Detroit's Theatre Architect C. Howard Crane

[Gistok]

C. Howard Crane had some of his best years in 1926-29. Not only did he create masterpiece theatre's for the studio chains, but he also created his best office tower, the 555 ft. 6 in. 47 story Columbus Ohio "American Insurance Union Citadel", later known as the Leveque-Lincoln Tower, now simply known as the Leveque Tower.

Crane was told to make his tower 6 inches taller than the Washington Monument, which the building owners capitalized on. Crane was able to embellish this tower with lots of sculptural details that are not easily discernible from a distance, where the tower is seen at its' best.

The people of Columbus boasted that this was the worlds most beautiful skyscraper when it opened in 1927, and for over 35 years it was the tallest building in Columbus.

Not every building has a song written with it in mind... but the Leveque Tower does....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heW5LBW1d0Q

It's a shame that Crane didn't have more office tower commissions, because the verticality of this office tower is very appealing. And as we can see with his Detroit Buildings... Fox, Palms, Capitol, Lafayette and others, he certainly had an eye to appealing ornamentation as well.

[beachboy]

C. Howard Crane had some of his best years in 1926-29. Not only did he create masterpiece theatre's for the studio chains, but he also created his best office tower, the 555 ft. 6 in. 47 story Columbus Ohio "American Insurance Union Citadel", later known as the Leveque-Lincoln Tower, now simply known as the Leveque Tower.

And it has a penthouse!! Here is a video, with some shots of the beautiful lobby:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgiNXXGHobw

A bit of the Tower's history, beginning at 3:20 ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9euyOhtgak

Enjoy! And thank you, Gistok, for yet another great story!!

[Gistok]

Thanks for the links beachboy! Loved the story about the American Insurance Union... sort of reminded me of the Union Trust Bank that built the Guardian Building... the company owners built their monuments... and then they went bust....

It's interesting to see how iconic of a building the Leveque Tower is to Columbus. But what was also interesting is that C. Howard Crane's name never came up in any of the videos.

One of the things that I find most interesting is that even though Crane [[a theatre architect) designed the building, he did not design the buildings theatre... the Palace Theatre. The irony is that Thomas Lamb the architect for the Keith Albee Theatre Circuit was still in his early classic English "Adams" style of theatre designs... not much different from his theatres of 5 or 10 years earlier. So the Palace Theatre was a very tame [[elegant but not opulent) styled theatre... less exotic than Crane's building lobby.

Here's a pair of views of the Palace Theatre... nice... but not a show stopper...

http://capa.com/venues/palace-theatre/theatre-history
http://capa.com/venues/palace-theatre

Had Crane also designed the theatre, it would have very likely been much more interesting and exotic than Lamb's Palace design.

What is really ironic is that 16 months after Thomas Lamb designed the Palace, an amazing transformation happened in his architectural office.. and his late 1920s theatres were often stunning... such as his Loew's Ohio Theatre [[also in Columbus). It was built a year and a half later than the Palace... but was light years ahead in design... and had a Robert-Morton theatre organ.

http://capa.com/venues/ohio-theatre

[Gistok]

In 1919 the 3 most popular American actors [[and most popular director) in the world got together to form United Artists Studios in Los Angeles.

They were Canadian born actress Mary Pickford [[known as America's Sweetheart), her husband Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Charlie Chaplin and director D.W. Griffiths [[director of silent greats, the 1915 "The Birth of a Nation" and 1916 "Intolerance").

This studio gathered many other actors under its' fold [[such as Gloria Swanson), and by 1924 Griffiths, who had a string of failed box office flops, dropped out of United Artists.

By 1925 United Artists saw that other film studios were aligning themselves with movie theatre chains. Metro/Goldwyn/Mayer merged with Loew's Theatres [[actually Marcus Loew of NYC bought up MGM). Other studios either aligned themselves with theatre chains or started their own. Paramount aligned with Publix [[which Detroit impressario John Kunsky became a part of), William Fox [[of 20th Century Fox) decided to build his own theatres.

United Artists started to build their own theatres as well, but didn't get very far. They first built a trio of flagship UA theatres in Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit... then later they opted to share theatres with the Loew's chain, and there were no more standalone major movie palaces under the United Artists name [[except for a few smaller suburban ones). It was many decades later that United Artists started building theatres en masse... and then it was generally modern suburban multiplexes.

