand lobby... and above the [[open to the former theatre) 3rd balcony foyer is the projection booth. With the sloped balcony removed during the gutting of the theatre in 1977, the 2nd and 3rd balcony foyers open up to some dizzying heights... and are very dangerous places to be exploring.

Here is a pic of the 2nd balcony foyer [[above the former grand lobby)... bathed in perpetual darkness... and a pic of one of 2 entryway openings from that foyer into where the balcony used to be... now an open void that drops off 25 ft. to the top of the 3rd level parking.

The amount of closed off areas that still exist in the former theatre would surprise a lot of folks who have only been as far as the 3rd parking level.

[DetroitUA]

more photos please!

[Gistok]

Alright... yee ask and ye shall receive....

Since I now have a Flickr account.... I can show some pics as they were meant to be seen [[without the DYES size constraints)...

The procenium arch and sounding board of the former Michigan Theatre as all visitors see it....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/5174025768/

And [[this will be a treat....) how the current theatre would look if the old theatre house lights were on....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/...n/photostream/

.... more large pics coming tomorrow....

[Magnatomicflux]

Wow, that's beautiful with the lights turned on!
Thanks Gistok!

[Gistok]

One of my favorite parts of the former Michigan Theatre that very very few people have seen close up [[never been available to theatre tours) is inside the great window of the former Michigan Theatre. It still dominates the office building facade, even though an entry and exit garage door cover where the dozen or so theatre doors used to be.

In most theatres the great window has a lobby right behind the glass. But in some theatres, such as the former Michigan, the window is really a false window to promote the theatre... while the grand lobby may actually be some distance from the window.

I've done research of the all the largest surviving theatres, and no theatre has a larger "false" great window than does the Michigan.

This space is 4 stories tall, and is shaped like a 1/2 silo [[cut down the middle). From the outside it looks quite noble... but from the inside... it looks spectacular!! Architecturally I would describe it as Louis XIV meets the 21st century....

Enjoy...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/5174080928/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/5174081248/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/5173476225/

And also... there's the former theatre's 5 story lobby... whose ceiling still shows us how spectacular this space must have been....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/5173465929/

[Magnatomicflux]

Great shots! That window is amazing! Thanks again.


As for the lobby, and I think this is where you took the picture.........I'm not even sure if spectacular is an accurate discription! Wait...are those seats to the left in the modern shot? Are these differnt spots?







[[from wiki)

[Gistok]

Great shots! That window is amazing! Thanks again.


As for the lobby, and I think this is where you took the picture.........I'm not even sure if spectacular is an accurate discription! Wait...are those seats to the left in the modern shot? Are these differnt spots?





[[from wiki)

Actually no.... I took my photo from the other "end" side of the lobby... the side that is at the end of the image that you linked to... in the dark area just underneath the arch.

I'm not one for heights, so I stood away from the edge of that rarely visited end side of the former Grand Lobby to take that pic.

As for the false great window.... it really is quite a novelty... being inside that space was kind of weird... you sort of lose your sense of distance in there... very surrealistic... so unexpected for a space that was never meant to be visited.

[detroitbob]

Of all the Rapp and Rapp theatre's built in that period, the Michigan was IMO one of their finest designs...it was cohesive. don't get me wrong, the Uptown, the Chicago, the Oriental, etc. are all impressive with the Oriental being another of their masterpiece designs. In fact if you look at the Oriental the auditorium is virtually identical in scale to the Michigan save the decore and a higher dome. The Oriental has the same feel, "scale" if you will. It was too bad the Michigan stage was limited in depth because of the plot size. The Loge promenade and adjoining staircases to the main balcony was nothing short of stunning...I remember the artwork and furniture and drapery being in place circa 1965...the place was 40 years old at that point but although "dusty" had been faithfully maintained. After Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh was created from the old Penn Theatre [[also a R&R design) the Michigan was briefly considered as a replacement for Ford Auditorium but even though a private test performance by members of the orchestra was deemed favorable the plan never went anywhere. Ultimately Orchestra Hall was without a doubt the best option...but the Michigan was a true jewel. We removed stage lighting and some old black teasers for reuse at Orchestra Hall while the demolition was being prepped, i.e. holes being knocked in the walls and it was heartbreaking seeing Vienna trained Eduard Werner, the great conductor who spent some 14 years conducting the orchestra being interviewed in the stripped auditorium. His wife was Marguerite, was one of the house organists after Artur Gutow opened the 5 manual Wurlitzer.

As for the false window, I am amazed that the mirrors have survived 85 years without loosing their brilliance. A tribute to quality materials.

The music library from the Michigan was given to Wayne State and till this day forms a great portion of the WSU symphonic orchestra library.

[wolverine]

No.

It would cause the building program to change from parking garage to place of assembly. It's not to code for such purposes because it was modified for a garage...so it's not possible.

[gnome]

nice pix Gary. and great historic insight.

For me, the place was a tad sugary though. Looking at all that ornate plaster work makes my teeth hurt.

[Huggybear]

Typical Detroit leveraged buyout: building owner scraps his own building to cover the cost of buying or operating it. Precious.

