Treasures of the Detroit Fox Theatre

[Gistok]

OK, I confirmed that there were 21 dressing rooms stage right backstage at the Fox. They were stacked up 8 floors via stairway.

The VIPs would likely get individual dressing rooms on the lower floor[[s), while the "chorus" would get dressing rooms for 3 [[or possibly more) on the higher floors. There was likely enough dressing room capacity to easily handle 100 performers.

So THE WALL had the star performers autographs on the lower wall, until that filled up and then the autographs started spiraling up the staircase. It appears that later on specific sections were allocated to different performance groups, which made for more orderly signing areas than the mayhem on the first floor.

[56packman]

Gistok, the chandelier at the Fox lowers by chainfall to the front edge of the balcony and one just carefully steps off of the balcony and up into the "ball" to change light bulbs. It's only 9 ft. in diameter, remember, anything with a number was exaggerated in the 1920s!
In 1978 our little group of renegade building preservation geeks, including Greg and myself lowered the chandelier for the first time in decades. We vacuumed a 1/4" of dust off of the top, relamped the entire fixture, thanks to Detroit Edison's policy back then of giving away light bulbs. We gathered up spent light bulbs for the theater and took 3 cases of dead bulbs to Edison and excahnged them for good bulbs. on the top of that fixture there is a ring of upward-pointing reflectors, they use 300 watt mogul-based bulbs. They were all burned out before we lowered the fixture, after we relamped it the light they kicked onto the "tent" ceiling was striking. We could only use those lights during the few Sunday AM shows we did there in the late 70s, a concert on the Wurlitzer in May of 1978 and the silent film "Wings" in November of 1978. The film's star, Buddy Rodgers flew to Detroit and appeared onstage at the conclusion of the film at our request. The theater's operator than, Bill Brown, would have a fit if he saw that much electricity being used.
I was in the theater several times during the 1987-'88 restoration period, the chandelier was brought around the front of the balcony and lowered to the main floor and a protective enclosure was built around it, stained glass expert Dave Johnson completely repaired all of the stained galss sections of that fixture at that time.

[Eastside]

Gistok, the chandelier at the Fox lowers by chainfall to the front edge of the balcony and one just carefully steps off of the balcony and up into the "ball" to change light bulbs. In 1978 our little group of renegade building preservation geeks, including Greg and myself lowered the chandelier for the first time in decades. We vacuumed a 1/4" of dust off of the top, relamped the entire fixture, thanks to Detroit Edison's policy back then of giving away light bulbs. We gathered up spent light bulbs for the theater and took 3 cases of dead bulbs to Edison and excahnged them for good bulbs. on the top of that fixture there is a ring of upward-pointing reflectors, they use 300 watt mogul-based bulbs. They were all burned out before we lowered the fixture, after we relamped it the light they kicked onto the "tent" ceiling was striking. We could only use those lights during the few Sunday AM shows we did there in the late 70s, a concert on the Wurlitzer in May of 1978 and the silent film "Wings" in November of 1978. The film's star, Buddy Rodgers flew to Detroit and appeared onstage at the conclusion of the film at our request. The theater's operator than, Bill Brown, would have a fit if he saw that much electricity being used.
I was in the theater several times during the 1987-'88 restoration period, the chandelier was brought around the front of the balcony and lowered to the main floor and a protective enclosure was built around it, stained glass expert Dave Johnson completely repaired all of the stained galss sections of that fixture at that time.

Great story!

Hey is Dave Johnson still around. I worked with him for a short time on the Alger Theater project on Detroit's eastside. Last I heard he was living in Flint.

Great guy, a real theater guru.