Anyway Pickford, Fairbanks and Chaplin, who controlled United Artists Studios, hired C. Howard Crane to build their 3 flagship theatres in late 1925. Pickford had a keen interest in the design phase, and Crane allowed her to add a few Hollywood touches to his Spanish Gothic designs for these 3 theatres, coming online in 1927 [[LA) and 1928 [[Chicago and Detroit).

[Gistok]

The first of the United Artists Theatres was the 2,200 seat Los Angeles United Artists, located downtown in LA's theatre district.

Below is an image of the auditorium, in a "cave Gothic" style, with Gothic detailing that looked very much like stalactites and stalagmites found in limestone caves, as well as the building facade, and the entrance facade.

Since there is a lot of infomation on the Los Angeles United Artists on Youtube, here's some links to this breathtaking theatre...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iImxi_ZLLWY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_zDQ...feature=relmfu

The LA United Artists Theatre was a church for much of the last 1/4 century, and just recently has been purchased by developers, who wish to convert the office tower into a luxury hotel, and use/restore the theatre to some capacity.

Here is another video clip of the LA United Artists Theatre, that shows the profusion of Gothic details on the exterior and interior of this sumptuous building.

For some odd reason only the first 5 [[of 9) minutes shows images...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&fe...&v=UuNc7cJ5TUQ

After watching these videos with all the beautiful detailing [[no one could produce a better "Cathedral of the Motion Pictures" than C. Howard Crane)... it should not be lost on folks why we do need to have some future use for the Detroit United Artists...


Next up... the Chicago United Artists...

[p69rrh51]

A more recent image of the United Artist's Theatre in Los Angeles.

[beachboy]

Thanks for the links beachboy! Loved the story about the American Insurance Union... sort of reminded me of the Union Trust Bank that built the Guardian Building... the company owners built their monuments... and then they went bust....

You're welcome Gistok, this series is very interesting!! Talking about monuments by bankrupt companies, have you thought of Enron HQ?

What is really ironic is that 16 months after Thomas Lamb designed the Palace, an amazing transformation happened in his architectural office.. and his late 1920s theatres were often stunning... such as his Loew's Ohio Theatre [[also in Columbus). It was built a year and a half later than the Palace... but was light years ahead in design... and had a Robert-Morton theatre organ. http://capa.com/venues/ohio-theatre

The Ohio Theatre still has its original Robert Morton organ operating in excellent condition under the curatorship of Clark Wilson -- here's a link to its webpage:

http://www.ohiomortonorgan.com/

This organ has balls to spare!! A YouTube video featuring organist Clark Wilson is illustrative:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXGSs...5D8AC40&fmt=18

Robert Morton Co. was the second-largest producer of theatre organs, having devolved somewhat from the Murray Harris Organ Co. of Los Angeles [[producer of beautiful romantically-voiced concert and church instruments). There are still some mighty fine Mortons singing out around the country... their third-largest organ [[4m/32r) is in the Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego CA, which I played some years ago [[since restored to nearly-new condition). Very powerful, sonorous instrument with Romantically-voiced sounds:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_..._Organ_Company

Not to hijack your thread, but we have a Robert-Morton [[3m/12r) in the Polk Theatre in Lakeland, FL [[an atmospheric, Spanish-themed neighborhood establishment). And what an organ it is:

http://theatreorgans.com/walnuthill/feature1105.htm

If you're ever down our way, pls. stop and hear this wonderful instrument, which is played several nights each week! The Polk Theatre is simpler than Crane's later confections [[or Eberson's later atmospherics...) but well worth a look - an original 1920s movie mini-palace still singing along!!

[Gistok]

Thanks p69 and beachboy!

Here are some more images of the exterior of the Los Angeles United Artists Theatre Building. Although the interior of the building was designed by Crane, he was so busy with all his commissions in 1926-28, that the building exterior was designed by the Los Angeles firm of Walker & Eisen... builders of the famous Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Here are some detail closeups of the exterior of the theatre building...
http://www.publicartinla.com/neon_si...ists_neon.html

One other point about the theatre... when the Todd-AO film system [[something similar to Cinerama) was installed in the LA United Artists Theatre in 1955, they remodeled the auditorium by removing the mezzanine boxes from the theatre [[the front half of the mezzanine level), and replacing it with a projection booth. This can be seen in the Youtube videos of the auditorium, which explains why you only see 2 theatre levels... the orchestra and balcony... with the mezzanine level seating between them removed.