Ahh, I hate to burst your bubble, but I was part of a crew that removed the projector heads in March of 1977. we were in the building the second day that the "Golden Movement Emporium", a large-scale antiques house from California was removing all of the goodies--they bought the internal furnishings, light fixtures, ornamental plaster--anything that wasn't holding the building up was fair game. The booth contents were sold separately. We were among the last people to see the building "in one piece" as the balcony railings, chandeliers, wall sconces, backstage sinks, elevator doors and other bits were being removed and packed in the trucks. We left a lot of "stuff" behind that had no commercial value, the projector bases, rewind bench, the motor-generator set that was the original source of high-amperage DC current for the arc lamps and the [[Detroit-made) Brenkert spotlights. We also left behind the "Paramount television film reproducer" a huge device that was used to show "live" prize fights. There is stuff up there, but nothing you are going to use to show a movie with, especially today. The Michigan had Simplex XL projection heads, the best 35mm projectors ever made. We shipped them to a supplier in Fon Du Loc Wisconsin, who mated them to modern "platter" systems and sent them on to their new phase of life, in some mall cinema in some suburb somewhere.

[56packman]

Huggybear--a bit of historical relevance for you: at the time the Michigan theater was gutted to make a parking structure there was a large tenant, the credit card association, and they needed more parking for their employees. The theater had been nothing but a headache to the owners of the building, the nickel-and-dime operator of the rock concerts had succeeded in wrecking the interior of the theater and tarnishing the reputation of the place such that it became a very easy decision to retain this major tenant by converting the theater to a parking garage. They originally just wanted to demolish the theater auditorium off of the building and have [[yet another) flat parking lot, but it was determined that doing so would being the office building down with it, they are inter-supported.
The absolute irony in all of this is that the credit card association was a business that in the dark, ancient days of 1976-77 was where store clerks called when a customer made a credit card transaction. Each credit card transaction required that the clerks call a toll-free number, speak to an operator who was stationed at a computer screen, when that was not common, read the card numbers and sales amount and receive either a code number authorizing the sale [[to be written on the card-imprint ticket) or a decline and possibly a "confiscate card" instruction. The call center was in the Michigan building and was growing in 1976-77. Cruel twist of fate: in 1980 or so the magnetic stripe credit card is invented, along with the
cash register reader and the process is automated and the Michigan Credit Card Association goes away. If the MCCA was located in another building or had gone to the suburbs like everyone else at the time they would not have put pressure on the building's owners for parking and the theater might have been spared, maybe. Another nicel-and-dime concert promoter would have probably taken over and not much would have changed.
Having been one of the people to see the building "whole" for the last time, I can say that it would have been an easy restoration when compared to what was spent on the Capitol/Paramount/Broadway Capitol/Grand Circus/Detroit Opera House, which had been left for dead before MOT had the courage to restore that theater.
Within two years of each other the UA and Michigan theaters were stripped of their fixtures for gain by the then-current owners. AAA owned the UA and sold it off at auction after beginning the move to their new "Tinker Toy" HQ in Dearborn, the owners of the Michigan decided that there might be some value in all that old stuff [[rather than have it end up as so much rubble in the demolition)and sold it wall-to-wall to the concern from California.

[Gistok]

Note: it was a previous Michigan Building owner who gutted the theatre...

Also of note is that the former Michigan Theatre's 5/28 Wurlitzer Organ can still be heard... it is located in the basement of a well to do Racine Wisconsin businessman, who at the age of 29 bought and removed the organ from the Michigan Theatre back in 1956.

Fred Hermes, now an 83 year old organ buff, still has the organ fully restored and playing in the 2 story basement of his Lake Michigan lakefront home in Racine. He upgraded the instrument to 5/34....

http://www.racine.org/what-to-do/gro...ent-bijou.html

[DetroitUA]

Gistok, did you just brighten that up in photoshop? or is there still working power that is never used?

[DetroitUA]

your images are great, thank you for sharing them. the mirrored window is amazing. I'm not sure many people knew that was there. Can't wait to see more detailed photos of the inside of the Michigan [[or whats left).

[Gistok]

Gistok, did you just brighten that up in photoshop? or is there still working power that is never used?

That image was taken with temporarily floodlights facing towards the plasterwork.

[56packman]

nice pix Gary. and great historic insight.

For me, the place was a tad sugary though. Looking at all that ornate plaster work makes my teeth hurt.

Then go to your local cineplex 20 and sit amid the fiberglass drapes and flat drywall. The movie palaces were "everyman's palace" and liberally duplicated historical European interiors. It was an elegant era, and places like the Michigan brought class down-market.

[DetroitUA]

what area of the theatre is this?

[Gistok]

In the foreground [[with the low ceiling and diamond shaped plasterwork design)... that space used to be the Ticket/Storm Lobby... with its' ceiling plasterwork intact.

The brightly lit area in the back left is what used to be the 5 story Grand Lobby.

The area on the right [[where the woman is walking) is what used to be the Main Floor Grand Foyer... not a very tall space. There used to be a marble wall between the Ticket/Storm Lobby and the Grand Foyer. The low plaster ceiling where it changes from diamond shaped plasterwork to a more freeflowing design... that's where the marble wall used to be. The oval and round shallow domes in that space are the ornate terminus of the Main Floor Grand Foyer. Above that space is the still existing Mezzanine Rotunda [[closed off space).