Greetings all!
I was having a friendly discussion yesterday about the location of different theaters which were downtown back in the day, and my memory is not what it used to be? Does anyone know where I can find a map of Downtown with the theaters listed on it?
water winter wonderland has about as complete of a list as there is. Google it.
There is also an Arcadia book available at Barnes & Noble that gives a history and pictures of the old movie theaters in Detroit, called Detroit's Downtown Movie Palaces.
I used to go to the movies downtown during that era when I was a kid/teenager, and I was in most of the ones that were still operating then. Let's see... downtown theaters I actually saw movies in include:
- The Fox and the Palms [[nee State, now Fillmore) on Woodward north of Grand Circus Park
- The Adams on Adams on the north side of GCP between Woodward and Park
- The Madison on Witherell on the south east side of GCP between Woodward and Broadway
- The nearby Grand Circus [[nee Broadway Capitol, now the Opera House) on Broadway just off Witherell.
- The Plaza [[nee TeleNews, later Bleu) on Woodward in the block just south of the park.
- Music Hall on Madison was used as a special Cinerama theater in the '60s.
- The Summit [[formerly the Cass Theatre, a playhouse) at Washington Blvd. and Lafayette also showed Cinerama and other wide screen movies.
- The original version of the Ren Cen theaters opened with the complex itself in the late '70s, just as most of the other downtown theaters were fading away or had recently closed.
I never saw a movie at the ill-fated Michigan on Bagley near Cass, but I did see a few concerts there later during its Michigan Palace days. Just a couple of blocks up the street towards GCP was [[and still is) the United Artists, which closed in the early '70s, before I ever got to go there.
Then, of course, there was the infamous National on Monroe, which featured live burlesque, but also showed 'racy' movies between the strippers and crude comics. I was able to sneak in there a couple of times during its dying days as a porn theater, with some sad strippers between the movies.
A couple of other theaters in the old Monroe theater district switched to porn before I was old enough to go to the movies without an adult [[and closed before I was old enough to go to porn). The ancient Family/Follies on the point where Monroe and Cadillac Square met behind the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, which famously burned down during the showing of a porn movie, and the even more ancient Bijou/New Gayety/Cine X on the "Monroe Block" between Woodward and Farmer. The latter was reportedly the oldest movie theater in Detroit.
Another theater that went to porn was the Gem on Columbia off of Woodward, which is now moved over onto Madison and Brush. It had also previously been a legitimate playhouse and an art cinema of various names. I never went there when it was on Columbia, but I did attend a couple of concerts after it was moved and spruced up.
Of course, there were several other downtown movie theaters, like the RKO Downtown or the Columbia, that closed before the period in question.
What you want is to simply photocopy a "movie clock" from a daily Detroit newspaper. Daily papers used to list all the theaters and all the movies showing at them in every issue. Pick your year, go to the main branch of the public library, and run the microfilm through a printing reader. You'll have all you want for less than 50 cents.
The Freep and News still do this today, though in addition to most theaters in the tri-county area, they also have listings for several Ann Arbor ones, plus those in Port Huron, Brighton, Monroe and even Adrian.Quote:
Originally Posted by Detroitnerd
There needs to be a new movie theater downtown. Maybe it will be part of the Red Wings entertainment zone.