The Crystal and Kramer theaters

[Ed Golick]

Paging Gistok and/or other movie theater fans.

According to my research the Crystal Theatre, which was on the north side of Michigan Avenue at 31st, was actually the second Crystal on Michigan Avenue. The first Crystal, on the south side of Michigan, was razed when Michigan Avenue was widened by 120 feet in the late 1930s.

I would like to know the address of the original Crystal and its years of operation. I'm also curious as to why the Kramer Theater, just down the street and also on the south side, was seemingly unaffected by the widening.

[EastsideAl]

The original Crystal was at 4845 Michigan [[a couple buildings west of Lockwood). It was just a storefront theater, and the widening of Michigan Ave. cut off most of the building necessitating the move across the street. I don't know when the original Crystal opened, but it shows on map from 1921. It looks like the new theater opened around the end of 1938.

The Kramer, on the other hand, was a larger theater and the auditorium was originally set well back off the street. It was entered off Michigan through a long storefront building that led to the theater. When the street was widened that storefront corridor entrance was eliminated and the entrance then led directly into the main building. That's when the moderne tiled front that may of us remember was added.

[DetroitPlanner]

www is an excellent source for this sort of history as well as for oral histories of the places of the past found in the State:

Crystal: http://waterwinterwonderland.com/mov...47&LocTypeID=5
Kramer: http://waterwinterwonderland.com/mov...50&LocTypeID=5

Both of these 'shows' were staples of my father's childhood.

[Ed Golick]

DetroitPlanner,
Thanks for the info. Waterwinterwonderland was my first stop, but they didn't have the information I was looking for. Michigan/Junction was a great area. My dad grew up there and I lived in the neighborhood for the first ten years of my life.