This would explain why the theatre maximum seating was reduced from 2,214 down to 1,400.

[beachboy]

Here are some more images of the exterior of the Los Angeles United Artists Theatre Building.

And here's an article from a mid-1960s issue of LIFE magazine - about theatre organs at home - with mention of the Los Angeles UA theater organ [[then in the home of musician Buddy Cole):

http://books.google.com/books?id=DU4...angeles&f=true

[Gistok]

The Los Angeles and Chicago United Artists Theatre's each opened on December 26, 1927. The Detroit United Artists Theatre opened less than 2 months later on Feb. 3, 1928... so all the theatres had to basically be designed at the same time.

The Chicago United Artists Theatre was another Crane design that he did not design the outside of the theatre for. Crane was given the commission to take the 1921 built Apollo Theatre, start with an existing interior with all the classic plasterwork removed, and create a new interior into this space.

Crane maximized the seating and designed a new interior for the existing space, and ended up with only 1,703 seats, with a very small stage.

The Chicago UA was razed in 1989, along with the entire block [[later known as the Block 37 development), for several failed development proposals... until finally in the past 6 years a new [[now in default) development was built on the historic block.

Images of the Chicago UA...
1) Early streetscape with the Chicago United Artists and several other theatres nearby. Early on the UA had a tall blade sign.
2) Later streetscape with only modern low marquee signage. This image shows us the 1921 classic Apollo Theatre facade that was retained in 1927 for the more exotic UA Theatre.
3) Interior of the lobby of the Chicago UA... Crane only had a small lobby space to work with.
4) The auditorium fully lit up. Although Crane had more space to work with, his auditorium came right up to the back wall of the building, making for a very small stage. Note all the plaster detail in the balcony overhang, and all the colorful lighting of the auditorium. Crane perfected his "ornate plasterwork to look like burnished metal" here in the Chicago UA... a trick that he would use later in his Detroit and St. Louis Fox lobbies. Also above the sidewalls is seen a "Rajastan" landscape that was similar to the design used in the Detroit UA. In Los Angeles he used a scene full of Hollywood actors and UA board members.

[Gistok]

As was just mentioned, the 2,070 seat Detroit United Artists Theatre opened about 6 weeks later than the 2,214 Los Angeles United Artists Theatre and 1,703 seat Chicago United Artists theatre. That was on February 3, 1928.

The Detroit United Artists Theatre Building is the tallest theatre building that C. Howard Crane designed, where both the theatre and building were designed by him. It was 18 stories tall.

The theatre entrance occupies the NE corner of the building on Bagley Ave., There was always a small empty parking lot between it and the neighboring former Tuller Hotel. When the building first opened up, there was a blank brick wall on the NE side of the Detroit UA Building. A number of years later this wall had windows added, but design tastes had changed by then, and that facade looked much more modern [[no arched windows along the top or other ornamentation) than the other 3 sides of the office tower.

The Detroit United Artists Building had a neo-Romanesque style to its' exterior. There were large Roman arches above the 3rd floor [[held up by Corinthan pilasters), and the 17th and 18th floor windows looked together like large Romanesque Cathedral lancet windows paired up under Romanesque arches above the 18th floor. The building facade was done up in stone, terra cotta and brick... with the stone and terra cotta mainly on the first 5 floors and near the top.

The building was a large brooding masculine looking building, known by some as the Currency Exchange Building [[due to the NBD Bank Branch at the southern end of the front), and later to some it was known as the AAA Building, due to the Automobile Club of Michigan being the primary tenant.

Images...

1) The building from the corner of Bagley and Clifford, showing the large NBD Bank Branch, with part of the theatre seen on the left side.
2) The building from the northeast showing the blank wall.
3) The building showing the original detailing of the first 5 floors, as well as the original marquee and the lower part of the tall blade sign.

[Gistok]

I have yet to find any color images of the Detroit United Artists Theatre in its' heyday.

Here are some images of the theatre from the Manning Brothers collection. They show the auditorium looking like it had ashlar block walls with stonework Gothic filigree... but it was really all just paint and plaster.

Because the theatre entrance was perpendicular to Baglay, and the auditorum was perpendicular to Clifford, it accounted for a 50 degree difference in placement of the 2 spaces. So Crane's solution to this awkward angle, was to place a rotunda lobby between the outer lobby and the auditorium, and have the different angles be reconciled by this lobby.

