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Anyone remember the name of the xxx moviehouse on Woodward just North of the Fox. Was it the Roxi? I wish I had a pic of that place. I believe it was there until the early 90s. I could be wrong and it was a strip club. It had that old 70s look to it that was so classically smutty. I could swear the word Burlesque was somewhere on the side of the building or in the name itself. Any info please.
Wasn't it the PussyCat? According to my grandfather, who would be 101 now, but told great Detroit stories to the age of 93, there were a fair share of burlesques on Woodward, north of downtown. And to poorly paraphrase Kerouak [[sp?) wasn't this roughly the area where the "dregs of society" would assemble, in particular at the peep shows and burlesques?
Paging Gistock! :cool:
Actually the one just N of the Freeway had a big neon sign called Burlesk. There was also one N of Zakoor Novelty that was called Sassy Cat. At one time the GEM was known as the Atlas and was also a house o'smut.
Why do I know all of this? Back in the late 80's and 90's I worked at the Fox, first to get me through school, secondly as a moonlighting gig as I was usually downtown anyways. I never set foot in any of these places. My trips to work from WSU had me in this hood all the time. Up until the renovation, the GEM has a big sign on its side that advertised it as the Atlas that had some sort of other writing on it that identified it as this type of theatre.
The National was the last Burlesque house in Detroit just off woodwand on Monroe.
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Was it the Stone Burlesk? Where Johnnie Ray was arrested?
http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/5/173619.html?1233342778
The pic on the Detroit Cobras first album is from one of those places on Woodward.
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Yes to Stone. I never attended to my regret, being a little too young at the time. There's some really fascinating big-city history there.Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulGall
Similar, the Globe at Grand River/Trumbull/Myrtle. A well-kept joint that I also never entered -- to my regret.
I was too young during the burlesque days, so I never saw the inside of any of those venues [[although I did help with the cleanup of the inside of the National back in 2000).
One other burlesque was the Fine Arts [[not to be confused with the surviving building facade of the same name along W. Adams in GCP). I believe it was farther up Woodward at the time.
I came of age during the VHS/BETA era, so I missed out on live and silver screen entertainments! ;)
The Stone was on Woodward between Henry and Sibley, on the block behind the new Motown [[Donovan) Building. It was one of the more appalling public spaces I was ever in in Detroit [[which is really saying a lot).
In its heyday [[so to speak):
Attachment 12162
After it closed, sometime in the '80s I believe, it was bricked up in a most stark and eye-catching way.
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There were a number of theaters on that stretch of Woodward back in the '70s when I was spending time around there. A block or so north of the Stone was the Roxy Theater, and another block north of that the Colonial. A couple more blocks north and across the street was the still-standing Fine Arts. All of these were grindhouses showing mostly cheapie or old movies on a continuous basis. All of these places were, or had been, 24 hour theaters from that neighborhood's days as an area full of single male shift workers [[and later homeless or near-homeless men moved up from the demolished skid row). They all shut down in the mid '70s.
A couple of blocks further up on the west side of the street was the ancient Garden Theater, which became an XXX joint sometime in the early '70s and eventually became the infamous Sassy Cat. That building is still standing. By the time I was around that area the Majestic Theater and the Paradise [[Orchestra Hall) had already been closed and abandoned.
There was no actual burlesque [[or "burlesk") at the Stone, at least not by the time I was in there. Just XXX films and an eerie silence. Given the size of the place [[tiny) it's hard to imagine that there ever was, but on the basis of all evidence, there must have been live acts in the past.
The National on Monroe, on the other hand, operated as a live Burlesque house into the mid-70s [[albeit with XXX movies between acts). Just long enough for me to sneak in there as a slightly underage kid with some older friends of mine. It was a pretty sorry scene by that time.
Back in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the only burlesque advertisement in the Detroit News was for a place called the Gayety Theater. They always had a 2" by 3" ad on the movie page.
I have a post on my history blog about the stone, namely because of the Johnie Ray thing.
http://detroitgayhistory.blogspot.co...re%20Burlesque
I'm to young to have ever gone to any of these places! Lol, its not often I get to say something like that. Not that I ever would creep around such seedy joints anyway. I'm just fascinated by the life that gay people had to live especially in the time period between 1920-1960.
The Gayety:Quote:
Originally Posted by Hermod
http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...y=1;view=image
It was on the SE corner of Cadillac Sq. and Bates. In this picture you can see the City-County Building going up in the background.
What's interesting about these places, from a present day perspective, is that they were far from exclusively "gay." In fact, they were just sort of quiet and very sexualized spaces. There were some men there of course, gay or otherwise, who were looking for or would accept sexual encounters with other men, and knew they would probably find them in that atmosphere. There were others who were just there to see the movies, which were exclusively male-female, or were overly curious kids like me. And, in the 24 hour places, those who were there mostly for a warm place to sleep.Quote:
Originally Posted by Detroitgayhistoryguy
The Sassy Cat, as I remember, had much more apparent gay cruising going on than other places. But it also had active prostitution, of the M-F, M-M, and M-Trans varieties. All of which is what made it "infamous."
Of course, I wasn't in any of these places until the mid-70s, by which time there were many relatively open gay bars and gay clubs operating in the city. So it may have been different in earlier years, when gay men had many fewer places to go. Although, as I understand it from some old friends of my parents, back in the WWII era Detroit was, quietly, something of a gay haven. Especially with its large numbers of single men coming from all over the country to work, and concentrating in the areas around and north of downtown.
By reading the thread title I thought someone was opening a XXX theater on Woodward. And my first thought was Hey! Someone's opening an old school business in the Corridor!
But, alas, nothing. Darn. [[even if it's not my thing)
Interesting Al, I'll have to do more research about the Sassy Cat. I think gays had to find places that were "seedy" to meet. They could not yet have an openly "gay" bar yet. I think that is why some met at one of the Brass Rail bars. Some "straight" bars were known as gay meeting places, but I'll sure it had to be very clandestine.Quote:
Originally Posted by EastsideAl
Thank you all for the input and pics.
Id love to own that BURLESK sign. I just love old light buld and neon signs.
OK, now I'm getting confused.....nat an uncommon thing for me.
The Stone was north of the Roxy, correct? We all know where the National is/was. Was it The Empress [[sp.) that was on Woodward between Cadillac Square and the City/County Building?
The Empress was on Woodward at Congress Where Comerica building stands now.
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Stone was south of the Roxy. The Empress was on Woodward between Larned and Congress.
Way back, there was also the Gayety at Cadillac Sq. and Bates, and the Avenue Burlesque on Woodward pretty much exactly where the Spirit of Detroit stands today.