Preservation Detroit Historic Downtown Theatre Tours (almost sold out) Sat. Aug 31!

Preservation Detroit [[formerly Preservation Wayne) is doing its' largest annual Detroit tour next Saturday August 31.

As of this morning [[Fri. Aug. 23) there are only 12 tickets left, this year we are almost sold out in advanced reservations...

http://preservationdetroit.org/2013/...y-august-31st/

The 4 1/2 hour walking tours include a lunch stop at the Detroit Opera House.

This year we have theatre organist Lance Luce playing the mighty 4/36 Wurlitzer organ at the Fox for tour attendees...
http://www.lanceluce.com/theatre.html

So if you're eager to go to the once a year event... make your reservations before they are sold out!!

During the next week I'll be posting some new interesting facts and images on Detroits large quantity of remaining former downtown movie houses...

Gistok

The Theatre Tours are SOLD OUT....

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Originally Posted by Gistok

The Theatre Tours are SOLD OUT....

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I am glad to hear this event is still going strong. My wife and I attended some years ago and it was a nice tour combined with a pleasant walk around downtown, too.

Thanks cman710... this is the first year in the 15 years I've been involved that ALL tours are sold out this far in advance.

I was going to post on some of the downtown movie palaces, but the archives of DYES are full of hundreds of images of these remarkable theatres.

So I will just talk about one of the ones that got away.... sadly... the Grand Riviera, also at times known just as the Riviera. It was one of Detroit's 2 greatest neighborhood movie palaces [[the other was the long razed Hollywood on Fort near 18th street).

The Grand Riviera was Detroit's greatest Atmospheric Theatre... designed by the greatest movie palace architect of that genre... John Eberson. He built the 1925 built 2,786 movie palace at Grand River & Joy in his typical Mediterranean style.

Eberson often had problems controlling his more garish impulses when it came to interior theatre colors.

Here are 28 historic b/w images of the Grand Riviera [[destroyed in the early 1990s)...

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?...mber&op=PHRASE

To give you an idea of the fantastically painted interiors of this lost giant... check out these images of Eberson's 1929 Loew's Valencia Theatre... in Queens NYC... which is today a church [[they added a chandelier over the blue sky ceiling)...

But the details and colors that the Grand Riviera must have had can only be imagined in these images of the [[still in good condition) Valencia... enjoy!!

http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=6288

Well the theatre tours went off smoothly... no major problems. Everyone enjoyed the tours. Had Lance Luce play the mighty Wurlitzer at the Fox... regular organist Dave Calendine and our own 56packman weren't available to play, they were out of town at an organ conference.

Since I was at my usual spot at the Fillmore/State, this year I got to meet and talk with Jim Forbes, son of Detroit's Historic Preservation Saint Chuch Forbes, who at 86, has slowed down on his duties. However Jim has every bit of the "historic buildilng bug" that his father has, so the future of the family's historic properties is not in any danger for the future! :)

For those of you who had taken the tour in the past, you may have heard me mention that in the 1950s the building lobby was remodeled... to the modern marble and teak look... :[[

Well I heard it from the horses mouth... and Jim Forbes said that the building lobby [[like the theatre lobby) is double the size it was in the 1920s. There used to be 5 unique commercial entities along the Woodward Facade.... South to North... 1) a Cigar Store, 2) a Flower Shop, 3) Building Entrance, 4) Hat Shop, and 5) Theatre Entrance.

In the 50s that count was trimmed down to 3. The Cigar Store is today the State Bar... the flower store and much smaller building lobby were remodeled into 1 larger space, hence the office tower lobby modernization, and the hat store and theatre entrance were remodeled into a larger theatre entrance, which was restored to a palatial look in the early 1990s.

Also, almost forgot... while we were at the Fillmore... this was the first time ever that the tour groups got to see actual theatre restoration work going on. It seems that the Fillmore has 2 weeks of downtime [[no concerts), and had several restoration workers in the auditorium working on painting and patching the lower auditorium sidewalls. The workers were talking about doing some work farther up in the auditorium in the near future.

I also ran into Pat, the Fillmore Manager... he said that the bucolic country scenes on the painted canvas panels high up at the back of the balcony were going to be cleaned and restored [[to remove 70 years of smoky grime). He also said that they are planning on creating new "Tuscan scenery" side panels high up along the theatre sidewalls nearer the stage, that have beem missing for decades.

Also, for all the flack some folks here gave in regards to the name change from State to Fillmore back in 2007... the Live Nations promoters who lease the Fillmore... they take good care of their leased theatres, and have been behind all the restorations of the theatre since then. It just happens that Fillmore is the brand name for the Live Nations theatres... and even the Jackie Gleason Theatre in Miami Beach has been renamed the Fillmore.

As a huge history buff, I am so pleased you had a successful "run".