The theatre opened on Feb. 3, 1928 with Gloria Swanson on the speaker phone from Hollywood pulling the switch to light the venue.

1st image) Procenium arch with stage and orchestra pit with musician stands.
2nd image) House right sidewall with fancy Gothic filigree organ grille and "ashlar" block sidewalls with lots of statuary.
3rd image) A closeup of house left sidewall with a pair of monks and a closeup of the Gothic details of the organ grille.
4th image) The Rotunda Lobby with passageways and grand staircase built within its' walls.
5th image) A closeup of the mezzanine overlook of the Rotunda Lobby. Here the filigree plaster detailing is identical to that of the Los Angeles UA.

[Gistok]

The Detroit United Artists did not have the "Cave Gothic" stalactite type of tracery that the Los Angeles UA had. Detroit's details were much crisper and more easily discernible.

Here is [[I believe) a Ryan Southen image taken of a closeup of the Procenium canopy over the stage, and some of its' detail, which is not easily seen from the other images. The 2nd image shows the positioning of this detail.

[Gistok]

Around the time that the Lafayette Building got its' cold looking slate slabs covering the first 2 floors, the United Artists Theatre also got a "lower Face-ectomy". The first 5 floors of the building were gutted, and new facades were applied. The first 3 floors had the arches and much of the stone/terra cotta removed, and replaced by modern slabs of slate, a wobble canopy and no decoration. Floors 4 and 5 had the terra cotta ornament remove, and modern brickwork added. This ugly hatchet job rehab was performed on countless buildings downtown... the Michigan Mutual Bldg., David Whitney Building, and Broderick Tower... all 3 on Grand Circus Park.

The Penobscot Building and Book Tower also got their grand multistory lobbies filled in with extra floors and drop ceilings. This was before the History Preservation movement started taking hold... [[not that that matters, hatchet jobs still take place on historic structures nationwide).

Images... before and after of the first 5 stories of the Detroit UA Building...

[p69rrh51]

Gistok I found this you will find it quite interesting if you have not seen it before.

[Gistok]

Thanks p69!! So Crane lived in Detroit Towers from 1925 until 1934. I knew that once Crane moved to London England in 1930, when his theatre commissions dried up, that he came back to Detroit every year for part of the year, and this would confirm his address as an apartment [[versus keeping a house here).

The irony in all of this is that Crane lived in an apartment designed by fellow theatre architect Walter W. Ahlschlager, and had his architectural offices in a building [[Michigan Building) designed by fellow theatre architects C. W. & George L. Rapp [[Rapp & Rapp).

[KarmicCurse]

Mr. Crane wrote an article for Architectural Forum in 1925 in which he eloquently describes his design theory and discusses the recent Capitol Theater [[Opera House) and the State Theater "under construction". The article contains a couple of pictures of the Capitol in which the openness between the main floor and the foyer is visible. More interestingly the article contains cross sections of both the Capitol and the State. You really learn a lot from those as you can see just how complicated [[and tall!) those auditoriums are.

I scanned that article years ago and still have it. I uploaded it onto this thread, but for some reason I'm only seeing links. And when I click on them the article is too small to read comfortably. It's quite legible when zoomed on a photo editor. I would like to upload it for you all elsewhere but I don't quite know how with the demise of rapidshare and similar sites. [[Gistok I'm actually almost certain I sent it to you years ago.) If anyone would like to PM me their email address I would be happy to send the scans to you in a zip file. It's only 3 or 4 pages. Perhaps the more tech savvy can find a way to load it here.

[Neilr]

Thanks p69!! So Crane lived in Detroit Towers from 1925 until 1934. I knew that once Crane moved to London England in 1930, when his theatre commissions dried up, that he came back to Detroit every year for part of the year, and this would confirm his address as an apartment [[versus keeping a house here).


The irony in all of this is that Crane lived in an apartment designed by fellow theatre architect Walter W. Ahlschlager, and had his architectural offices in a building [[Michigan Building) designed by fellow theatre architects C. W. & George L. Rapp [[Rapp & Rapp).

Here's the floor plan of the B Unit [[in which Crane lived) in the Detroit Towers. There are only 2 apartments on each floor. The A Unit is the larger and has a more direct view of the river.

[p69rrh51]

Here's the floor plan of the B Unit [[in which Crane lived) in the Detroit Towers. There are only 2 apartments on each floor. The A Unit is the larger and has a more direct view of the river.

Could you post the A plan please.

[Gistok]

Traveling back and forth between London and Detroit from 1930-34 must have taken a long time for C. Howard Crane... weeks at a time via cruise liner and train. I doubt that he would have taken a Zeppelin. So he would have had a lot of down time [[or perhaps spent it bringing his work along).

[Gistok]

OK, finally found some of my other Manning Brothers historic images of the United Artists.

For many folks the Detroit United Artists was known as "The Jewel Box"... this was due to the fact that it was a small and intimate venue, and yet had enough ornamentation packed into its' sidewalls for 2 movie palaces.

When you entered the United Artists Theatre, you passed under the theatre marquee [[1st image), as well as the 8 story blade sign. The first image shows the beautiful marquee it had back in the 30s and 40s.

Once inside the theatre, you were now within the office tower portion of the building, and this was the outer lobby [[2nd image). This space was filled with fancy mirrors, Gothic filigree plasterwork, Indian Maiden busts [[that bordered on Art Deco), and a mezzanine level overlook above the 2nd story of the outer lobby.

Once you passed thru the outer lobby, you exited the office block portion of the building, and entered the rotunda lobby. This circular domed space [[with a central chandelier) was surrounded by fancy plaster filigree, and had a mezzanine overlook. There were passageways off this space to the auditorium, to emergency exits, to the staircases that led up to the mezzanine and balcony, and of course the passageway from the outer lobby.

The reason for the rotunda was because the theatre entrance and auditorium were 50 degrees out of alignment. Going thru the rotunda made you forget this discrepancy.

The auditorium was richly decorated in Gothic details around the Procenium and especially the organ grilles. If you took the stairs up to the mezzanine level, you could either overlook the outer lobby, or be seated in the horseshoe shaped mezzanine. The mezzanine foyer was very richly appointed, and fits the bill for being called The Jewel Box [[3rd image).

The auditorium looking from the stage towards the main floor and mezzanine [[the 4th image)... this just shows the bottom of the balcony overhang out of the top of the picture.

The orchestra [[main floor) had 1,260 seats, the mezzanine had 168 seats, and the balcony had 642 seats for a total of 2,070 seats.

In 1950 the theatre underwent a remodeling [[5th image) that took all the wonderful "faux" painted surfaces, and made them look flat. The ashlar block looking sidewalls were now a flat color and looked smooth and non-textured. The "Rajastan" murals above the balcony sidewalls [[the spot where cinema legends were painted in the Los Angeles UA) was also painted over with flat paint.

The fancy organ grilles and procenium were covered by curtains [[which they kept until the most recent cleanout of the auditorium 3 years ago). Later part of the fancy plasterwork of the procenium was cut away to allow a 70mm wide screen.

During the 1960s the now plainer looking Detroit United Artists Theatre experienced a rebirth with reserved seating for movies. It was the right size for such an undertaking.

Then by the late sixties... the unthinkable... the now suffering UA briefly showed porno movies. After new owners took over, they started showing horror and kung-fo flicks, but by 1971 the theatre closed for good. In 1972 the major tenants in the building [[AAA) moved to Dearborn, and within a year the closed theatre's fixtures were sold off. Then the long slow decline set in....

[Neilr]

Could you post the A plan please.

As requested.

[p69rrh51]

As requested.

Thx Neilr!

[Gistok]

The last big hurrah for the Detroit United Artists was the 1959 Michigan filmed "Anatomy of a Murder"... with the world premier there in 1959. Look how nice and intact Grand Circus Park looks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7HzuuO-AG0

One thing I noticed while watching this video, is the fact that the David Whitney Building is entirely covered with scaffolding. This can only mean one thing... 1959 was when the David Whitney Building was remodeled from Daniel Burnham's original look, to an exterior modernization.... which from what we've been told will be undone [[to some degree) with the future redevelopment.

[Gistok]

Well that was then... and this is a few years ago... with holes in the auditorium ceiling so large that light came pouring into the cavernous auditorium...

Many of the busts of Indian Maidens in the lobby and auditorium sidewalls have been carved out and hauled away by scrappers. Rumor has it that 1 Indian has survived. Ditto for the monks on the theatre side walls... gone. Ditto for the medallions in the organ grilles.